Asshole Coming Through

Well, Lombardi finally made a splash tonight after a very quiet Free Agency opening day with many GMs out of their minds signing players to ridiculous contracts. The wait was killer as a Kings fan and finally Darren Dreger (resident favorite of A Queen Among Kings) broke the story via Twitter just a few minutes ago that the Kings had traded for Aves' Ryan Smyth.

Reaction #1: Omg, we got an asshole in the lineup.

Reaction #2: Who in Zeus' jizz did the Kings give up to get Smyth?

Reaction #3: (After reading the trade results) Hahaha!

In the end the Kings gave up a 5th round pick in 2010, D Kyle Quincey, and D Tom Preissing. First off, the 5th round pick is chump change. Secondly, I cannot believe someone took Preissing from us!!

Lombardi, you are awesome.

But, sadly Quincey will be leaving the sunny coast of Los Angeles for the snowbanks of Denver. This is the only part I'm a bit sad about, but we didn't really need him after the signing of Rob Scuderi (Go Deano!) to a 4-year, $13.6 million contract yesterday. Smyth has 3 years remaining on his 5-year contract in Colorado with the cap hit at $6.25 mil. He will make $6.5 mil this season, $5.5 next, and $4.5 in 2011-2012. Quincey was definitely the big piece in this trade and I'm glad that was all the Kings had to give up.

The pieces are falling into place... and jesus christ, Ryan Smyth is a King...

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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.

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1st Trade Toward Free Agency

First trade of the Free Agency FRENZY... well, for the Kings.


Kings trade Lubomir Visnovsky to Edmonton for Jarret Stoll (C) and Matt Greene (D).



My first reaction:

NOOO!! LUBO!!!


A more eloquent reaction to come...

[Update]: Ok, I've gotten enough sleep to think about this for reals.

I guess my initial reaction was thinking more in terms of players on the roster than in terms of salary hits for the next couple of years and the respective ages of the 3 players involved here. Lubo is 31 this year and will be 36 at the end of this contract. When you look at his contract, you can think of it in two ways. (1) Will he be worth $5.6 million when he's 36? Or (2) you can think of it in his actual salary terms, $7m, $7m, $6m, $5m, $3m, respectively. Do I think he'll be worth $3m when he is 36? My answer is yes; he would have been an older puck-moving defenseman while making just $3 million. But on the other hand, that'd only be worth it if the first three years of the contract showed vast improvement from this past season. And, to be honest, with who's projected to be on the blueline, I'm not 100% certain that he would have made that turnaround in one year. And when I say "who's projected to be on the blueline," I really mean, "the gaping holes that are left." When you take a veteran like Lubo away (puck mover and power play quarterback), who do we definitely have left at this point in time? Jack Johnson, Tom Preissing, ... so how exactly does that reassure Kings fans of the fact that we're trying to keep the puck of our own net?

Ok, let's think about this, a cap hit of $5.6/year is now off the books. Who could we feasibly get? Better question, who in their right mind wants to come to LA?

The answer: Someone who wants to be a difference maker. Someone who can get on the roster and make his presence known without being too much of a liability.

Before you say Brad Stuart, I'm actually thinking of someone else. Don't get me wrong, I heart B-Stu and would love him to be back here, but what's this I hear about a shoulder injury?? I don't want to set myself up to be disappointed if he decides to sign with Detroit. Sure it'd be an extremely difficult challenge to try and repeat in Detroit, but how much more attractive is the idea to B-Stu of coming back to LA and really working for it? Not to say that he wasn't working his damned hardest in the Motor City; he was definitely earning his paycheck. But how much greater would the satisfaction be if he were to come back on the Kings roster and help take this sub par team into the playoffs for the first time in... many, many years? Well, only B-Stu can gauge that type of satisfaction. We, as fans, can only speculate what he's going to do in the next couple of days.

So the guy that I really want? Brooks Orpik. Demon on the backend who was part of the Pittsburgh roster in the Cup Finals last year. Yeah, he didn't win the Cup, but just look at the Kings. Wait, no, don't look....

Granted, I don't know as much about Orpik than I do about B-Stu, but I watched every game of the Stanley Cup Finals and I liked what I saw. He got the work done every time he was out there, as much as he could while his team was being dominated by a superior Red Wings squad. He showed enough emotion to where I saw him almost crack a ridiculously frustrated smile on the ice. Character guy who is a difference-maker? Sign him up!

