The Kings do not want, nor can they afford Reilly Smith, even at 50% retention. Change the draft pick going in the other direction and still no.

Graves is all yours bud, not touching that deal with a Zdeno Chara stick

For the umpty-umpteenth time No, we're not interested in one season of Reilly Smith, especially at $3.5 million when that sum would pay for multiple seasons of both Blake Lizotte and Alex Turcotte. We wouldn't be interested in him for 50% off, either, because that's probably Lizotte's price point. Alternatively, because he spent almost the entire season on the LTIR list, Viktor Arvidsson might be available in the $3.5 million to $4 million range, and we'd much rather have a player with experience of our team for multiple seasons than one who clearly had difficulty fitting in with yours.

Reilly Smith does not have negative value. I certainly agree that he is not a fit for LAK and their situation, but even mentioning that he will cost a pick to move is what is wrong with this website. Simply stating that LAK are not the right team for him would suffice, and wouldn’t perpetuate the already too frequent spewing of dramatic takes that have no truth to them on this website.

I didn't say that he was negative value. I said that the Kings can't afford his contract, even if you offered to pay them to take him.

As others have mentioned, LAK is not the right team for Smith. Also, I wouldn’t get your hopes up in regard to moving Graves. Guys that sign UFA tickets like he did are not commonly moved one year after, especially after having a down year, relatively speaking. On the bright side, it isn’t necessarily uncommon that guys get too comfortable and have a down year the year after they sign big UFA tickets. Hopefully it will be an outlier and he will play like the 2nd pair defenseman that we paid him to be moving forward. We shall see, but for now we’re probably just going to have to see him through.

Alluding that PIT would need to pay to move him in any capacity is saying that he has negative value. You know that would never happen. LAK would simply decline the trade and both teams would move forward.

You can put all the words in my mouth that you want, but I never implied that. Had I said something like "Add a 1st round pick and the Kings would consider it," then you could make that argument.

My point was, and is, that no amount of compensation could entice the Kings to take Smith's contract because their problem is cap space. Adding Smith would cost them any chance at re-signing Matt Roy and that's worth more than any draft pick.

There are better ways to state that Smith is not a fit for LAK without alluding that he has negative value, when he in fact does not. There is no scenario where PIT would send a pick with Smith to move him, because he does not have negative value. Players with negative value require a pick with them. There wouldn’t be a realistic scenario where LAK would trade for Smith and there wouldn’t be a realistic scenario where PIT would pay to move Smith. Pretty simple. There is no point in even mentioning that Smith would have a pick going with him for the sake of drama. It perpetuates crap narratives about player’s value that aren’t true.

Sure.

That Caulfield trade is just salt in a wound.

I still can't believe the did not sign him. He was a good player at ND. I know he didn't have more than 4th line potential....but look at their 4th line this season...
Just another dumb decision by the front office to not even try on that guy.