Kings trade Quick to Blue Jackets for Gavrikov, Korpisalo

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LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings achieved their goal of adding a quality defenseman near the trade deadline. It came with a heavy cost.

The Kings acquired defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and goaltender Joonas Korpisalo in a trade with Columbus Blue Jackets. In return, Los Angeles sent two-time Stanley Cup winning goaltender Jonathan Quick, a conditional 2023 first-round draft pick and a third-rounder in 2024.

“The team’s performance over the last month put us in position that we felt as a staff we needed to go out and address needs that we had identified previously to help this team continue to push for the playoffs,” Kings vice president and general manager Rob Blake said during a conference call on Wednesday.

Los Angeles is tied with Vegas for most points in the Pacific Division with 76. The Kings got to the playoffs last season for the first time since 2018 but lost in seven games to Edmonton in the first round. They have not won a postseason series since winning the Cup in 2014.

The first-rounder is conditional on the Kings making the playoffs, as expected. If they do not, Columbus – which has a league-low 46 points – gets a second-round pick from L.A. each of the next two drafts as part of the trade completed late Tuesday night and announced Wednesday.

Quick found out about the trade in a phone call from Blake after Tuesday night’s 6-5 shootout victory over the Winnipeg Jets. Blake was not with the team during the five-game road trip.

“There was shock and disappointment,” Blake said. “The setting wasn’t perfect because of the time. That was not an easy decision and I’ll reiterate how important he (Quick) is to the franchise and the organization.”

Blake added that he talked to captain Anze Kopitar and defenseman Drew Doughty after his call with Quick to let them what happened.

Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said they had tried to reach an extension with Gavrikov, but were unable to come to terms. Korpisalo was also in the final season of his contract.

“Both of them are pending unrestricted free agents and where we are in our process and in the season right now, we felt that it was a necessary move for our future,” Kekalainen said.

Quick backstopped the Kings to their Cup titles in 2012 and ’14. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2012 after recording three shutouts in 20 starts. He also allowed only seven goals in the six-game finals victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Quick is in the final season of a 10-year, $58 million contract but had been supplanted as the Kings No. 1 goaltender by Pheonix Copley. It’s unclear if Columbus will keep Quick or flip him to a contender before the trade deadline Friday.

The 37-year old Quick had started three of the last six games. He made 16 saves in last Friday’s 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders to pick up his 370th career win, which surpassed Tom Barrasso for third place on the wins list by a U.S.-born goaltender in NHL history.

He is 11-13-4 on the season with a 3.50 goals-against average, .876 save percentage and one shutout.

Quick – a third-round pick by the Kings in 2005 – also holds the franchise records for goalies in games played (743) and shutouts (57).

Gavrikov and Korpisalo are expected to arrive in Los Angeles before Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.

Quick is remaining in Los Angeles, since there is a possibility he could be moved again before Friday’s trade deadline.

Gavrikov has three goals and seven assists in 52 games, but has not played since Feb. 11. He was expected to be dealt last week to the Boston Bruins before that fell through.

Gavrikov was among Columbus’ leaders in ice time. He also is a left-handed shooter and a quality penalty killer, which are two areas where the Kings have been lacking.

“I think he fits the mold of a bigger player who is very solid defensively, can play a lot of minutes, can penalty kill and check top players,” Blake said.

Korpisalo had won three of his last four starts along with posting a .921 save percentage. He made nine starts for the Blue Jackets during the 2020 playoffs.

Copley is 18-4-2 since making his debut on Dec. 6. The wins are tied with Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy for the most during that span, but Copley’s .899 save percentage is 24th among 31 goalies who have played 18 or more games over the past three-plus months.

Korpisalo’s .915 save percentage since early December is ranked 11th. His overall record this season is 11-11-3 with a 3.17 goals-against average and .913 save percentage.

Quick’s trade leaves Kopitar and Doughty as the only remaining players from the Kings’ Cup-winning teams.

Dustin Brown has No. 23 retired, statue unveiled

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LOS ANGELES — Dustin Brown admitted to being uncomfortable when Luc Robitaille first told him that the Los Angeles Kings were not only going to retire Brown’s number, but also immortalize him with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena.

As the ceremony got closer, the former longtime Kings captain was able to let it all sink in.

Brown not only had his No. 23 retired before Los Angeles’ game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but a statue of him holding up the Stanley Cup was unveiled before faceoff.