But how much is he worth? Last year he made $1.075 and turned 28. Of course he'd be getting a fatty pay raise, but how much would it take to lure him away from the east coast? $3 million? $4 million? If we were, by some miracle, able to get BOTH B-Stu and Orpik over to the sunny side of So Cal, how much could we spend on those two guys? Well, if we take away Lubo's $5.6 million cap hit and Blake's $6 million, I'd say we have enough leeway to at least garner a valid consideration, no? Let's just hope Blake re-signs (at that discounted rate) to try to lure some Dmen to WANT to come here and try to help make a change.

I now can see why and feel like the no-trade clause and the no-movement clause are handcuffs for both the organization and the player. If Lubo hadn't been traded, the clause would have kicked in on Tuesday and would have 100% committed both parties to this contract. With Dean Lombardi making this move, we free the Kings organization of a risky 5-year contract while getting two roster players who are younger than Lubo. I can't really comment on the two players we received since I don't follow the Oilers at all. Although I did get a funny text from Steph that wasn't actually supposed to be funny. It's hilarious how one misspelled word can change the context of an entire sentence:

"Greene's getting better as he gets older but he makes some stupid mistakes and turns the suck over a lot."

So I'm not sure what to expect from Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene. Although I DID get super excited when I read "Greene" because I thought, "What?!?! Mike... oh ... who's Matt?" In any case, I will greatly miss Lubo in LA, especially since I never got a chance to meet him. I know it's gonna be eff-ing cold in Edmonton, but he's Slovakian. I have no doubt he'll be fine in the snow up there. Kings fans will still see him 4 times next season, but I just hope he's not booed. That's so annoying when a player is traded (but doesn't ask for it) and then gets booed by the fans of the old team!

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Trade Day Reactions and Player Transactions

Kings trade defensemen Brad Stuart to the Detroit Red Wings for a 2008 2nd round pick and a 2009 4th round pick.

Gone, but not forgotten.

I am upset with the trading of Brad Stuart. I knew it was coming; it wasn't a surprise, but honestly, it hit me in the stomach like a sack of pucks. He had been doing well in recent games and has proven to me that he wasn't as terrible as he had been at the beginning of the season. There were many other players that I could have parted with without feeling any separation pangs (i.e. Brian Willsie, Kevin Dallman, Ladislav Nagy, Scott Thornton (but I'd keep him over the 3 others mentioned), and Michal Handzus (was anyone else aware that he got a no-trade clause when he signed with the Kings??). But I also understand that these players aren't attractive to GMs because they do not produce like other players (read: younger) on the team, which obviously means that they wouldn't bring us anything useful in return. Obviously Stuart was the man to go and take one for the team because he DID get us 2 picks. This still upsets me.

Brad, if you re-sign with the Kings for next year, that would make me smile on the inside and out. I hope to see your long bombs from the blueline and throw downs along the boards soon. But I'm glad you went to Detroit because now you have a chance to win big, and we all know the saying, "Go big or go home."

Update 02/28/08: Here is an article from the Detroit official site on Stuart's beginnings with the team.


Kings trade Jean-Sebastian Aubin to the Anaheim Ducks for a 2008 7th round pick.

This makes me laugh.


Kings assign Teddy Purcell to Manchester.

This makes me roll my eyes in disgust.

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Trade Watching...Contract Watching...

TRADE WATCH

Feb. 26

- Tampa Bay Lightening acquires Brandon Segal (F) and a 2008 7th round pick; Anaheim Ducks acquire Jay Leach (D). TSN.

- Nashville Predators acquire Brandon Bochenski (F); Anaheim Ducks acquire "future considerations." TSN.

- Nashville Predators acquire Jan Hlavac (F); Tampa Bay acquires a 2008 7th round pick. TSN.

- Atlanta Thrashers acquire Joe Motzko (F); Washington Capitals acquire Alex Giroux (F). TSN.

- Anaheim Ducks acquire Jean-Sebastian Aubin (G); Los Angeles Kings acquire a 2008 7th round pick. TSN.

- Anaheim Ducks acquire Marc-Andre Bergeron (D); New York Islanders acquire a 2008 3rd round pick. TSN.

- Florida Panthers acquire Chad Kilger (F); Toronto Maple leafs acquire a 2008 3rd round pick. TSN.

