By Gann Matsuda

LOS ANGELES -- After Saturday's 6-5 shootout win over the Colorado Avalanche, the mood in the Los Angeles Kings' dressing room was upbeat after the Kings stole two points in a game they had no business winning.

But for some of the veteran players, their minds could not have been focused only on the game because they knew that the National Hockey League trade deadline was just a few days away, and that they could be headed to a new team.

"When your team's in the position we are, we know pretty much that anyone's available, and they are going to be moving," said Kings defenseman Rob Blake. "We understand that. But there's nothing you can do and it's our own fault for putting ourselves in this position."

Even Blake was subject to trade rumors that had him waiving his no- trade clause, rumors that were flatly denied by Blake and Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi.

"My decision was made on July 1 to come here and I haven't been approached [about being traded]," said Blake.

With the rumors swirling around Blake put to rest, by Monday, Lombardi continued the house-cleaning he begin weeks ago when he dealt forwards Craig Conroy and Sean Avery by trading away more veteran players while stockpiling draft picks and young prospects as he works to rebuild the Kings from the ground up.

SOPEL RETURNS HOME

On February 26, the Kings sent defenseman Brent Sopel to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a second round pick in either the 2007 or 2008 National Hockey League Entry Draft, and a fourth round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Hockeytalk.biz has confirmed that the Kings have the option to choose the second round pick in 2007 or in 2008, and if they decide to take the 2007 pick, it will be Vancouver's own pick, or the pick the Canucks received from the Anaheim Ducks in an earlier deal.

Sopel, 30, has four goals and 19 assists for 23 points in 44 games with the Kings this season.

In 414 career NHL games with the Kings, New York Islanders and Canucks, he has 38 goals and 138 assists for 176 points with 213 penalty minutes.

The 6-2, 205-pound native of Calgary, Alberta was acquired by the Kings on March 8, 2006 from the Islanders along with winger Mark Parrish in exchange for forward prospect Jeff Tambellini and defenseman prospect Denis Grebeshkov.

Sopel was selected by the Canucks in the sixth round (144th overall) of the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. He will earn $2.4 million this season, and will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2007.

After dealing the 30-year-old Sopel the day before, the Kings sent 35- year-old defenseman Mattias Norstrom, along with forward prospect Konstantin Pushkarev and third and fourth round picks in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft to the Dallas Stars in exchange for veteran defenseman Jaroslav Modry, defenseman prospect Johan Fransson, a first round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and second and third round picks in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.

Norstrom, the 12th captain in Kings franchise history, has two goals and seven assists for nine points with 40 penalty minutes this season.

The 6-2, 210-pound native of Stockholm, Sweden has played in 823 career regular season NHL games with the Kings and Rangers, scoring 16 goals with 133 assists for 149 points while racking up 613 penalty minutes. He has been the Kings' team captain since the 2001-02 season.

The Kings acquired the stalwart blue liner on March 14, 1996 from the New York Rangers in a trade that many believe to be one of the best in Kings franchise history.

Norstrom was dealt to the Kings along with forwards Ian Laperriere, Ray Ferraro, Nathan Lafayette and a fourth round pick (Sean Blanchard) in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft in exchange for Marty McSorley, Jari Kurri and Shane Churla, a deal that was engineered by former Kings general manager Sam McMaster.

Norstrom was selected by the Rangers in the second round (48th overall) of the 1992 NHL Entry Draft.

Norstrom was always a solid player, a class act and a good leader for the Kings. But Lombardi saw an opportunity in dealing his team captain.

"Like with most trades, this was a very difficult decision to make," said Lombardi. "Matty has been a tremendous player for this club for a number of a years and he has been a very respected captain as well."

"The ability, however, to get two high draft picks will be of great benefit for our organization as we move forward and help build our reserve list and team."

Norstrom will earn $4.25 million this season, and has one more year on his contract.

Pushkarev, 22, was selected by the Kings in the second round (44th overall) of the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. In 16 games with the Kings this season, he scored two goals and added two assists for four points.

In 35 games with the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League (Kings' primary minor league affiliate) this season, the 6-0, 180-pound native of Ust Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan has four goals with 11 assists for 15 points and 29 penalty minutes.

Modry has a goal and nine assists for ten points in 57 games with the Stars this season. The 6-2, 220-pound native of Ceske-Budejovice, Czech Republic played for the Kings from the 1995-96 season through the 2003-04 season and was an All-Star in 2002.

In 626 NHL regular season games with the Kings, Stars, Atlanta Thrashers, Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils, the 36-year-old blue liner has 48 goals and 185 assists for 233 points with 438 penalty minutes.

In 19 NHL playoff games, Modry has a goal and two assists.

Fransson, 22, has played in six games this season with Assat Pori of the Finnish National Hockey League this season, contributing an assist.

The left-shooting defenseman was selected in the second round (34th overall) by the Stars in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.

Over the last four seasons, the 6-1, 183-pound native of Kalix, Sweden played in 140 games with Lulea HF of the Swedish Elite League, scoring seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points with 132 penalty minutes. In 2005-2006, he played in 50 games with Lulea, scoring three goals and five assists for eight points with 74 penalty minutes.

Fransson also played for Sweden at the 2005 and 2006 World Junior Championships.

Fransson is reported to be an offensive defenseman and a good skater who was developing slower than expected, but has made significant strides in his development this season.

