The Pittsburgh Penguins parted with several players leading up to the trade deadline on Friday, including star winger Jake Guentzel who ended up being moved to the Carolina Hurricanes. It was reported on Tuesday that the Penguins also came close to losing another star forward in a deadline transaction as Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts Podcast that the Los Angeles Kings came close to acquiring Reilly Smith but didn’t have the salary cap space to pull off a move.
At first, the Kings were working at getting Tyler Toffoli back in Los Angeles, but the New Jersey Devils forward ended up getting moved to the Winnipeg Jets. The Kings then shifted their attention to Smith, but couldn’t make it work.
“There was a lot of competition for Toffoli,” Friedman said. “There were a lot of rumours about LA… LA was also interested in Reilly Smith; they just didn’t have any room to do anything.”
In the days leading up to the trade deadline, Smith’s name had emerged as a potential trade bait. He was linked back to his former team, the Vegas Golden Knights, who were quite busy on Friday. The Kings were also in the mix, but could not pulled the trigger on Smith.
LA’ s salary cap space was barely inexistent, especially with Adrien Kempe returning from injury sooner than expected. It is more than likely why they didn’t do much to add at the deadline this year.
After Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas was done wheeling and dealing, he suggested that he would be working on improving the team over the summer. There remains a chance that Smith is traded out of Pittsburgh then and Los Angeles could be his landing spot, thanks to the increased salary cap.
This will be one to watch in the summer.
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