Ben King celebrates a goal during the round 20 clash between Gold Coast and Brisbane at Heritage Bank Stadium on July 29, 2023. Picture: AFL Photos

PRIZED Gold Coast key forward Ben King has been tabled an offer to extend his contract, Suns list boss Craig Cameron says.

King, 23, returned from a ruptured ACL to boot 40 goals from 20 games this season and comes out of contract at the end of 2024.

Cameron on Wednesday said the highly-rated Victorian, who attracts annual speculation over his future during the trade period, already has an offer to extend his time at the Suns through to free agency.

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"What he's basically got is an offer in front of him to extend. There's no actual clause in his contract, he’s got an offer for him to extend," Cameron told Continental Tyres AFL Trade Radio. "That sits there at the moment."

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The Suns plan on ramping up talks to keep King on the Gold Coast as soon as the young star returns from a post-season trip overseas.

"I'd like to think that we sit down with him and his management group and progress into the off-season," Cameron said. 

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"Once he gets back from overseas and the pre-season starts, we'll progress the conversations from there with his management group."

The Suns also have their sights set on trading in a suite of draft picks to accumulate points to match expected rival bids for their star academy trio in Jed Walter, Ethan Read and Jake Rogers.

That will involve trading their top pick, currently No.4, for multiple picks later in the draft. 

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"With trading four, what we want to do is bring in as much collateral into this year's draft as we can. We're chasing draft value index points to match bids for our academy boys," Cameron said.

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Cameron wouldn't be drawn on revealing which clubs were in the running for their top pick when asked on whether North Melbourne would use its draft assistance package – it received one end-of-first-round pick this year and two for 2024 – to make an offer.

The list boss added Gold Coast had not yet received "concrete" offers for either key forward Mabior Chol or 2020 no.7 pick Elijah Hollands. Cameron said the Suns were happy for both to explore opportunities at rival clubs. 

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As for how close the Suns really were to luring Dustin Martin from Richmond, Cameron said: "I don't think it was very close this year, to be honest.

"Will we have another crack next year? I think we'll wait and see."