The Los Angeles Kings announced that the club has signed forward Kyle Clifford to a five-year extension. Los Angeles has now handed out multi-year deals to each of their resident tough guys as Jordan Nolan was given a three-year extension Tuesday.
According to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet, Clifford’s deal is worth $8 million, for an annual average of $1.6 million per year.
Clifford has appeared in 333 games with the Kings and was part of both Stanley Cup runs in 2012 and 2014. He assisted on Alec Martinez’s Cup-winning goal in the Stanley Cup Final last season. The 24-year-old has 58 points over his career with the Kings, while posting 462 penalty minutes.
Not necessarily an enforcer by traditional standards, Clifford has been a serviceable fourth-line type player who has been prone to drop the gloves. He has never had more than 14 points in a season, but has a shot to break that this year with 10 points in 57 games.
Clifford is averaging 10:42 per game this season, which is a career high. He has also been more involved offensively with 87 shots on goal, one away from his career-best.
Five years is quite a term for a guy logging around 10 minutes a night, but the re-upping of Clifford continues the trend of GM Dean Lombardi doing what he can to keep the band together. The club has won two Stanley Cup titles with many of the players currently on the roster and many of them will be around for a while.
Nine players are already locked down beyond the 2016-17 season – 10 if you count Mike Richards in American Hockey League exile. The club still has to make decisions on pending unrestricted free agents Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll and Robyn Regehr, and have to have one eye on the future with Anze Kopitar’s current contract expiring after the 2015-16 season.
