Kings Trade Defensive Prospect Brock Faber and 19th Overall Pick for Rights to Kevin Fiala

[Brewin Flames]

Report: Kings acquire rights to Fiala from Wild

Kevin Fiala is on his way to California. The Los Angeles Kings acquired the rights to the 25-year-old restricted free-agent winger from the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday in exchange for the No. 19 pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft and defenceman Brock Faber of nearby Maple Grove, MN, reports The Athletic's Michael Russo.

TSN.ca Staff

 

Kevin Fiala , The Canadian Press

Kevin Fiala is on his way to California.

The Los Angeles Kings acquired the rights to the 25-year-old restricted free-agent winger from the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday in exchange for the No. 19 pick in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft and defenceman Brock Faber of nearby Maple Grove, MN, reports The Athletic's Michael Russo.

TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston notes the Kings are expected to sign Fiala to a long-term extension.

Fiala had a career year this past offseason, scoring 33 goals and adding 52 assists. He played last season on a one-year, $5.1 million deal.

A native of St. Gallen, Switzerland, Fiala is headed into his ninth NHL season.

Originally taken with the 11th overall pick of the 2014 draft by the Nashville Predators, Fiala was traded to the Wild at the 2019 deadline in exchange for Mikael Granlund.

In 419 career games, Fiala has 124 goals and 159 assists.

Internationally, Fiala has represented Switzerland on multiple occasions at various levels, including four IIHF World Championships and two IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship.

Faber, 19, was a second-round pick of the Kings in 2020 and served as captain of the University of Minnesota last season in his sophomore year.

Faber was part of the United States' gold medal-winning entry at the 2021 WJHC in Edmonton and Red Deer. He also represented the US at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

 

•  
• Quote

Edited June 30, 2022 by TropicalFruitGirl26
Similar thread in Wild forum, made title slanted more towards Kings

[yave1964]

Holy Crap. Wild fans must feel betrayed. Great deal for the Kings who are definitely on the way up, they are loaded at center, need scoring wingers he is a perfect fit. Love it for the Kings.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Seems like a lot to pay for Kevin Fiala on the surface, and perhaps, after all the numbers are in, maybe it is.
But, you know, the Kings are trying to win sooner than later, trying to get the most out of whatever is left in Kopitar and Quick, and have a bunch of players in their mid to late 20's whom they probably feel should be making a push for more than just "making the playoffs".

Kevin Fiala should help them in that regard.
He easily slots into their top six and could be reunited with former teammate on the Preds, Viktor Arvidsson, and Fiala's presence should allow other players to be slotted a bit better as well.

I never really cared for Fiala's handling of the puck, as I feel he STILL coughs it up too much, and relatively easily too (tried to stick handle WAY too much through solid traffic), but the guy CAN put the biscuit in the basket and as we all know, LA is always on the lookout for guys who can do that as many of their players are good defensively, but so-so on offense.

The Kings' defense first system may also offset Fiala's propensity for turnovers....not that turnovers are ever a good thing regardless of what team it is.

Wild are trying to manage cap space while remaining competitive, the Kings have much more room to spend on a player like Fiala, and yea, LA may have passed MIN on the playoff competitive scale...for now.

Can't say this is terrible for LA even if the price seems steep. If they have a knockout season, then continue onward and upwards after that, I don't think anyone will find too much fault with this trade for the Kings.

[3 Palmateers]

That's a STEAL for a guy like Fiala. As a Leafs fan, I've seen a 1st go for Foligno and he gave us 6 games and no goals.

 

I've seen a 1st go to Carolina that turned into Seth Jarvis to bury the Marleau deal.

 

Can't imagine trading a first and a prospect and walking away with a goal-scorer like Fiala. 

 

My best friend was just told of this trade by me. "Nooo" was his response.  He's been a Wild season tix holder up until pandemic. 

 

 

[ruxpin]

3 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Holy Crap. Wild fans must feel betrayed. Great deal for the Kings who are definitely on the way up, they are loaded at center, need scoring wingers he is a perfect fit. Love it for the Kings.

Kings are loaded at center so Fiala may do well, but I'm not sold on Fiala and don't ultimately like the trade for LA.

 

I truly believe Fiala is an aberration. Happy to be wrong.

