The Los Angeles Kings' flexibility plan points to major moves set for 2028

The detail that matters most: the swing has a date on it.

Connor McDavid signed a two-year extension in October 2025 that runs through 2027-28. Auston Matthews is locked in on his own deal through the exact same season.

That means neither can reach unrestricted free agency before the summer of 2028. The open-market path simply does not open before then.

So when Friedman describes Ken Holland preserving maximum flexibility, he is describing a two-year countdown to a single, knowable offseason. This is a plan with a deadline, not open-ended patience.

McDavid and Matthews expiring together is the quiet engine of this entire plan. It hands a cap-rich team two lottery tickets for the price of one strategy.

Holland only has to win one of those two races. Clearing space now reads less as a gamble than a hedge across the two biggest names in the sport.

The rising cap sharpens it further. With the ceiling climbing toward $113.5 million by 2027-28, a $12.5 million or $13.25 million star eats a smaller share every year.

Both contracts were built short and team-friendly, which quietly turns each player into a trade chip well before 2028. A war chest of cap space is exactly what absorbs that salary at a deadline.

That is the real function of Holland's restraint. He stays ready to strike the moment either situation cracks, not waiting by the phone in July 2028.

Los Angeles has already added veterans Corey Perry, Mats Zuccarello and Erik Haula this summer. Those are supporting pieces, not the franchise-altering swing Friedman is pointing at.

The Kings are not chasing a rumor. They are building toward a specific summer that is now two years out.

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