Trading Deadline Comes and Goes, but the Kings Don’t Make a Move

There was no movement by the Kings Tuesday as the National Hockey League trading deadline came and went.

So the Kings, who meet the Hartford Whalers tonight at the Hartford Civic Center in the first game of a two-game trip, will end the season with basically the same team that has compiled the worst defensive statistics in the NHL.

General Manager Rogie Vachon had said in the last two weeks that he wanted to “change the face” of the Kings, who are 25-39-5 and have not been fewer than nine games below .500 since Dec. 3.

But he said Tuesday that the right deal just never came along.

“We tried to make some trades,” he said. “We just couldn’t find the right people to help us. We didn’t want to make a trade just to make a trade. We didn’t want to trade an apple for an apple--let’s put it that way.

“We were looking for specific players, and we couldn’t get them for the right price, so we had to back off.”