Los Angeles Kings
If anyone is going to be interested in acquiring Joel Armia’s contract, wouldn’t it be the guy who offered it to him in the first place? As one of the final transactions before he was fired as Canadiens general manager, it was Marc Bergevin who signed Armia to an extension shortly before he hit the free agent market.
Now, Bergevin is working for the Los Angeles Kings, and though he isn’t the GM, he is a special advisor to the team’s general manager, Rob Blake. It seems likely he would put in a good word for Armia, as he surely did for Phillip Danault, a signing that worked out tremendously for the Kings.
The Kings lost Dustin Brown to retirement and have a lot of young centres that could be pushing for minutes this season. Anze Kopitar and Danault are the top two, but 19 year old Quinton Byfield, 22 Gabe Vilardi and 22 year old Rasmus Kupari will all play bottom six minutes down the middle at points next season.
They could use a trusted, veteran, defensively sound winger with that untapped offensive potential that we see on occasion. The Kings are one of a few teams who could actually see enough value that they offer up a pick to take on all of Armia’s contract.
They have tons of cap space, even after acquiring Kevin Fiala and signing him to a monster extension. They have the room, could use a veteran on their bottom six and employ the guy who singed Armia.