Trade Deadline Shocker

Just as I thought the Kings weren't going to make any big moves today, Dean Lombardi comes out and surprised the hell out of me. He had signed two players, the deadline passed, and I was content. But about 15 minutes later, the trade announcement rolled out as a crazy three-way deal, wait no, a 4-something deal. First the two players who were signed:

(1) Sean O'Donnell signed one-year deal - $1.25 mil
(2) Erik Ersberg signed two-year deal - $1.5 (combined)

I'm definitely very pleased with O'Donnell getting signed again, and honestly, there was no way he was going to be let go in the summer. Also, we get to keep the conditional pick from that original trade to acquire him. Having Ersberg signed for two years is a pretty good (and cheap) security blanket. He's been solid in the net and I'm glad a deal was signed before the summer began. No complaints from this humble blogger.

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Onto the big honkin' trade. For a four-square visual of the trade, go to James Mirtle's page.

(1) Patrick O'Sullivan and a 2009 2nd round pick (what the hell happened there??) was sent to the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for Justin Williams.
(2) The Carolina Hurricanes turned around and traded both to the Edmonton Oilers and sent Erik Cole back to Carolina.
(3) The Oilers then took the 2nd round pick and sent it to the Buffalo Sabres and received Ales Kotalik.

In the end these are what the teams end up with:

(1) Kings - Justin Williams
(2) Hurricanes - Erik Cole
(3) Oilers - Patrick O'Sullivan & Ales Kotalik
(4) Sabres - Kings 2009 2nd round pick (originally in deal for Craig Conroy?)

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Apparently there were still Marian Gaborik rumblings? I can't really be excited for a player that would say (taken from Russo's Rants):

Speaking of watching games, Marian Gaborik put his foot in his mouth today back in Minnesota when he voluntarily said when asked if he feels the pressure to return with the team sinking, “Quite frankly I haven’t really been watching games. I’ve been following the scores but I haven’t been watching games. From my perspective, I just really need to focus on how am I feeling, how everything goes with me and then if everything goes good I’m going to jump in to play. Definitely the pressure is on, but first of all I want to feel confident in my body and … so far everything is going well.”

Wow, talk about selfish. I'm sorry Kirsten and Elise, but I can't hide my dislike for Gaborik. From an outsider's perspective, if he leaves Minnesota on his own, without anything in return for the club, that will be the final nail in the coffin in terms of player and team relations. And I'm pretty sure it'll happen that way if he doesn't re-sign since he's going UFA status this summer.

So that was my preface for my short thought about him potentially coming to LA. If this does go down, it'll be during the summer and (hopefully) for cheap because he'll be on IR for 80 of 82 games next season.