Brown joins Robitaille and Wayne Gretzky as former Kings to have statues outside the downtown LA arena.

“I’ll touch on what Luc told me, which made me feel better. Because I said `Luke, you’re you and I mean Wayne is Wayne.’ But he told me `You did something we never did’ and that made me immediately feel better about the whole situation,” Brown said during first intermission.

Brown played 18 seasons with the Kings before retiring at the end of last season. He holds the franchise record for games played (1,296). He was the 13th overall pick in the 2003 NHL draft and made his debut against Detroit on Oct. 9, 2003.

In 2007 he was named the youngest and first American-born captain in franchise history at 23 years old. He was the captain for eight seasons, including when the Kings won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and ’14.

“Throughout my 18 years, I experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. C or no C I always wanted to retire a King,” Brown said during the one-hour ceremony. “Seeing my jersey raised to the rafters, my only hope is that in the future when you look up and see it hanging there, you think not about my achievements but our achievements.”

Brown – who grew up in Ithaca, New York- is the seventh player in the franchise’s 55 seasons to have his number retired. He joins Rob Blake (No. 4), Marcel Dionne (No. 16), Dave Taylor (No. 18), Robitaille (No. 20), Rogie Vachon (No. 30) and Gretzky (No. 99).

Before the ceremony began, Brown led the current Kings team onto the ice, where they took their place on stage. The ceremony ended with Brown lifting the Stanley Cup in the same spot he did in 2012 when Los Angeles defeated the New Jersey Devils in six games for its first championship.

“Shortly after being drafted, Dustin said he wanted to be the first King to lift the Stanley Cup. Where else but LA could a script like that happen?” said Rob Scuderi, who played on the Kings with Brown for five seasons.

Brown is sixth in franchise history in goals (325), seventh in points (712), and eighth in assists (387).

“I don’t like the attention, but I’m proud of everything,” Brown said. “I got to share it with a lot of important people in my life, so that’s the main thing. It seemed to go smoothly from my perspective.”

Kings sign goaltender Pheonix Copley to 1-year extension

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LOS ANGELES — Goaltender Pheonix Copley signed a one-year extension with the Los Angeles Kings worth $1.5 million.

Copley’s 15 wins since making his Kings debut on Dec. 6 at Ottawa are the most in the league over the past two months. He is 15-3-1 with a 2.92 goals-against average and .897 save percentage in 20 games this season.

Copley, who has won three of his last four starts, has emerged as Los Angeles’ top goaltender and has started 20 of the Kings’ 26 games since being called up. He set a career high with 45 saves on 48 shots faced in a 4-3 win over Florida on Jan. 24.

Copley began the year in the American Hockey League with the Ontario Reign and posted a 6-4-1 mark in 11 starts. He was promoted when Cal Petersen struggled the first two months before being placed on waivers and sent down to Ontario.

Petersen and Jonathan Quick were splitting time in net.

This is Copley’s ninth professional season. He spent time with Washington and St. Louis before signing with the Kings last year.

Kings sign SoCal native Moore to 5-year, $21M extension

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Kings forward Trevor Moore agreed to a five-year contract extension worth $21 million on Thursday.

Moore, a Southern California native acquired in a trade with Toronto in February 2020, is now under contract through the 2027-28 season.

The 27-year-old Moore has seven goals and 11 assists while appearing in all 32 games this season for Los Angeles, which began the day in third place in the Western Conference.

Moore, who grew up in Thousand Oaks, has 107 career points in parts of five NHL seasons with the Kings and the Maple Leafs. Toronto signed him as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Denver in July 2016.

Moore has grown into a key two-way player for the Kings, who ended a three-season playoff drought last spring.

Moore would have been an unrestricted free agent next summer after making $1.875 million this season.

Maple Leafs forward Pierre Engvall suspended for one game

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NEW YORK — Toronto Maple Leafs forward Pierre Engvall was suspended for a game without pay by the NHL on Friday for high-sticking Los Angeles Kings defenseman Sean Durzi.

The incident took place early in the third period Thursday night in Toronto’s 5-0 home victory. Engvall was given a game misconduct after striking Durzi in the back of the head as the two players got tangled up near cenrer ice.

The suspension will cost Engvall $12,162. The 6-foot-5 Swede has four goals and three assists in 27 games this season.