- New York Rangers acquire Fredrik Sjostrom (F), David Leneveu (G), Josh Gratton (F), and a 2009 conditional draft pick; Phoenix Coyotes acquire Marcel Hossa (F) and Al Montoya (G). TSN.

- Detroit Red Wings acquire Brad Stuart (D); Los Angeles Kings acquire a 2008 2nd round pick and a 2009 4th round pick. TSN.

- Minnesota Wild acquire Chris Simon (F); New York Islanders acquire a 2008 6th round pick. TSN.

- Pittsburgh Penguins acquire Marian Hossa (F) and Pascal DuPuis (F); Atlanta Thrashers acquire Angelo Esposito (F), Colby Armstrong (F), Erik Christensen (F), and a 2008 1st round pick. TSN.

- Pittsburgh Penguins acquire Hal Gill (D); Toronto Maple Leafs acquire a 2008 2nd round pick and a 2009 5th round pick. TSN.

- New York Rangers acquire Christian Backman (D); St. Louis Blues acquire a 2008 4th round pick. TSN.

- Vancouver Canucks acquire Matt Pettinger (F); Washington Capitals acquire Matt Cooke (F). TSN.

- New York Islanders acquire Rob Davison (D); San Jose Sharks acquire a 2008 7th round pick. TSN.

- Washington Capitals acquire Sergei Fedorov (F); Columbus Blue Jackets acquire Ted Ruth (D). TSN.

- Colorado Avalanche acquire Adam Foote (D); Columbus Blue Jackets acquire 2008/2009 conditional 1st round pick and 2009 4th round pick if Foote re-signs. TSN.

- Ottawa Senators acquire Martin Lapointe (F); Chicago Blackhawks acquire a 2008 6th round pick. TSN.

- Carolina Hurricanes acquire Tuomo Ruutu (F); Chicago Blackhawks acquire Andrew Ladd (F). TSN.

- Colorado Avalanche acquire Ruslan Salei (D); Florida Panthers acquire Karlis Skrastins (D) and 2008 3rd round pick. TSN.

- Washington Capitals acquire Cristobal Huet (G); Montreal Canadians acquire a 2009 2nd round pick. TSN.

- Dallas Stars acquire Brad Richards (F) and Johan Holmqvist (G); Tampa Bay Lightening acquire Mike Smith (G), Jussi Jokinen (F), Jeff Halpern (F), and a 2009 4th round pick. TSN.

- San Jose Sharks acquire Brian Campbell (D) and a 2008 7th round draft pick; Buffalo Sabres acquire Steve Bernier (F) and a 1st round draft pick. TSN.

- Florida Panthers acquire Wade Belak (F); Toronto Maple Leafs acquire a 2008 5th round draft pick. TSN.

- New Jersey Devils acquire Bryce Salvador (D); St. Louis Blues acquire Cam Janssen (F). TSN.

*New York Islanders' Mike Comrie (F) signs a 1-year, $4 million contract.

Feb. 25 - Philadelphia Flyers acquire Vaclav Prospal (F); Tampa Bay Lightening acquire Alexandre Picard and a conditional 2009 2nd or 3rd round draft pick. TSN.

* Tampa Bay Lightening's Dan Boyle (D) signed a 6-year, $40 million extension.
* St. Louis Blues' Barret Jackman (D) signed a 4-year, $14.4 million extension.
* Detroit Red Wings sign Darren McCarty (F) to a 1-year contract ($535,000 US & bonus).
* Colorado Avalanche sign Peter Forsberg (F) to a $5 million pro-rated contract until the end of the year ($1 million).

Feb. 23

* Minnesota Wild' Nick Shultz (D) signs a 6-year, $21 million extension.

Feb. 22

* New York Islanders' Trent Hunter (F) signs a 4-year, $10 million contract.
* Toronto Maple Leafs' Alex Steen (F) signs a 2-year, $3.4 million extension.

Feb. 20 - Calgary Flames acquire Jim Vandermeer (D); Philadelphia Flyers acquire a 3rd round pick for the 2009 Entry Draft. TSN.

Feb. 19 -Philadelphia Flyers acquire Jaroslav Modry (D); Los Angeles Kings acquire a 3rd round pick in the 2008 Entry Draft. TSN.

Feb. 11 - Ottawa Senators acquire Cory Stillman (F) and Mike Commodore (D); Carolina Hurricanes acquire Patrick Eaves (F) and Joe Corvo (D).

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