The Los Angeles Kings have signed forward Quinton Byfield to a 5 year, $31.25M contract extension the club announced Monday evening.
Byfield, who was selected by the club 2nd overall in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, will now be tied to Los Angeles through the 2028-29 campaign at an AAV of $6.25M per season.
The 6’5″ power forward started his career off slow, but made tangible strides on and off the ice with LA in 2023-24. Appearing in a career high 80 games for the Kings, Byfield recorded 20 goals to go along with 35 assists and 42 PIMs.
In a bit of irony, the 2020 NHL Entry Draft’s top 3 players have now seen their 2nd contracts handed out in inverse order when it comes to AAV. Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle (taken 3rd overall) inked an 8 year, $66.8M ($8.35M AAV) contract, followed by Byfield ($6.25M AAV) and then New York’s Alexis Lafreniere and his 2 year, $4.65M ($2.325M AAV) pact.
By locking up the former Sudbury standout, Los Angeles now has their future core under contract for the time being. That being said, Byfield now becomes the 8th Kings player who will have a contract above $5M per season in 2024-25.
That top heavy approach to roster construction has been good enough to get Los Angeles into the postseason for the last 3 years, however it’s also resulted in early exits each time as well. If the Kings are to turn things around this season, they’ll need another sizeable step forward from their newly minted $6 million man.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.