Latest Numbers Revealed on Adrian Kempe Extension Talks With Kings

Monday, October 27, 2025

"I have no idea how the Kings can't sign this guy." That's how insider Elliotte Friedman sums up the Los Angeles Kings' dilemma with their best player and pending unrestricted free agent Adrian Kempe. 

After scoring two straight overtime winners last week, it's becoming more and more difficult for the Kings to keep putting off an extension agreement. He is on pace for the best numbers of his career, with five goals and 13 points in the first 10 games of the season. The longer this goes on, the more it's costing LA. 

Kempe has made it clear he wants to stay there, but the Kings haven't yet come up to where they need to be.

Friedman said on The Fan Hockey Show that there seems to be a significant gap in the money.

I think the Kings wanted to do this around at $9M–$9.5M (AAV), but that's just not the way the world works anymore for players like that. And maybe they don't wanna go to $11.5M–$12M. Well, if the kid wants to be there, there's gotta be a happy medium. 

And after watching those OT winners, Kings fans "are envisioning Byfield and Kempe doing that for another decade. So, I just don't see how you can't do it."

The two sides have been in a 'pause' in negotiations, but according to Friedman, talks were supposed to resume "the last week of October." That's where we are now.

Potential $2M gap in AAV between Kings & Kempe

Going into the offseason, the Kings had hoped to bring in a true superstar like Connor McDavid or Mitch Marner, but they're both now accounted for (McDavid on a 2-year extension with Edmonton, and Marner on an 8-year deal with Vegas). 

But now Kempe has to be their star for the future, Friedman said on 32 Thoughts. 

"Now, if people want to argue with me and say, Kempe is not on the level of players like Marner or whatever, fine, you can make that argument. But you operate with what you’ve got. And is it more than they wanted to pay him, initially? Yes, absolutely. But I’m just imagining if you don’t keep this guy and he walks, how are you going to make yourself better?

"Now that doesn’t mean you go and you offer him eleventy billion dollars. But overall, the overall picture is, if he’s not there, and clearly he wants to be a King, how are you making yourself better?”

Kempe's four-year, $22 million deal ($5.5M AAV) expires after the season, and it sounds like the 29-year-old will be pretty much doubling his salary. 

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