Kings re-sign Trevor Lewis to four-year $8M contract
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Los Angeles Kings have re-signed forward Trevor Lewis to a four-year contract worth a reported $8 million over the length of the deal.
The 29-year-old Lewis, a favorite of coach Darryl Sutter, was a pending unrestricted free agent.
Lewis just came off a two-year contract worth $3.05 million.
The Kings have about $67.848 million dedicated to 35 contracts next season according to General Fanager. Los Angeles has $5.15 million of salary cap space for next season.
Lewis, who was mostly a matchup fourth-line forward, was one of three of the bigger pending unrestricted free agents on the team, along with Milan Lucic and Luke Schenn.
Los Angeles doesn’t have any restricted free agents of note outside of Nic Dowd.
The Kings and Lucic recently broke off negotiations after trying to hammer out a contract.
LA Kings Insider pointed out that Lucic and the Kings’ inability to come to a deal would enable Los Angeles to work out a contract with Lewis.
One particularly challenging though tangential aspect of this news is that had Lucic re-signed, Los Angeles would’ve had the flexibility to move a young forward or forward prospect for a young defenseman in an effort to deal from a position of strength for a position of need. This does open up the door for Trevor Lewis to re-sign with the club, though Lewis should be expected to command a pay raise above his $1.55M cap hit from the last two seasons.
Because Lewis was mostly used in a defensive role, his puck possession and offensive numbers were lower than most of the Kings, a group that held solid numbers in his regard. According to Naturalstattrick, he held a 51.22 5-on-5 score adjusted CF% and a minus-5.01 score-adjusted 5-on-5 CF% Rel.
Last season, Lewis scored eight goals and 16 points in 75 games. In 2014-15 he had a career-high nine goals and 25 points.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
