Sturm to the Kings

			2010/2011 NHL Statistics
To Los Angeles	Position	Age	GP	G	A	P	Years	Cap Hit
Marco Sturm	Forward	32	0	0	0	0	1	$3.5 million
--------------------
To Boston	Position	Age	GP	G	A	P	Years	Cap Hit
Future Considerations

It was over a week ago when this trade was first announced (and published here on the blog), but an injury setback for Marco Sturm negated the deal that day, but a week later, the deal surfaced again and Sturm just had to pass his physical in Los Angeles to put the seal on the deal.

On Monday, Sturm is expected to pass his physicals and MRIs to finalize the deal and he will become a member of the Los Angeles Kings for a conditional draft pick (or future considerations) and could be ready to play fairly soon.  This should give a very good boost to the Kings' offense, just by adding a 20-25 goal scorer to their line-up, albeit a discounted version for this season.

Really, there isn't too much more to this trade other than the Bruins had no room for Sturm, supplied him to a team that would part with something for him and that just happened to be the Kings and a pick.  I would imagine that the pick would be conditional on whether or not Sturm re-signs with the club, but playoff performance could also play a large part in it as well.

I don't think this deal is directly related to the troubles Marc Savard's return has given them, rather it is more of an indirect deal, which just has more to do with the team's chemistry at the moment and the desire to keep things the same since they're doing well.   Sturm's cap load is quite heavy, even if you take into account the first nine weeks, plus another week or two before his return, but it's a load that the Kings can carry.

The Kings have plenty of mathematical equations to work out to figure out where their cap space truly lies, but the 23-man roster, plus one buyout, that they had on the ice on Saturday night has an annual cap hit of $52.1 million.  The Kings have injuries to Willie Mitchell to consider for 13 games and some players up and down from the minors also to consider.  Overall, I think the Kings should be fine with this deal in the books, but unless you're paying close attention, you won't really know exactly what they're spending.

Sturm hasn't featured in the pools this year at all and he won't feature in the selection sheet at all, since there are no player swaps actually on the sheet, but since he is only a couple of weeks away from returning, he may feature in the draft now or possibly in the second waiver draft, if he gets hot enough with the Kings.  It's definitely not out of the question that he'll eventually make an appearance this year.