Fransson could turn out to be the key to this deal for the Kings. If he develops as hoped, the Kings would have an impact player on their blue line in a couple of years.

In two minor trades, the Kings dealt winger Jason Ward to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for a fifth round pick in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft, and they acquired defenseman Jamie Heward from the Washington Capitals in exchange for a conditional fifth round pick in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

Ward, 28, was acquired by the Kings from the Rangers on February 5 in the trade that sent Avery and prospect John Seymour to the Big Apple in exchange for Ward, prospects Marc-Andre Cliche and Jan Marek.

In seven games with the Kings, Ward had one assist and four penalty minutes.

Heward, 35, has played in 52 games this season with the Capitals, scoring four goals with twelve assists for 16 points with 27 penalty minutes.

In 362 career NHL games with the Capitals, Columbus Blue Jackets, New York Islanders, Nashville Predators and Toronto Maple Leafs, the 6-2, 198-pound native of Regina, Saskatchewan has 36 goals and 78 assists for 114 points with 197 penalty minutes.

Heward, who will earn $675,000 this season, will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2007. Hockeytalk.biz has confirmed that if the Kings do not sign him to a new contract, the Capitals will not get the fifth round pick in the 2008 draft.

On February 24, the Kings assigned veteran defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky to the Manchester Monarchs after he cleared waivers at noon PST that same day.

Tverdovsky, 30, was acquired by the Kings on September 29, 2006 from the Carolina Hurricanes, along with the rights to highly-coveted defenseman prospect Jack Johnson, in exchange for center Eric Belanger and defenseman Tim Gleason.

Tverdovsky quickly fell out of favor with Kings head coach Marc Crawford.

This season, the 6-0, 185-pound native of Donetsk, Ukraine, played in just 26 games for the Kings, contributing four assists with ten penalty minutes.

Why did Tverdovsky fall out of favor with Crawford and the Kings? The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back may have come on January 18 when the St. Louis Blues defeated the Kings at Staples Center, 3-1.

Just after the midway point of the first period, Tverdovsky went behind the Kings net after a loose puck. Blues forward Dallas Drake was coming in with a full head of steam and apparently fearing that he was about to be pounded into the end boards, Tverdovsky threw a blind pass right to Blues forward David Backes in the right corner. Backes passed to line mate Jay McClement in the slot, and he got off a weak backhand that was deflected by Drake in front, beating Kings goalie Barry Brust between his leg pads.

On the play, it was blatantly obvious that Tverdovsky coughed up the puck because he did not want to get hit, and it was probably this kind of selfish play and poor attitude that has likely ended his NHL career on a sour note.

After watching Tverdovsky pretty much just go through the motions during his brief time with the Kings, and especially after witnessing that particular play back in January, all this reporter can say is good riddance! His poor attitude was not something a team rebuilding with youth wants or should have around their dressing room.

Now if only the Kings can get him off the Monarchs roster so he can't pollute the minds of their young prospects...

Rookie winger John Zeiler has certainly made a very quick ascent to the NHL this season.

In 52 games with the Monarchs this season, Zeiler, known as a checking forward, scored eleven goals and added 16 assists for 27 points with 68 penalty minutes and a +16 plus/minus rating.

Zeiler signed a one-year deal with the Monarchs as a free agent on September 19, 2006.

Being in a checking role, no one, including Zeiler himself, was expecting him to make it to the NHL this season. But his play at Manchester impressed the Kings, and they him signed to a one-year contract on February 17, and called him up to the big club that same day.

"We were on a road trip at Rochester, New York," Zeiler explained. "We played there and after the game, [Monarchs Director of Hockey Operations] Hubie McDonough let me know he wanted to meet with me. He said, 'LA is sending over a contract, they want you to sign and they want to call you up to LA.'"

"I was real emotional," Zeiler added. "It was one of the best days of my life. I'm very happy and now I'm trying to take advantage of the opportunity."

Indeed. Zeiler has quickly made his mark at the NHL level, throwing his weight around with solid body checks on virtually every shift.

"Energy, going hard all the time, winning battles, first guy on the puck, getting to the net, scoring the dirty goals," said Zeiler while describing his game. "Just sacrificing my body and hopefully, setting up other guys and opening the ice up for other guys to take the puck and get to the net."

And to top it all off, he scored his first NHL goal and point in just his third NHL game, when the Canucks stole a 3-2 win from the Kings on February 22 at Staples Center behind the hot goaltending of Roberto Luongo.

"It was one of the best feelings ever," Zeiler said about scoring his first goal in the NHL. "My whole family's back home watching, and I'm sure they're real happy. I never knew when the first one was going to come. I didn't know if it was going to come before anything happened. Getting it was just a feeling I can't explain."

"I probably have one hundred text messages and voicemails right now. I'm sure I'll be on the phone with them."

Zeiler converted a two-on-two rush, taking a feed from line mate Tom Kostopoulos at 10:00 of the first period.

"It was great to see him score a goal against one of the top goaltenders in the league," said Crawford. "It was a great play by [Kings winger Tom] Kostopoulos to get it back to him."

Kings Notes, Feb 21, 2007

Kings Notes, Feb 5, 2007
plus - Fire Sale Continues: Sean Avery Traded to Rangers

From Kings' press releases: