The Los Angeles Kings have announced that they have signed defenseman Cody Ceci to a four-year, $18 million contract, which carries an average annual value (AAV) of $4.5 million.
Ceci is a 31-year-old veteran defenseman who has played 871 regular-season NHL games across 12 seasons. He was drafted 15th overall in the first round of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft by the Ottawa Senators. Ceci made his NHL debut for the Senators in the 2013-14 season, where he went on to play six seasons, setting his career high with 10 goals in the 2015-16 season. Following his six-season stretch with the Senators, Ceci decided to move a few hours up the 401 highway and signed a one-year deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
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Ceci struggled in his lone season with the Maple Leafs, which led to him signing a one-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins. After a bounce-back season in Pittsburgh, Ceci earned himself another four-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers, which he played three years of before being traded again to the San Jose Sharks before the 2024-25 season began. Ceci played 54 games with the Sharks before he was on the move again and was dealt to the Dallas Stars around the trade deadline.
Kings Cannot Expect Much From Ceci
One positive thing you can say about Ceci is that he is reliable. He led the NHL in games played last season. He was the only player in the league to play 85 games, as the Stars had three games in hand on the Sharks at the time of the trade. He has also played in 78 or more games in four straight seasons and has only played under 50 games once, which was his rookie season back in 2013-14, where he played 49 games.
Aside from his availability, it is hard to find much to like about this signing for the Kings, especially at this $4.5 million AAV price tag. According to Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic and his player cards, based on net ratings and advanced analytics, his projected value was $1 million. At a $4.5 million price tag, his player card suggests a one percent chance that the Kings will get positive value on his contract. From this player card, we can also see that he graded in the bottom four percent of players in defensive rating at five-on-five and graded as one of the worst penalty killers in the NHL.
Ceci can provide some offense from the back end, as he has 20 assists and 20-plus points in three of the last four seasons he has played. However, his offensive upside does not help mitigate the fact that he is a liability on the defensive end. He would be more valuable if he were able to contribute on the power play, but for a defenseman whose strength is offense, it is not ideal to see that he has not registered a point on the man advantage since 2018-19.
With the Kings, Ceci will have to play bottom-pair minutes in a sheltered role to get the best out of him. But this contract may be one of the first big mistakes of the signing season, and the Kings will likely have to look for a way to get rid of his cap hit before this contract runs out.
