The Los Angeles Kings traded veteran forward Phillip Danault to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick, the teams announced Friday.<\/p>\n
Danault, 32, was in the midst of a trying season with the Kings, with zero goals and just five assists in 30 games. He has been a key shutdown center for Los Angeles since it signed him as a free agent in 2021, but the last two years have seen the offensive side of his game completely dry up.<\/p>\n
After a Kings debut season in which he had a career-high 27 goals and added 24 assists, Danault followed with 18 goals and a personal-best 54 points in 2022-23 and 17 goals and 47 points in 2023-24, mostly as the team\u2019s second-line center during its run of four consecutive playoff appearances.<\/p>\n
With Quinton Byfield grabbing the 2C role last season, Danault was pushed down to the third line while still taking on a lot of the tougher defensive matchups. He finished with only eight goals while adding 35 assists, but he did have a strong playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers last spring, with two goals and eight points in the six-game defeat.<\/p>\n
This season has been among his most challenging. Danault is still strong on faceoffs \u2014 he\u2019s at 52.9 percent this year and 52.8 percent over his career \u2014 and continues to win his five-on-five minutes. However, his ice time is down nearly 90 seconds on average, and his inability to provide depth offense is one contributor to the Kings sitting 31st in goal scoring.<\/p>\n
Before a Dec. 6 home game against Chicago, Danault talked about his struggles this season and suggested \u201csomething needs to change\u201d with his game. He had been doing extra drills with assistant coach Newell Brown after team skating sessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve tried every tool I had from my 11 years in the NHL and that had worked in the past and it (hasn\u2019t) worked this year,\u201d Danault said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve tried everything, whether it\u2019s mental, (being) on the ice first, preparation, working on my 200 shots in practice. Doesn\u2019t matter what I do now. It seems like I have to go through this. Yeah, that\u2019s the way it is right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing I can do is keep working and keep my head up and doing the right thing, whether it\u2019s practice or games and do the best I can for my team and like I\u2019ve been doing my 11 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Danault has 125 goals and 274 assists in 741 games with the Chicago Blackhawks, Canadiens and Kings. He has the remainder of this season and next on a six-year contract he signed with Los Angeles that has a $5.5 million average annual value. The contract also includes a modified 10-team no-trade clause, which it switched to before the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
Kings general manager Ken Holland said the emergence of Quinton Byfield taking the second-line center role, the presence of young forward Alex Laferriere and the offseason additions of Joel Armia and Corey Perry all fed into a reduced role for Danault. Danault was averaging 16:19 of playing time but saw less than that in five of his seven games played, including only 10:27 in a Nov. 28 shootout loss to Anaheim.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a struggle here offensively for Phil,\u201d Holland said Friday night. \u201cFound a trading partner here that I think is going to be good for Phil. He gets to go back to a city where he had a lot of success. We get a second-round pick and obviously some cap space to use going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dealing with a bad case of the flu, Danault remained in Los Angeles while the Kings went 1-2 on a three-game road trip. But it was also clear that Holland was working on finding the center a new home \u2014 or his old home as it turned out.<\/p>\n
Holland said he spoke with Danault and his agent, Allan Walsh, during the process this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that they would be open for a move,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was an opportunity for them to have maybe a different or a bigger, better role elsewhere. We made it happen tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite Danault\u2019s numbers, there was significant interest in the veteran and Holland said he spoke with more than half of the teams in the league. \u201cI think ideally, probably would like to have had a roster player,\u201d Holland said, touching on the return he sought. \u201cCenters are hard to find, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Holland said the vacancy will provide an opportunity for Turcotte and Samuel Helenius to play regularly, if not see increased minutes. But he also indicated that he\u2019ll continue to search the market for help from outside and could look to make another move.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a possibility,\u201d he said. \u201cLaferriere can play in the middle too so gonna see how it goes. Obviously, we\u2019ve played here the last four games without Phil. Went 1-1-2. Let\u2019s see. Let\u2019s watch. We got cap space. We got another draft pick. I\u2019m gonna monitor here on a regular basis to see if I need to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWe have acquired Columbus\u2019 second-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft from the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for forward Phillip Danault.<\/p>\n
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