I keep seeing these Matthews to LA trades. They make zero sense. Why would the Kings give up their bright young prospects for a player they can sign next summer without having to give up any assets?

Drury does that in a heartbeat but Panarin is the wildcard with his NMC.

NYR say yes. I’d retain the difference in salary and toss in a 2nd

With the cap hit of Matthews and Nylander the only 2 with contracts ending this season, l believe they get moved at the trade deadline with 50% retention by the leafs and 25% by a 3rd team. They should get at least 3 firsts 2 seconds and 2 blue chip prospects. In the off season the leafs can use their draft picks to make a big trade and sign UFA'S as well.

This will forever be the thing on this site eh? Why pay for a good player on the Leafs, they are all going to sign for nothing as FA's.

They're not going to sign for nothing. They'll sign for millions (in Matthews' case, 10s of millions) of dollars. But why pay unnecessarily? It's not like paying Toronto a bunch of assets will convince Matthews to sign in LA if he wasn't going to already.

Who is GM who make these wrong decisions. Surely not the Kings

Never said they would be going to the kings, just having them as a rental at the TDL to whoever wants a run at the cup.

Because he isn't signing anywhere as an FA it would be the same as the Tkachuck trade. This site is ridiculous

Tkachuk was an RFA and Calgary actually signed him to the extension before he was traded, so Florida knew he was getting the full 8 years. Also, Florida gave up two guys that were likewise 1 year away from UFA that they weren't sure they could afford to re-sign.

So sure, if you want to trade Matthews for Anze Kopitar, Matt Roy, and a conditional 1st, then I'm sure the Kings would consider it. No way are the Kings including Byfield and Kempe.