A solemn Los Angeles Kings team met with the media on Monday, days after getting bounced for the fourth straight year by the Edmonton Oilers.
And it was there that former Oilers forward Warren Foegele — now a member of the Kings — took aim at his former club, saying they never offered him a contract.
“Losing to your former team isn’t fun, and I wasn’t offered a contract by them, so a little more personal in that regard, too,” he said. “I think the frustrating thing is I thought we were actually the better team and that’s the way it goes sometimes. You got to be able to close out games, and we weren’t able to do that.”
Foegele arrived in Edmonton in July 2021, acquired by the team from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for defenceman Ethan Bear. He has an unassuming first two seasons with the Oilers, scoring 25 goals and 54 points in 149 games, but his final season in 2023-24 saw him take a jump forward in terms of his production, with 20 goals and 41 points in 82 games.
His playoff production had jumped in his final year, too, with three goals and eight points in 22 games, doubling the two goals and four points in 25 games.
His contract wasn’t a bad one in Edmonton, per se, having signed a three-year, $2.75-million AAV deal when he arrived, and his new pact with the Kings is for the same amount of term, and for $500,000 more per year. The Oilers, meanwhile, went on to sign former Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson to a similar deal, inking a two-year, $4-million AAV pact.
Arriving in L.A., Foegele had a career year offensively in nearly every category, setting career highs in goals (24), assists (22), points (46), even-strength goals (23) and average ice-time, playing 16:10 per night. In six playoff games against the Oilers in the first round, scoring a goal and three points.
Kings forward Quinton Byfield, meanwhile, had some thoughts of his own on the series, specifically around Game 4, when he failed to clear a puck out of the defensive zone, leading to Evan Bouchard scoring with 29 seconds left in regulation to tie the game.
“I’ll think about that all summer,” he said.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
