All Quiet on the Kings Front

Free agency started earlier this afternoon, and the Kings had been linked to a number of players. So far, however, it's been a relatively quiet day for the Kings. They are rumored to have made an offer to winger Marian Gaborik, and word is they were interested in winger Martin Havlat. For the time being, both players remained unsigned.

Meanwhile, there were some other big free agent signings today. Among others, Marian Hossa inked a 12-year deal with Chicago. Nikolai Khabibulin signed a four-year deal with Edmonton. Former King Michael Cammalleri signed with Montreal for five years. Defenseman Mike Komisarek is headed to Toronto for the next five years. The Sedin twins re-upped in Vancouver for five years, as well.

For a complete list of who went where, TSN has a free agent tracker up and running.

Yesterday, Jay Bouwmeester, whose rights were traded to Calgary on draft day by Florida, signed for five years with the Flames. The Rangers traded Chris Gomez to the Canadiens for Chris Higgins as part of a six-player deal. And the Oilers and Senators agreed in principle on a deal that would send disgruntled forward Dany Heatley from Ottawa to Edmonton, pending Heatley's approval as he has a no-trade clause. So far, the deal is still waiting a decision from Heatley.

Rumors Galore!

For over a month, we've all been wondering how long it would be before the Kings hired a new head coach, and who it might be. In the last few days, the Kings had narrowed down their search and last night it became more and more clear who that person might be. As of right now, nothing is official, but it appears former Washington-Philly-Florida head coach Terry Murray, brother of Ottawa's GM Bryan Murray (and still no relation to former Kings and now St. Louis head coach Andy Murray), will be named new head coach of the Kings, barring any veto from ownership. The deal is expected to be for three years.

I personally don't know much about Murray other than he led the Flyers to Cup Finals in 1997, and he has strong connections to Kings GM Dean Lombardi and Asst. GM Ron Hextall, who played for Murray in that 1997 Finals.

Said Lombardi as quoted in today's L.A. Times: "He's a detail guy, a good teacher, not going to play mind games. He'll tell it straight to your face." Maybe just what the young Kings need.

**********
And speaking of Ottawa... now for the biggie!

According to Don Brennan of the Ottawa Sun today, a blockbuster three-way deal involving the Kings, Ottawa and Chicago is in the works centering around Chicago net-minder Nikolai Khabibulin. The report suggests Ottawa would send goalie Martin Gerber and defenseman Andrej Meszaros to the Kings, who would then ship forward Anze Kopitar to Chicago, who would send Khabibulin and either defensemen Brent Seabrook or Cam Barker to Ottawa.

Now just looking at this makes me laugh because there is no way Lombardi would send Kopitar in any deal of this kind for a one-year rental goalie. It just doesn't make any sense what-so-ever. And apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks this rumor is ludicrous.

For one, Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo's Puck Daddy Blog thinks the rumored deal is outrageously hilarious. And according to two bloggers at Hockeybuzz.com with key sources, Kopitar isn't even being mentioned by anyone involved in negotiating the deal. In fact, some are suggesting the Kings really don't need to be involved at all in this. In any case, these are the latest names being heard around Hockeybuzz.com:

Sens would get Khabibulin, Barker and Sharp.
Kings would get Gerber, Seabrook and Chris Neil or Antoinne Vermette.
Chicago would get Erik Ersberg, Tom Preissing, Patrick O'Sullivan and ether Neil or Vermette.

This one seems to have a little more fruition to it, but I still don't see the Kings making this deal with even O'Sullivan involved.

And of course, then there is this... a cliffhanger from some unreliable Senators fan with his own blog who claims to have inside sources from outside the "circle"?

This is getting very juicy and kinky all at the same time! Stay tuned...