Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Lombardi happy to get ‘one of the better defenseman on the market’ in Sekera

2014 NHL Stanley Cup Final - Media Day

Dean Lombardi

Getty Images

Dean Lombardi knows he paid a fairly hefty price to get Andrej Sekera from the Carolina Hurricanes. Yesterday’s trade cost the Kings’ GM a first-round pick and 19-year-old prospect Roland McKeown.

But according to Lombardi, it was a fair price, given the market.

“Certainly I would say at this point, unless there are some surprises, this was one of the better defensemen on the market,” Lombardi said, per LA Kings Insider.

“This is a reflection that he’s not only a good player, but that there’s not a lot of them out there.”

With Sekera and also Cody Franson, traded by Toronto to Nashville, no longer available, the market for rental defensemen has become even thinner than it already was. Jeff Petry. Zbynek Michalek. Jan Hejda. Those are among the top names. Maybe Kimmo Timonen is available, but he hasn’t even played a game this season.

“I don’t think you’re going to see an overwhelming number of top-four guys who are going to be available, period,” said Lombardi.

“But, I’ve been wrong. We’ve seen bigger names move in the past.”

Related: Habs reportedly offered ’13 1st-rounder McCarron to Coyotes for Michalek