OverDrive - Holland on the Kings' free agency moves, the additions to the roster and the ceiling of the team

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Los Angeles Kings Vice President and General Manager Ken Holland joined OverDrive to discuss the free agency additions of the Kings, the signings of Corey Perry, Joel Armia, Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci, the impact of the state tax, the Kings' overall roster and more.

The newest tracks, and the next big thing. And your first place to hear it all. iHeart New Music. Your digital station for brand new drops, fresh finds, and tomorrow's bangers. Updated daily. Tomorrow's chart toppers today. Discover iHeart New Music. Always fresh. Always first. Stream now online on your smart speaker and on the free I her radio app Really we have a man on the line Dave who's capable of answering all the questions we just asked

However, he's probably contractually obligated not to answer them. He is the VP and general manager of the Los Angeles Kings He's back here on TSN radio. It is Ken Holland Ken What do you think about everything? We just talked about with regards to free agency and some of the speculation that we have here in Toronto? Well, I just caught you at the end there, so I didn't hear too much, but it's always an exciting time in the NHL around July 1st. It is indeed. It was a very exciting time for you as well, because, I mean, you've made a number of transactions and you've been doing this gig for a long time. Can you take us through

what July 1st looked like for you this time around? Well I come in and obviously the team has had a real good few years here making the playoffs and unfortunately not being able to here, um, making the playoffs and unfortunately not being able to, uh, when a playoff round every last four years losing deadminton. So, um, I thought coming in here was that we wanted needed to get a little bit bigger, a little, little, little deeper. Um, try to get some people in the locker room that, that have been on playoff runs and have a Stanley Cup pedigree. And I guess, you know, that's signed Perry and Armia up front.

Armia is a really good penalty killer. Special teams are really critical throughout the regular season, especially in the playoffs. The team here has been really good on the penalty kill. Didn't have a very good year in the power play until they got Kuzmenko here at the trade deadline. So we found Kuzmenko. So we think Kuzmenko and Perry can, can give the coach some options on the power play, both shoot right.

And everybody else on the power play shoots left. So it was important to get some right handed shots on the power play. Perry goes to the net front. Uh, Kuz Benkel can pass the puck and Armia can, uh, can help in the penalty kill. And then on the back end, uh, obviously losing Gavrikov, which was a big loss, um, went out and signed two, two kind of veteran defensemen, Dumal and Cece, one shoots left and one shoots right and then added a goaltender Anton Forsberg to

Pitch in there with Kemper in the net. So we believe we're deeper a little bit bigger and Now let's see what now it's got to happen on the ice Ken when the salary cap and how much is going to rise over the next couple of years when that was all announced a lot of people figured that would contribute to a bunch of player movement that we haven't seen in the past. But it almost seems like it had the reverse effect. The teams were more keen to keep their own players as opposed to the other way around. Do you think that's going to be a trend as the salary cap continues to rise over the years? You know, I think, you know, my experience is with, with, you know, first off veteran, you know, the people that become unrestricted for age and you got to be 27 and older. And,

you know, I think the one, the one area that, that, that I've, I'd say surprised me a little bit, but there, you know, there was a but there was a time five, six, seven years ago when you started to get to be 33, 34, it looked like those players were maybe going to be kind of falling by the wayside. It was a younger league. The last two, three years, some older players, I'm talking early, mid, later 30s, have had major impacts on their teams and had great seasons and you know I think it speaks to the conditioning of the athletes. Certainly

as the salary cap has gone up you know when you're an older player and you want to stay and play for $800,000 or a million dollars and and now with the cap going up You know, there's there's a lot of money to be made for for everybody. It's certainly an incentive to Get the gym and train so, you know, obviously older players have had a real impact on on their teams But ultimately I think as you get older you What are important it's important to be on you want to be on a winning team. You get older, you want to play with some good players. You want to go to the rink every day and have a chance to win and be a playoff team and participate in the playoffs.

You want to live maybe in a city that maybe you grew up in or that some city is important to you. So I think that there's different things for different people. But I guess that's all to say. I think there is no real blueprint. You know, what I thought the blueprint was a few years ago, that it was becoming a young man's league and the older players were getting phased out.

Well, today, older players are incredibly important. So I don't think there's any real blueprint. You just gotta kinda go with the flow, draft, develop, try to put a good team on the ice, and that helps you recruit players to wanna come join your program. Can you talk about the attraction of playing with good players on a winning team?

The team that's won the Stanley Cup twice in a row and been to the final three times in a row was able to keep its three big free agents in-house with what could be perceived as hometown discount deals in terms of Sam Bennett, Brad Marshand and Aaron Echblad. There's been a lot of conversation about the inherent advantage that the Florida teams have, the other zero state tax teams have in being able to offer really attractive packages to their players and the take-home pay is as good as it gets in the US and it can obviously lower the cap hit.

As a guy now, a general manager in a state that to my knowledge has got to be one of the highest tax states in the US, How do you feel about that advantage and is it a concern? Well it's not a concern to me because there's 32 teams and if a team has an advantage or two for whatever reason, you can talk taxes or weather or whatever. There's still 32 teams and half make the playoffs. You've got to run a good program. You've got to draft.