[ruxpin]

1 hour ago, ruxpin said:

Kings are loaded at center so Fiala may do well, but I'm not sold on Fiala and don't ultimately like the trade for LA.

 

I truly believe Fiala is an aberration. Happy to be wrong.

On the other hand, how many of us grabbed Fiala in fantasy thinking "he's about to...." 

 

He finally did, do maybe we were right but premature and here he is.

 

 

I  think he's a good kid who is probably a 60 pt guy.  There good. We'd all be happy with that.  I'm not sure he's a first round pick and a prospect, though.  Maybe a box of cigars, a 5th of Jamison Black Label and a year subscription to National Geographic.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

From dailyfaceoff....the numbers aren't "confirmed", but according to this story, the Kings HAVE immediately extended Fiala for 7 years, and they are saying the AAV is 7.9M:

Los Angeles Kings acquire Kevin Fiala from Minnesota Wild, extend him for seven years - Daily Faceoff

Definitely not something the Wild were going to be able to afford, so really, whether we think this is a good deal or not for them, they did well in offloading a player they weren't going to be able to keep, while recouping that first rounder and rolling the dice on the University of Minnesota defenseman (team captain actually), Brock Faber, who is just 19 yrs old.

As for the Kings, well, they DID have a crapload of cap space, and whether it was well spent here with Fiala will remain to be seen.
One could argue the Kings have a few more naturally gifted offensive weapons than Minnesota, thus Fiala helps to augment that, while LA still retains their defensive mentality (which, unless Fiala changes his playstyle a bit, he WON'T be augmenting).

[ruxpin]

3 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

From dailyfaceoff....the numbers aren't "confirmed", but according to this story, the Kings HAVE immediately extended Fiala for 7 years, and they are saying the AAV is 7.9M:

Los Angeles Kings acquire Kevin Fiala from Minnesota Wild, extend him for seven years - Daily Faceoff

Definitely not something the Wild were going to be able to afford, so really, whether we think this is a good deal or not for them, they did well in offloading a player they weren't going to be able to keep, while recouping that first rounder and rolling the dice on the University of Minnesota defenseman (team captain actually), Brock Faber, who is just 19 yrs old.

As for the Kings, well, they DID have a crapload of cap space, and whether it was well spent here with Fiala will remain to be seen.
One could argue the Kings have a few more naturally gifted offensive weapons than Minnesota, thus Fiala helps to augment that, while LA still retains their defensive mentality (which, unless Fiala changes his playstyle a bit, he WON'T be augmenting).

Lol. In my opinion (this and 75c gets you a postage stamp and literally nothing else) this just went from bad to horrific for the Kings.  Sorry, i have zero faith that Fiala keeps his numbers up.   Good on him, though.

 

Grateful it wasn't Chuckles.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

5 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

Lol. In my opinion (this and 75c gets you a postage stamp and literally nothing else) this just went from bad to horrific for the Kings.  Sorry, i have zero faith that Fiala keeps his numbers up.   Good on him, though.

 

Grateful it wasn't Chuckles.

 

Heh!

Well, we'll see.
You said it yourself...Kings are better at center than the Wild and if Fiala put up those numbers with average centermen, he MIGHT be able to maintain them with centers Kopitar, Danault, and/or Lizotte.

Kopy and Danault in particular are VERY good defensively....could help cover for Fiala's weaknesses in that area, and just allow him to do more of his fancy, schmancy offensive zone dancing tricks....till he loses the puck, but then, those defensive forwards will get it BACK for him.  

[ruxpin]

9 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Heh!

Well, we'll see.
You said it yourself...Kings are better at center than the Wild and if Fiala put up those numbers with average centermen, he MIGHT be able to maintain them with centers Kopitar, Danault, and/or Lizotte.

Kopy and Danault in particular are VERY good defensively....could help cover for Fiala's weaknesses in that area, and just allow him to do more of his fancy, schmancy offensive zone dancing tricks....till he loses the puck, but then, those defensive forwards will get it BACK for him.  

 

Fair.

 

I just really don't think his offense is actually sustainable.

 

But i don't dislike the kid (or the Kings) so happy to be wrong.

 

I ran out of patience with him in Nashville so this past season was, to me, a fluke.  Could be it was him finally being Him.  If the latter is the case, I do this every day if I'm the Kings.  Time will tell. It won't be the first time (today!) that I was wrong.