After impressing earlier this week by trading goaltender Jonathan Quick to Columbus (and watching him leave for Vegas), the Kings closed just a few low-impact deals before the NHL trade deadline passed on Friday with little fuss and some big names that changed. uniforms.
Sitting at the bottom of the west, the Ducks continued their rebuilding process by trading defenseman John Klingberg to Minnesota and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov to Pittsburgh.
The Kings were basically done after addressing their biggest problems by acquiring goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov from Columbus, a trade announced Wednesday.
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 combative but underused 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 bought 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 lefty Brock McGinn and a 2024 third-round pick from the Penguins for Kulikov. They kept 50% of Kulikov’s salary.
For Klingberg, who had signed a one-year contract with the Ducks as a free agent last summer but had his commercial value damaged by his poor defensive play against a terrible defensive team, the Minnesota Ducks secured a fourth-round draft pick in 2025, Boston College center Nikita Nesterenko and defender Andrej Suster. The Ducks kept 50% of Klingberg’s salary in the deal.
The Ducks also purchased defenseman Chase Priskie from Buffalo for defenseman Austin Strand.
The deadline was Friday afternoon Pacific time. The NHL said 21 trades involving 34 players were made on Friday.
