The Los Angeles Kings needed to get one of them. Jeff Carter or Rick Nash. GM Dean Lombardi didn't have a choice. Following another one-goal effort, the latest on Wednesday night against the Colorado Avalanche, the offensively deprived Kings dropped dangerously close to a spot outside the top eight in the Western Conference. Too close, apparently, for Lombardi.
On Thursday night, he swallowed hard and gave up the talented but enigmatic D Jack Johnson along with a conditional first-round pick for Carter, pending a physical. Mike Richards and Carter are reunited in ... let's call it Philadelphia West.
To read more on the impact of the trade deadline's first big move and get all the rumors on what could happen next, sign up for Insider today.
- Senior NHL writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Wrote for Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Wrote for The Sporting News
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Craig Custance
Craig Custance joined ESPN in September 2011 as an NHL reporter for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider and ESPN.com. A graduate of Michigan State University, he lived for nearly a decade in Georgia working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he spent time covering the late Atlanta Thrashers. He was the only Thrashers beat writer to get the team to the playoffs.
From 2008-11 he was the national hockey writer for the Sporting News, writing regularly in print and online. A member of the PHWA, he's a proud voter for the major NHL awards and can occasionally defend his selections.
Like hockey, he left Atlanta to return north where he currently lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with his wife Cassie and their three kids.
Follow Craig on Twitter: @CraigCustance
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