LOS ANGELES — Rob Blake solved his goaltending problem and shipped away one of the worst moves of his seven-year tenure as the Los Angeles Kings vice president and general manager.
Blake and the Kings acquired goaltender Darcy Kuemper from the Washington Capitals for forward Pierre-Luc Dubois in a trade of high-priced, underachieving players.
“I don’t think I did a good enough job integrating him in the right roles on the team I think it wasn’t a great fit in that aspect for us, and we take responsibility for that,” Blake said to reporters a couple of hours after the trade was announced.
Kuemper was the second goaltender to be traded after the New Jersey Devils got Jacob Markstrom from Calgary.
Los Angeles didn’t have a lot of cap room going into the offseason after it acquired Dubois from Winnipeg and signed him to an eight-year, $68 million contract last season. The center struggled and had career lows for a full season in goals (16) and points (40).
Dubois, who turns 26, was relegated to the Kings’ fourth line in the playoffs, when they lost in five games in the first round to eventual Western Conference champion Edmonton.
Blake and the Kings though were running out of time to make a decision on Dubois’ future. The league’s contract buyout period is 48 hours after the last game of the Stanley Cup Final. If Florida beats Edmonton, Dubois’ buyout would have been one-third of his remaining base salary since he would have still been 25 years old.
If the series went the distance and ended on Monday, the buyout would have gone to two-thirds since he turns 26 on June 24.
Dubois also had a no-trade clause that would have kicked in on July 1.
Blake said a buyout was not an option and cited that timing was of the essence to get a deal done with the Capitals. The teams started discussing the trade during last week’s NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo.
Los Angeles, which hasn’t won a playoff series since winning its second Stanley Cup title in three years in 2014, was in the market for a goaltender. Before acquiring Kuemper, David Rittich was the Kings only goaltender under contract for next season.
Kuemper, who has three seasons remaining on a five-year $26.25 million contract he signed with Washington in 2022, ended up being the backup to Charlie Lindgren when the Capitals were swept in four games in the first round by the New York Rangers.
The 34-year old Kuemper appeared in 33 games with 30 starts for Washington last season. He was…