You've got to develop. You've got to try to sign good contracts. You build a good program. And when you build a good program, people wanna stay with it. And so whatever system, I don't care, whatever system you got, there's gonna be some advantages for some teams, some disadvantages.

But I do think that when you take care of your business, you can be competitive. So I think great job by Bill Zito and his people down there in the moves that they've made over the last three or four years building that team. They've done an amazing job. Other people have done great jobs in their markets, but I just think that the teams that – you've got to try to – we're all trying to do a good job. I just think that that's what you strive to do, is do a good job.

If there is some advantages here and there, so be it. But it's not a large portion, it's just a small portion and you just got to keep doing the things that you can do to make your team successful in your marketplace. Ken Holland is our guest, he's the LA Kings Vice President and General Manager. You guys came into free agency on July the 1st with nearly 16 million dollars in salary cap space. There was a lot of speculation, you guys were looking for one of the big fish in free agency at what point in time did you get the inclination that you might not have the chance to sign your intended target and

how hard is it to pivot from your intended ideas before free agency actually begins well I don't know if we had any real intended targets I'd you know I think you got to go go into these periods of time with multiple plans. And then be ready to move in a whole bunch of different directions because you just, one team or one person doesn't really dominate or dictate what's going on. There's 32 teams and then there's the other side, there's players and there's agents. So this team had a really good team last year, 105 points, I think sixth overall in points. They got some really good young players on the up come there, Brad Clark and Byfield

and Laferriere and Turcotte and some good veteran leadership in Copa Tar and Doughty and then a bunch of players, a number of players that are in the prime of their career, good players, Fiala and Kempe and some other, you know, Dano. So we're just trying to build the team the best that we can. I had a lot of different ideas. Sat here for two weeks with our people in a meeting room. You know, morning from, I don't know, we got there every morning, started at seven o'clock,

went till about five o'clock, and went through a whole number of ideas, worked the phones with other general managers on whatever trade possibilities would be, and we're ready to go in whatever direction that kind of the marketplace dictated. So we feel good about the things that we were able to accomplish.

We still have $4.5 million of cap space. So we've got some flexibility here going forward. So like you said, we feel good about what we were able to accomplish. Yeah, and you talked about the importance of drafting and developing. It's always been the specialty of your organizations through the years. What did you make of the new decentralized draft and how do you like it going forward? I'm old fashioned. and how do you like it going forward? I'm old fashioned. I really enjoyed the old system,

but I do think the draft weekend, for me it's really about the kids that are being drafted, the young people and their parents and the memories that they're gonna take away from their draft weekend. So, you know, I think it's less important what I feel about, you know, me personally, if I like it here or I like it there, or I, you know, so I'm sure, you know, I've talked to lots

of general managers and ultimately, you know, Gary Bettman and Bill Daley and Colin Campbell and the league and thein campbell and the the league in the nhlpa will make a decision of what they think is the best way to go but i just want to make sure um that it's a great weekend for the kids and their parents you clearly still have some work to do with regards to free agency again july first was just yesterday but it wouldn't be a ken hall an appearance on tsn

1050 if we didn't inquire about the annual golf trip that you going on. We know Doug Armstrong is a big part of it as well, the president of the St. Louis Blues. Can you take us through the destination this summer? Oh, but you know, I was like, about every three or four years I go to Europe for about a week, so I'm trying to grab a week in August over in Europe and then get back at it. So, you know, still work the phones here for the next little while. Don't really have any ARB cases on our plate. So that's about it. We're going to grab a week in August, a quick little week over and back and then looking forward to September and start going to the rink and getting at it.

Are we talking Scotland, Ireland? What are we looking at, Ken? Those are my two favorites, Scotland and Ireland. Actually, I've never really gone anywhere other than Scotland and Ireland on a golf trip. It's always fun to be on the ocean, Royal County Down and Royal Port Rush and Turnberry and some of those courses that host British Open. They are special places to be. So I always include one, two or three of those courses on a trip

because you get to watch them on TV and They're world famous and they're great courses. So this year we're going over, we're playing two or three of those courses and then some other really good, I call them B courses. And it's a week and then over and back and let's get, and I'll be back I think by the middle of August and I'll start being in LA and start getting ready for training camp. Well well if you need a couple extra guys Ken Dave and I are available so you just let us know all right now okay well you guys single digit cappers yeah yeah there's a guy on the show who shot 64 so you know it's a good no no yeah that is true that that is a very gotta take all the money on me. You gotta take the money from the group. Yeah, that is true.

That is a very good point. Well, thanks so much for taking the time for us. Best of luck going forward here, and enjoy this summer the best you can. Thanks, you too. Thanks, guys. All right, that's Ken Holland. The newest tracks. My music's on, rising low.

And the next big thing. Baby, what was that? And your first place to hear it all. iHeart New Music. New music, your priceless. Your digital station for brand new drops, fresh finds, and tomorrow's bangers. Updated daily. Tomorrow's chart toppers today.

Discover iHeart New Music. Always fresh. Always first. Stream now online on your smart speaker and on the free iHeart Radio app.