The Ducks proved they are all-in for a push to their first playoff berth in eight years by acquiring defenseman John Carlson ahead of Friday’s NHL trade deadline. The Kings, meanwhile, started building for the future, making acquisitions and trades to address their depth and bolster their number of draft picks.
The Ducks (34-24-3), who entered Friday second in the Pacific Division, just a point behind Vegas, haven’t had a winning record since 2018. But general manager Pat Verbeek signaled the team’s long rebuild is over, trading first- and third-round draft picks — the kind of picks he has long hoarded — to Washington late Thursday for Carlson, 36, an offense-minded blue liner who led the Caps with 36 assists and is the franchise’s all-time leading defenseman scorer.
“What we’ve been doing the last three years is adding assets,” Verbeek said. “I looked at giving this group another extra push and helping us make this push to where we want to go. And so ultimately if we get into the playoffs and we can have a nice run, it’s worth it. It’s worth it to give this group experience, give them a chance to make the playoffs and to do well in the playoffs.
“I think we have enough draft picks. We have enough prospects coming. Is it worth it to give up a conditional first-rounder? Yes it is to get the quality of player [like] John Carlson, it made sense.”
The move could prove to be a gamble, though, since Carlson, in the final year of his contract, may be nothing more than a short-term rental. Verbeek said he didn’t start talking to Washington about a deal until this week but the negotiations progressed quickly. Carlson said he was asleep when he was traded but a cousin heard about it and called to tell him he was headed to Anaheim.
“The middle of the night is not the best way to find out some very altering news like that,” said Carlson, who is expected to join the team Saturday. “It’s been a crazy day packing, getting ready, saying good-byes. It’s getting more and more exciting.”
In addition to adding Carlson, the Ducks also sent center Ryan Strome to Calgary. Strome, 32, had three goals and six assists in 33 games with the Ducks this season. The Ducks will get a seventh-round pick in 2027 in return.
The Kings didn’t make any moves to substantially improve their roster. Although they signed forward Mathieu Joseph, a Stanley Cup winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and acquired center Scott Laughton from the Toronto Maple Leafs, they also unloaded forwards Corey Perry and Warren Foegele in exchange for draft picks.
Joseph, 29, comes to L.A. after recording two goals and 11 points in 39 games with the St. Louis Blues before agreeing to have his contract terminated Thursday. He had been assigned to Springfield of the AHL, where he appeared in two games.
Laughton, 31, had eight goals and four assists for Toronto and joins the Kings as a depth piece following the losses of Perry and Foegele. In return, the Maple Leafs will get a third-round pick, which will become a second-round pick if the Kings make the playoffs.
For the Kings, the trade deadline came down to asset management: The contracts of Joseph and Laughton expire at the end of the season while the Foegele deal clears $3.5 million from the payroll next season. The team also protected its young talent while adding two draft picks.
Perry, 40, the former Ducks winger who signed with the Kings as a free agent last summer, went to Tampa Bay on Friday in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2028 draft while Foegele, 29, the third King to request a trade this season, was shipped to Ottawa on Thursday for a second-round pick in this summer’s draft and a conditional swap of third-round picks.
The Kings (25-22-14), who lost to Edmonton in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, started Friday sixth in the eight-team Pacific Division but just three points behind Seattle for a wild-card berth.
General manager Ken Holland made a splash just ahead of the 18-day Olympic break by acquiring forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers and signing him to a two-year $22-million extension. But then the team lost Kevin Fiala for the rest of the season to a fractured leg in the Olympic tournament and saw winger Andrei Kuzmenko undergo surgery last week to repair torn meniscus in his right knee, hampering an offense that ranks 28th in the 32-team league in goals.
Holland followed those two events by firing coach Jim Hiller last Sunday and replacing him on an interim basis with assistant D.J. Smith. The Kings have gone through five coaches and three general managers since the end of the 2016-17 season and haven’t won a postseason series since 2014, the last time they won the Stanley Cup.
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