Pending free agent defenseman Andrej Sekera discussed his future options in an interview with the Slovakian website – Sport SK. The bright spots that emerge from the interview is that Sekera is on his way to fully recovering from his season ending knee injury & has recently been working out with former King Michal Hadzus.

Most importantly, Sekera has expressed his desire to stay with the Los Angeles Kings – if they can can meet his contract demands.

“I would love to remain with the Los Angeles Kings, because it is one of the best organizations in the NHL. Super city, people, facilities for hockey.”

“I would be happy if we agree with the Kings. It’s my number one priority. Let’s see what happens on the first of July.”

“The ideal would be to sign a long-time contract in Los Angeles and be assured that for five to six years I will be on one team.”

Sekera went on to acknowledge that he understands that the Kings need to evaluate their roster & how he would fit within the restraints of the salary cap.

He added, “As I said, I prefer to sign in Los Angeles, but we’ll see what happens.

“Free agency is like an auction and bidders raise the offers. That’s the benefit of free agency.”

Signing Sekera will be tricky for the Kings, as Mayor’s Manor recently explained, but the hope is that Dean Lombardi can pull off another bargain basement contract like he did with another Slovakian – Marian Gaborik.

Sekera played 16 games with the Kings before seeing his season lost to injury with six games remaining in the regular season.

The trade for Sekera looked to be another shrewd deadline move by Dean Lombardi, as the defensman seemed to be an ideal fit for a team still trying to overcome the sudden loss of Slava Voynov months earlier.

At even strength, Sekera had a 60% CF while the team had a +4 goal differential while he was on the ice. Plus, whomever played alongside Sekera saw their production increase while sharing ice-time with him – albeit in a small sample size.

The following table shows how the other Kings defensemen fared playing with Sekera. The stats are at even strength & courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.

Even Strength TOI CF w/Sekera CF w/o Sekera GF GA Brayden McNabb 122:13 61% 53% 4 1 Robyn Regehr 102:04 52% 45% 5 5 Jake Muzzin 13:54 59% 56% 0 0 Alec Martinez 5:41 93% 50% 1 0 Drew Doughty 4:38 77% 52% 0 0 Matt Greene 4:06 75% 51% 0 0

This has been a trend over the past few years of his career, as the players on the ice with Sekera see increases in the shots they are creating, while often seeing an improvement in shot suppression. From Own the Puck –

These results are even more impressive given some of the poor teams that Sekera has played on. If Sekera did resign with the Kings he would certainly be a top four defenseman who you could deploy in all situations. Additionally, even though he only played a few shifts with Drew Doughty – you can see that there is the potential for a really special pairing there.

How possible is it that he re-signs? It’s a stretch – but there is hope. Lombardi said last week, via Mayor’s Manor, “I think we have the parameters of a number. Up until late last week, often times it is hard to get even a number to see if you can plug it in. So I think we have the range that it would take.”

“Now, have we been countered with an offer yet? No. That is all I can say on that one now.”

“I will say I don’t think his number is outrageous. I think he’d like to stay here, and so by virtue of that, he ends up in your templates, in some of your schematics.”

It appears that they aren’t that far apart – now it all comes down to how much give & take will occur within the restraints of the Kings’ tight salary cap situation.