Another Youth Movement on Way?

While conceding that injuries have played a major role in the team’s decline, the Kings are prepared to make wholesale changes to their roster if they fall out of the playoff race in the next few weeks, club President Tim Leiweke said.

Five Kings are eligible for unrestricted free agency this summer -- forwards Bryan Smolinski and Craig Johnson, defensemen Aaron Miller and Dmitry Yushkevich and goaltender Felix Potvin -- and the Kings have not made significant moves to re-sign any of them. They probably are the most likely to be offered to contending teams before the March 11 trading deadline, Leiweke indicated, because the Kings would receive no compensation if they failed to re-sign them this summer.

It has been speculated that Ziggy Palffy, due to make $7 million next season and eligible for unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2004, might also be available. Leiweke, however, named no players specifically.

The Kings, depleted by a wave of injuries, are seven points out of a playoff spot after Saturday night’s 2-1 overtime victory over the New Jersey Devils at Staples Center and have won only four of their last 17 games.

Failure to reach the playoffs, Leiweke said, would cost the Kings about $2 million per playoff round in lost revenue but would not affect decisions regarding the club’s future.

“Instead of losing $8 million this year,” said Leiweke, who has detailed the Kings’ financial woes, “we can lose $10 million.”

He again expressed faith in General Manager Dave Taylor, who signed a three-year contract extension in October, and said of Coach Andy Murray, “That’s Dave’s decision and we’ll support it, but I haven’t had any conversations with Dave that would lead me to believe there are any issues with Andy.”

As for players, Leiweke said, “That’s a different story, and that has to do with just trying to plan for the future.

“If we’re not going to make the playoffs, is there a company policy coming from my side back to Dave indicating that we look at moves that ultimately will allow us to become a better club next year? Yes. That’s absolutely the direction we would go in. If there are unrestricted free agents on this team that we don’t intend to re-sign, would we allow them to go to a team that’s in the hunt and at the same time pick up some assets? The answer to that is yes.

“That’s been our track record, of always trying to upgrade our team by getting some additional chips here. When you look at the future of this league and the future economic system hopefully we’re going to create [after the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union expires in September 2004], I believe that draft picks and farm systems ... are critical assets. And so, if we aren’t in the hunt here, we’ll use all of our assets -- and I mean all of them -- in order to upgrade the team.”

Signing high-priced free agents this summer, he said, is not an option.

“That is absolute lunacy,” he said. “It is the worst kind of management, in my opinion, that a team can demonstrate. And so we won’t do it. It is a disaster for the future of the game.”

He said the Kings would “make an effort” to keep their nucleus together but made no promises. If the Kings broke up their top line of Palffy, Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh in an effort to add greater depth, Palffy, who will turn 31 on May 5, would be the logical choice to go because he is three years older than his linemates. Palffy is the Kings’ most electrifying player, but Leiweke has called Allison a “franchise player” and the injured Deadmarsh “the heart and soul of the team.”

Captain Mattias Norstrom, signed in September to a four-year, $14.5-million contract, certainly is not going anywhere. Neither, it seems, is crowd favorite Ian Laperriere. And the Kings, favoring a youth movement, are happy with the development of rookies Alexander Frolov, Michael Cammalleri, Joe Corvo and Jared Aulin.

As for the rest, stay tuned.

“If this was easy,” Leiweke said, “I guess a lot of people would be competing for the Stanley Cup every year. But we have some issues here and we’ve got to get ahead of them. That means we’re going to have to make some tough decisions.”