LA Kings Rumors: Arvidsson Could Be Mid-Season Cap Casualty

The Los Angeles Kings are the best team in the Western Conference by points percentage and the second best team in the NHL by those standards as well. They have taken another big step and become one of the teams to beat, especially on the road where they have an NHL record 11-0-0 start to the season. The Kings have almost exclusively played the same lineup every game, with the exception of a few depth pieces. This means that what is working doesn't need to be changed, not yet at least while they're dominating.

This makes things interesting for when Viktor Arvidsson comes back. Not only will the Kings have to deal with the cap hit ($4.25 million AAV), they will also throw off the chemistry that the lines have built for the first quarter of the season. It may feel like he is a deadline addition and doesn't fit back in the way the Kings would like.

With Arvidsson missing the entire season to this point and the Kings dominating regardless, the team may very well decide to move the pending UFA and upgrade somewhere else for cheaper. The top two lines can't be touched right now, that much is for certain. But, as a counterpoint, Arvidsson could be injected into the third line alongside Pierre-Luc Dubois and give him a better winger to work with. That would make the top-nine very dangerous. Right now Dubois is playing between Carl Grundstrom and Alex Laferriere, neither of whom have more than 10 points. It has caused Dubois to be less of a factor offensively because of it.

As Arvidsson is month-to-month with a back injury, that isn't an immediate decision to be made, but it is something to think about. If it doesn't hurt the lineup too much, I can see Arvidsson at least being tried back in the lineup if he returns in a timely manner.