Crawford quashes trade speculation

It’s almost a rite of fall. You know it will happen at some point, and it’s not quite hockey season until one is printed in a newspaper.

So, welcome to the first random trade rumor from north of the border.

This one, in the Ottawa Sun, involved the Kings listening to offers for forwards Alexander Frolov and Dustin Brown in exchange for a goalie.

“There’s no basis to that,” Kings Coach Marc Crawford said Monday after practice in El Segundo. “Everybody, reporters and probably coaches alike, try to fantasize about trades. They’re exactly that -- they are fantasies. That trade would never happen. Ever.

“It’s a fabrication by somebody saying, ‘That might work. They need a goalie. And boy, who could we get that’s young and inexpensive?’ And those are the names. They look at the salary chart and say, ‘These guys are inexpensive. That makes sense.’ But it really doesn’t.”

Dean Lombardi, the Kings’ president and general manager, said Friday in Vancouver that the offers coming his way right now aren’t as good as one he rejected in the summer in which the Kings would have given up young goalie Jonathan Bernier and a No. 1 draft pick for a front-line goalie.

Crawford echoed that sentiment and also spoke about his two goalies, Jason LaBarbera and J.S. Aubin.

“We’re not going to do anything with our good young players,” Crawford said. “And we’re going to continue to try to get the goalies we’ve got to continue to keep improving their games. Jason has played two pretty good games, albeit one was only for a period. We’ve got something to build on there.

“In J.S’s case, he bounced a little bit his second performance [against the Flames], but coming off a long injury, that’s not uncommon, that you’ll bounce. That’s a horse racing term.”

Keeping with that theme, Aubin won’t be getting back on the horse tonight. LaBarbera will make his second consecutive start. He came on in relief of Aubin at the start of the third period in Calgary on Thursday.

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TONIGHT

vs. Nashville, 7:30, FSN West

Radio -- 1150.

Site -- Staples Center.

Records -- Kings 3-6-0, Predators 2-5-0.

Record vs. Predators (2006-07) -- 1-3-0.

Update -- To call the Predators struggling would be putting it mildly. They’ve lost five consecutive games after winning their first two, and the lack of scoring has become an issue. Nashville has scored once in its last two games.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com