Barring any last minute visa issues, Dustin Penner is set to make his Los Angeles Kings debut tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes. Sure, the trade deadline was a huge letdown for TSN’s coverage hockey fans all over North America. Most teams chose to do their dealings in the weeks leading up to the deadline instead of the 11th hour. But for the Kings, they eventually got exactly what they needed and made the biggest splash on NHL’s Christmas Day.
The deal makes sense on multiple levels for the Kings. First and foremost, the team desperately needed to add a top 6 forward to help their goal-scoring woes. If they wanted to get picky, they’d preferably find a left wing that could score. If they wanted to get even pickier, they’d find a scoring left wing that had size to mesh with the rest of their team. So when they were able to acquire the big left wing in Edmonton with soft hands, it was like he was straight out of central casting.
There are plenty of reasons why the trade makes sense for the Kings beyond Penner’s style of play though. The Kings were able to acquire one of the major prizes on Deadline Day without giving up their prized prospect (Brayden Schenn) and also without giving up a player like Wayne Simmonds who is already playing a valuable role for the team.
Perhaps the best part for the Kings is he’s locked up for another season at a reasonable $4.5 million cap hit. By no means was this strictly a rental player acquired for 3 months. Dean Lombardi hit on the fact that he’s locked up for another year:
The Kings had the cap space and have a young team that is supposed to take the next step this year. Their recent 11-1-3 stretch (including 6-1-3 on a 10-game road trip) showed GM Dean Lombardi that this team could make waves if given a little help. After a quiet deadline last year and a failed Kovalchuk campaign in the offseason, Lombardi was finally able to bring in a piece to help the Kings try to get over the hump. Whether they are able to do it or not, we’ll soon find out.
With plenty of salary cap space, the green light from ownership to spend money, and a mandate from a starved fan base to do something, they acquired the best player on Deadline Day.
After his first day in Los Angeles, it’s apparent that both sides are happy with the deal. Here’s what Penner had to say about his new team:“Now, the team, as a whole, is physical, they’re really good defensively, they have a lot of key pieces to make a run. They’re well coached, they have great goaltending. I really like what I see here, as far as the big bodies cycling the puck, playing down low.”
“A lot of offense comes from second and third chances, not just the one-and-done [chances]. With the people we have here, the skill we have on the defensive side of the puck to get it out [of the defensive zone] and keep it in [the offensive zone], it should be good.”
“I can’t wait to get started. The first game is Thursday. It’s a tight race in the Western Conference, as everybody knows. [The Coyotes are] a team that’s in the hunt, too. It should be intense, and it’ll be fun to be on the other side of it.”
Only time will tell what the Edmonton Oilers got out of the deal—but this was a deal the Kings had to make at this point in time. Whether it was Penner, (now injured) ex-teammate Ales Hemsky, David Booth or some other player, it was imperative for management to pick someone up to give the Kings (and their fans) a shot in the arm for the stretch run. They may lose in the first round again and they may make noise in the Western Conference playoffs, but the results won’t change the fact that the Kings made the move they had to make.
Of course, it would help silence any potential critics if they won a round or two this spring.
