They Might Not Spend Exactly Like Kings

The Kings, after missing the NHL playoffs for the first time in four years, plan to be active in the NHL free-agency market, starting today, but don’t expect to see them in any big-money bidding wars.

That’s not their style.

“We have a little room to work with, within our budget, but that doesn’t mean we’ll go out and sign a big-name player,” General Manager Dave Taylor said. “This year’s group of free agents is average. It’s not a great one.”

The Kings need a quality defenseman and a dependable scoring forward, but they have only so much to spend. So forget about Derian Hatcher and Sergei Fedorov, who are expected to attract offers much higher than the Kings can make.

“You’re always looking to upgrade your roster,” said Taylor, who has already added goaltender Roman Cechmanek and center Jozef Stumpel through trades during the off-season. “I’ll be on the phone most of the day and we expect to receive a number of faxes from agents. But we’re only going to sign players to contracts that make sense to us.

“Just look at last season. The teams with the highest payrolls didn’t win. It was New Jersey and the Mighty Ducks in the [Stanley Cup] finals. Both teams were in the $40- $50-million [team payroll] range, which put them slightly higher than the middle of the pack. Just look how the season ended for high-payroll teams like Colorado, Dallas, Detroit and the Rangers.”

In a way, the Kings’ biggest additions for next season will be two players already on their roster, Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh, who missed a combined 118 games because of injuries last season.

“Filling some holes will be important ... but the key for us is that we expect a better season, health-wise,” Taylor said. “We’ll get both Allison and Deadmarsh back at 100% next season, and they are important players on our team.”

The Kings lost a franchise-record 536 man games to injuries, most in the league. Among the defensemen who might fit within the Kings’ budget are Colorado’s Greg de Vries, Nashville’s Cale Hulse and maybe Washington’s Ken Klee. Some of the forwards the Kings may go after are Detroit’s Darren McCarty, Vancouver’s Trent Klatt and Columbus’ Ray Whitney.

Then there’s veteran Luc Robitaille, who was released by the Red Wings in May and has had discussions with the Kings in recent weeks about returning to Los Angeles for the third time.

“Luc is willing to take a significant pay cut to return to the Kings,” said Robitaille’s agent, Pat Brisson.

Taylor, however, said the two sides were “not really close” to reaching an agreement.

“We haven’t been able to find a common ground yet,” Taylor said.

Robitaille had only 11 goals and 31 points for Detroit last season.

The Kings are also prepared to lose two goaltenders, Felix Potvin and Jamie Storr, to free agency. Potvin, the team’s No. 1 goalie the last three seasons, will not return because of the signing of Cechmanek.

The Kings didn’t make a qualifying offer to retain the rights to Storr, who was eligible to receive $1.75 million. Instead, Storr, the fourth-winningest goaltender in team history, became a free agent.

Taylor said he would be “comfortable” playing Cristobal Huet. Said Taylor: “He came in and proved to us he’s capable of being a No. 2 goalie.”

Forward Erik Rasmussen, who was obtained from Buffalo last season and had 16 points in 57 games, also didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Kings. Storr and Rasmussen were both first-round draft picks at No. 7 overall, in 1994 and 1996.

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Times staff writer Jerry Crowe contributed to this report.