LA Kings involved in four player trade with Senators

In the midst of getting beat up for the second game in a row on their season-long seven-game road trip, the LA Kings made a trade to shore up the deficits in their play.

The LA Kings traded veteran forward and 2014 Stanley Cup Champion Marian Gaborik along with center Nick Shore to the Ottawa Senators. In return, the Kings received veteran defenseman Dion Phaneuf and veteran forward Nate Thompson.

The Kings trading Gaborik can be seen as a salary dump, but effectively Phaneuf’s contract has a higher salary cap hit at about 1.25 million more than Gaborik’s.

Phaneuf at 33 years of age has three years left on his contract but the cap hit decreases as the money owed to him is heavily front-loaded to the first years of the contract.

Gaborik becomes the 10th player from the Kings 2014 Stanley Cup team to depart. That year the Kings traded for Gaborik at the trade deadline looking for goal scoring.

Gaborik brought that and then some as the veteran forward sought to get to his first Stanley Cup Finals after making it to two Conference Finals in 2003 and 2012.

Gaborik led all players in goals scored that playoff year with 14 and came up with clutch moments throughout. Gaborik scored the biggest goal of the season in game seven of the Western Conference Finals, with the Kings down 4-3 in the third period against the Chicago Blackhawks Gaborik scores the game-tying goal saving the Kings season when they won the game in overtime.

Gaborik’s production has gone down since then either due to injury or age, the last two years Gaborik has not started the season due to injury.

With the emergence of rookie of Alex Lafello and Gaborik’s continued struggles, he became expendable.

More from LA Sports Hub

• Lakers: 5 Players to Target Through Trades to make another championship run
• LA Chargers: Week 8 against Denver Broncos is a must-win
• LA Rams: Jared Goff wants to keep the Los Angeles title streak going
• Lakers Rumors: Los Angeles Clippers interested in Rajon Rondo
• LA Chargers: Justin Herbert wins AFC Rookie of the Month

Another reason the Kings were willing to be a trade partner with Senators was due to their need for help on defense. Despite being among the league leaders in goals against, the Kings need for another top-four defenseman has been obvious lately as they’ve given up four or more goals three of their last six games.

Despite auditioning some young prospects the Kings front office felt in order to make the playoffs they needed more veteran leadership. Phaneuf is that veteran defensemen, in his 13th season he can help shore up some of the defensive limitations creeping up lately for the Kings.

Nate Thompson should be familiar to LA Kings fans, having spent the last three seasons with the Anaheim Ducks. This was his first season with the Senators and his game is more grinder than finesse, but he’s been winning faceoffs 56% of the time something the Kings struggle at as they are under 50% for the season.

Nick Shore going to Senators makes sense, Shore was likely going to see reduced playing time with the return of Jeff Carter. Shore will likely get consistent playing time with the Senators a team looking to rebuild.

It remains to be seen if the Kings will make more moves before the NHL trade deadline ends, but with such a tight playoff race in the Pacific Division, the LA Kings could not afford to stand pat on upgrading their defense.

Next: Former LA Kings in the Olympics

With a solid core with playoff experience adding Phaneuf might be enough to keep them in playoff contention.