Untold riches await Adrian Kempe he'll be one of the NHL's top unrestricted free agents next summer.
Mitch MarnerOne of last summer's top targets, he was receiving $12 million per season from Vegas as part of a trade deal with Toronto hours before he was set to hit the open market. With more goals than Marner over the last four full seasons, how much could Kempe demand – in his prime, at 29?
We'll never know. Because whatever the amount, Kempe decided that it was not worth more than his happiness. So last month he signed contract extension for eight years worth 85 million dollars along with Kings this means he will remain with the only organization he has ever known for the rest of his career.
“There are probably teams that would have made me offers. But I never got to the part where that was what I wanted,” he said. “I’m very happy here. I’ve always been happy. It’s the same in family terms.
“So I never had anything else in mind.”
Now that Kempe's hockey future is set, he appears to have calmed down. With 13 goals and 17 assists, he leads the Kings offense with 30 points, and seven of those goals have come in the 17 games since he signed his extension.
But that didn't help much for a team that had lost six of its last seven games heading into Saturday's game against the Ducks. The last time the Kings had a seven-game streak this bad, it cost coach Todd McLellan his job.
“I’m not happy, but I really believe in this group,” the striker said. Kevin Fialawho shares the team's scoring lead with Kempe. “I really believe this is a great team, great players. We just need to find a game. And not just for a few minutes, not even for one game, but for 60 minutes.”
“This is where we need to make a push, get some wins in a row. Start feeling good, start playing well.”
This could be difficult given how the Kings finish 2025. After Saturday's home game against a resurgent team Ducksthe team travels to Colorado to face the Avalanche, who lead the NHL in points.
If the Kings want to turn things around, they will have to start an offense that ranks second to last in the NHL, averaging 2.52 goals per game and a power play that converts on less than 14% of its chances, ranking 31st in the 32-team league. And responsibility for that will likely fall on Kemp, who has scored as many goals as Sidney Crosby and has only six fewer gears than Alex Ovechkinkeeping the Swedish Olympian in heady company.
Kings forward Adrian Kempe shoots during a win over the Winnipeg Jets on November 4.
(Harry Howe/Getty Images)
“Adrian is a little bit of a hitter,” coach Jim Hiller said. “A lot of his recent goals are goals we've seen him score before, where he either beats someone with speed or a good player.
“So I’m encouraged by the kind of goals he’s scoring now.”
It's not all that encouraging. Kempe, a quick and physical two-way forward, is averaging a career-high 19:18 of ice time per game and is on track to score 30 goals and 68 points for the second straight season.
With the captain Anze Kopitar will retire at the end of the season and defender Drew Doughty In the penultimate year of his contract, re-signing Kempe, the team's future leader on and off the ice, was high on Ken Holland's to-do list when he took over as general manager last spring. And while the length of the contract he offered Kempe never changed, the price did.
In the end, according to media reports, Kempe blinked first and advised agent J.P. Berry to lower his salary demands to get the deal done, ultimately agreeing to an average annual value of $10.625 million starting next season. That's nearly double the $5.5 million he will earn this season and makes him the fifth-highest-paid Swede in the NHL, according to the Sweden Herald. But that's less than he would have received on the open market.
“I think it says two things,” Hiller said of the deal. “It says something about a franchise that a player was known, was drafted here, developed here.”
What it says about Kemp, he continued, is that he values that loyalty more than money.
Kings forward Adrian Kempe vs. Tampa Bay Lightning on November 18.
(Chris O'Meara/Associated Press)
“I think he probably appreciates the time and energy that went into his career to get him to where he was,” Hiller said. “Now it’s his choice and he says, ‘You know what? I want to stay where I am.”
He is not alone. Some of the Kings' recent key players include Dustin BrownKopitar and Doughty spent their entire NHL careers with this team. If he can avoid serious injury and a major fall in the game, Kempe will almost certainly rank among the top five in franchise history in games, goals and points when his contract expires.
That's the long-term return on investment that Holland and the Kings are hoping for. For now, however, they are counting on Kempe to salvage a season that appears to be in jeopardy.
Like Fiala, Kempe believes in kings.
“If I wasn't happy here, obviously I would consider not playing here,” Kempe said. “We have a good core. We have a good group of young guys. I think we're in a good position.”
“Obviously you have to take that into account when you sign a new contract. You want to play in a good team, you want to win cups.”
And it's hard to put a price on it.
