As John Hoven and Elliotte Friedman have reported on Twitter, the Los Angeles Kings have reached a deal with the Carolina Hurricanes for defender Andrej Sekera.
In exchange for Sekera, the Kings will send Roland McKeown and a conditional first round draft pick to Carolina.
Andrej Sekera is a 6’0″, 200-pound defenseman out of Slovakia. He has spent most of his career playing for the Buffalo Sabres before transitioning to the Carolina Hurricanes for the 2013/14 season.
Sekera has so far shown himself to be an adequate second-tier offensive defenseman in his career. Last season, he set a career high in goals, assists, and points, (11, 33, and 44 respectively), but has come back down down to ground a bit this season. He has still been productive, notching 19 points in 57 games, but likely won’t match his 2013/14 totals going forward.
Most importantly, Sekera has been excellent at driving possession for the Hurricanes. He boasts a 53% corsi this season, and his corsi rel is 3rd-best among Carolina’s defenders at +2.4%. Sekera was also a positive possession for the Hurricanes a season ago, so this isn’t just some one-off fluke.
Though it certainly helps the team short term, Los Angeles is paying a steep price for Sekera, whose contract expires at the end of this season.
Roland McKeown was a second round draft pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft (50th overall). Despite just being drafted, he had already worked his way up to #13 on our Top 25 Under 25 list when we compiled the list last summer.
The first round pick the Kings are sending to Carolina is conditional. If the Kings make the playoffs this season, the Hurricanes receive a 2015 first round pick. If the Kings miss the playoffs, the Hurricanes will instead receive a 2016 first round pick. This offers a bit of protection to the Kings, even though they now sit in a very favorable position in both the Wild Card race and the Pacific Division in general.