Kings add Nemec, Kapanen, Bonk and Wallinder

LA adds more youth to roster overhaul

LOS ANGELES - The LA Kings continue to add youth in an effort to overhaul the roster. Veteran franchise defender Adam Fox was traded, along with goaltender Linus Ullmark, to the New York Rangers in exchange for a pair of 1st round picks, a 3rd round pick, and William Wallinder, a 23-year old LHD developing in the AHL.

About the move, GM Peterson said "it was tough to move our cornerstone defenceman, and we appreciate everything Adam did for this organization. He meant a lot, and he deserves a chance to compete for a spot in the playoffs. We want to thank him for his time here, he truly is a class act. At the same time, we're really excited to get William in a Kings' sweater. He's a big, mobile defender that we hope can be a part of what we're building here for a really long time. We were lucky enough to get a couple first-round picks in this deal as well, and we feel we've put ourselves in a great position to continue stockpiling premiere talent."

In a rare move that saw the Kings trade young players, Pavel Mintyukov, Simon Forsmark and Mikhail Gulyayev were shipped up to Boston for Simon Nemec and Oliver Kapanen. The Kings also sent a trove of picks to the Bruins, including Montreal's 1st round pick in the 2025 draft.

While the Kings' GM has been hesitant to trade away young players, especially top-10 picks like Mintyukov who was only recently acquired by the organization, GM Peterson explained that the chance to bring in high-quality young talent is rare, and he had to take advantage. "We couldn't pass on the opportunity to add a player like Simon," said GM Peterson, "he's another big, talented right-shot defender, those are hard to find. He's still developing his game at the pro level, but he's only 21, and should be a big part of our future. We thought very highly of Minty, we thought he was also a player we could really build around. Simon is on another level, though, and we're ecstatic to have him in the fold here."

"We were also excited to add Oliver Kapanen to our young group of forwards. We think Olli is going to be a solid pro. He plays a very responsible game and should be a good stabilizer for some of our more offensive-minded players," said GM Peterson.

Kapanen wasn't the only Oliver acquired by LA. The Kings further solidified the future of their blue line by trading Carolina's 1st round pick in 2026 to the Seattle Kraken for Oliver Bonk, another defensively responsible young blueliner. "We had our eye on Bonk for a while," said GM Peterson. "We love how defensively sound he is at his age, championship teams are built with guys like him. Bringing him in has really helped the depth of our prospect defenders, we're happy with the future of our blue line."

Happy, but never satisfied. The additions have made a deep prospect pool even deeper, but GM Peterson acknowledged that there is still a lot of work to be done. The players still need to develop, but for now, there is an awful lot to look forward to in Los Angeles.