NHL Trade: Canadiens acquire Dwight King from Kings

The Montreal Canadiens continue to make deadline moves, as they’ve acquired Dwight King from the Los Angeles Kings. 

As always, the Montreal Canadiens have been quite active at the NHL trade deadline. They’ve already acquired a number of defensemen while shipping out some surplus players. However, now they’re starting to acquire some forward depth. Just a few hours after adding Steve Ott, the Canadiens have added Dwight King from the Los Angeles Kings. In exchange, Montreal will send a 2018 conditional fourth round pick to the Kings.

"King, 27, participated in 63 games thus far this season with the Kings. He recorded 15 points (8 goals, 7 assists) and served 10 penalty minutes. King has averaged 14 minutes of ice time per game this year and amassed 96 hits."

This is a typical Canadiens move. However, that doesn’t make it a good one. Montreal has enough depth forwards they can call up. Acquiring guys who don’t bring much to the table makes little sense. If anything, the Canadiens need to add some more guys who can score. Their offense has been slumping for quite some time. Here are the conditions of the draft pick. At best, it’s a third round pick.

King’s a big forward, standing at 6’4″ and 229 pounds. He’s a huge net front presence who can play solid defense. However, King doesn’t bring much to the table on offense. He has just 15 points this season and his career high in points is 30. King should fit in on Montreal’s checking line. The only problem is Montreal has enough players like him that this move doesn’t make much sense.

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Why not go after Thomas Vanek, who the Canadiens are already familiar with? He went for a third round pick and a depth defenseman. Radim Vrbata would have made sense. But King just adds to an already cluttered bottom six forward group.