Trade Is a Dream Come True for Newest King

His first practice as a King on Monday was enough to nearly render Dixon Ward speechless, and not because he was tired after flying from Toronto to Vancouver to Los Angeles.

Ward had certainly seen enough of the Kings in his rookie season with the Vancouver Canucks--nine games in the regular season and six more in the playoffs. But up close and in person was something else.

“I felt like I was part of some fantasy camp,” Ward said. “I grew up watching Wayne (Gretzky) and Jari (Kurri) doing all the things they did in Edmonton. To be able to sit in the same (dressing) room with them is something else. Then there’s Luc Robitaille and Tomas Sandstrom. Legends.

“I just met them. I didn’t say much.”

It has been nothing but a blur of activity since Ward was getting ready for a game in Toronto on Saturday and was told he had been traded to the Kings for center Jimmy Carson. He returned to Vancouver to pack his things and showed up Monday, practicing with the players he’d grown up watching as a kid in Leduc, Canada, near Edmonton.

He might even play on Gretzky’s line tonight in San Jose against the Sharks. Ward practiced with left wing Warren Rychel and center Pat Conacher, but King Coach Barry Melrose is never hesitant to juggle lines.

“We might play him with Gretz,” Melrose said. “But he’s going to play everywhere. We’ll experiment with him. He can play both wings. We knew he had good hands, but after watching him in just one practice, we’re very happy with his hands.”

Perhaps a change of scenery will help Ward, who had a promising rookie season with 52 points, including 22 goals, and led all rookies in plus-minus with a plus 34. He had seven points in 33 games and is a minus-14 this season, but has played sparingly on the fourth line.

“Last year, I had more of an opportunity to play,” Ward said. “If you get the chance to play with talent, that’s 99% of it.”

Ward, 25, considers himself a late-bloomer and was able to develop his game in college while earning a journalism degree at the University of North Dakota.

“This is a long way from Grand Forks,” Ward said, laughing.