Andrej Sekera to Become Free Agent - The Hockey Writers -

Due to salary cap constraints, defenseman Andrej Sekera is set to hit free agency as of Friday when the Kings acquired Milan Lucic.

With Lucic trade, Kings won't be able to sign Andrej Sekera so he'll hit the market. It was a major consideration for them. They like him.

— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) June 26, 2015

As ESPN’s Craig Custance notes, the Kings had to consider Sekera’s future when they acquired Lucic, a deal that has the Bruins retaining nearly 50% of Lucic’s salary. Last season, Sekera carried a cap hit of $2.75 million in the final year of a four-year deal he signed with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Sekera would have been a nice fit for the Kings, but the team is currently projected to have just $4,952,273 left in cap space, according to General Fanager. That’s with Justin Williams (who they won’t be able to re-sign) and Jarret Stoll still sitting as UFAs who need to be replaced on the roster. The team will also be losing defensemen in addition to Sekera, with Robyn Regehr retiring and the team trading Jamie McBain to Boston in the Lucic deal.

They also moved goaltender Martin Jones out in the Lucic deal and they’ll need to bring in a back-up goaltender to replace him. That’s before re-signing Nick Shore and Andy Andreoff, who are RFAs and, more importantly, before considering the situation for next summer when Lucic and Anze Kopitar will become UFAs.

Sekera was a necessary casualty of the cap for Los Angeles and he may not be the last. The team may have to make another trade to make the cap work.

[catlist categorypage=”yes” numberposts=3 excludeposts=this]