Column: After trading away Jonathan Quick, Kings make more deals ahead of trade deadline
After making a splash earlier this week by trading goaltender Jonathan Quick to Columbus (and watching him move on to Vegas), the Kings completed only a couple of low-impact deals before the NHL trade deadline passed Friday with little fuss and few big names changing uniforms.
The Ducks, who sit near the bottom in the West, continued their rebuilding process by trading defenseman John Klingberg to Minnesota and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to Pittsburgh.
The Kings basically were set after addressing their biggest problems by acquiring goalie Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov from Columbus, a trade that was announced Wednesday.
Jonathan Quick led the Kings to two Stanley Cup championships, but for them to contend again the front office needed to make changes.
So many prominent moves were made in the days leading up to the deadline — including Jakob Chychrun being traded from Arizona to Ottawa and Patrick Kane moving from Chicago to the New York Rangers — that deadline day was unusually quiet.
The Kings traded pugnacious but little-used forward Brendan Lemieux and a 2024 fifth-round draft pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for forward Zach MacEwen. And, in an exchange of minor league players, they acquired forward Nate Schnarr from the Montreal Canadiens for defenseman Frederic Allard.
They also traded minor league forward Austin Wagner to the Blackhawks for future considerations.
The Ducks received left wing Brock McGinn and a 2024 third-round draft pick from the Penguins for Kulikov. They retained 50% of Kulikov’s salary.
A day after being traded from the Kings to Columbus, Jonathan Quick is flipped to the Vegas Golden Knights, who are battling L.A. for first place.
For Klingberg, who had signed a one-year deal with the Ducks as a free agent last summer but hurt his trade value with his poor defensive play on a terrible defensive team, the Ducks acquired from Minnesota a fourth-round draft pick in 2025, Boston College center Nikita Nesterenko, and defenseman Andrej Sustr. The Ducks retained 50% of Klingberg’s salary in the deal.
The Ducks also acquired defenseman Chase Priskie from Buffalo for defenseman Austin Strand.
The deadline was noon Pacific time Friday. The NHL said 21 trades involving 34 players were made Friday.
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