Breaking Down the Latest Kings-Devils Trade Rumors

If you have been paying attention to the hockey trade rumor world lately, there have been some interesting surges in the Kings and the Devils talking deals.

First of all, yes, the Kings have had scouts at the Devils/Sabres game, and the Bruins/Devils game. The Kings have already played the Devils twice this season and won't meet them again.

But before you read into that, scouts go to a lot of games, and you never hear about it and nothing comes of it. Also, the Kings minor affiliate, Manchester, is semi-close to both Boston and Buffalo. Maybe they wanted to catch a game, who knows.

Obviously the idea of getting Parise is the first thing that flies into a Kings fan's mind, and the more insane one probably goes to Kovalchuk.

Let's break this down a little bit though, shall we?

What do the Kings lack?

Bottom six offense, and skilled forward depth.

What does New Jersey lack?

Scoring, defensive depth and goaltending depth.

So obviously, I think we can rule out Parise, and Kovalchuk—I am sorry to burst your bubble, fan who is still living in the 2010 off season.

Both teams lack offense, so trading Parise doesn't make a whole lot of sense for NJ, nor does it make a lot of sense for L.A., seeing as they would probably have to give up a lot of NHL ready players, and that wouldn't exactly help them either.



If you look at this from the Kings point of view, you're targeting bottom-six or young forwards.

Ergo: Zubrus, Clarkson, Zharkov, Tedenby, Josefson, Henrique.

Considering that Clarkson and Zubrus are two guys that are actually producing on a low scoring team, I don't see them leaving unless an NHL ready forward is coming back (Penner?). The same goes for Henrique, he is too valuable.

The Kings also really don't need a player like Clarkson or Zubrus, considering they have a slew of players somewhat si...

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