The Los Angeles Kings weren't able to pick up Brad Richards, who was the subject of a bidding war by a variety of teams, but they've still been able to add a great offensive weapon to their team in free agency. Joining up with his former Philadelphia Flyers teammate Mike Richards, who was traded to the Kings from the Flyers to make room for Ilya Bryzgolov's signing, among other things, Simon Gagne has agreed to a two year, $7 million deal to play in LA.
The Kings still have the likes of Justin Williams, Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar among their ranks on their forward lines, but the group has, for the most part, undergone an overhaul this season. Richards and Gagne are major new arrivals, and the Kings still have cap room to add another player. That's because, in addition to the dumping of Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds for Richards, the team has also traded away Ryan Smyth and allowed both Michal Handzus and Alexei Ponikarovsky to leave as free agents.
Gagne, 31, has scored 20 or more goals seven times in his career. He hasn't been at the absolute top of his game lately, scoring 17 goals in each of the past two seasons, but there's no question that Gagne is an upgrade for the Kings and a player who is very much capable of scoring more than 20 goals for them next season.