Kings, Bruins Take a Risk: Tocchet Traded for Stevens

The struggling Kings acquired unhappy left wing Kevin Stevens from the Boston Bruins on Thursday for right wing Rick Tocchet.

The deal came nine days after Wayne Gretzky’s agent met with King executives to discuss a possible trade of the NHL’s career scoring leader or the upgrading of the team’s roster. Gretzky becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season.

Stevens, who is from the Boston area, was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in a trade last August amid much fanfare. But, as he admitted, things just didn’t work out.

“In hindsight, it wasn’t the best thing to do,” Stevens told XTRA radio, the Kings’ flagship station. “[Bruin Coach] Steve Kasper and I didn’t get along. He had his ways, and his players, and I wasn’t one of them.

“Boston is a game over .500 [19-18-6 entering Thursday night’s game against Tampa Bay], and this is a pretty good hockey team. I didn’t do my job, but he [Kasper] hasn’t done his job, either.”

Stevens has been plagued by lower back spasms recently while Tocchet has been sidelined with a bruised left shoulder.

Stevens, 30, spent seven-plus seasons with the Penguins, getting 251 goals and 276 assists. A key factor in Pittsburgh’s Stanley Cup victories in 1991 and 1992, the 6-foot-3, 217-pounder was an NHL first-team All-Star in 1992 and a second-team All-Star in 1991 and 1993.

In 41 games for the Bruins this season, Stevens had 10 goals and 13 assists.

“No one worked as a team [in Boston], not on the ice, not the GM [Harry Sinden], not the coach,” Stevens said. “It was so different in Pittsburgh with Craig Patrick. It’s disappointing in Boston.

“The honor of playing with Mario [Lemieux in Pittsburgh] will be topped by playing with Wayne.”

Sinden said the trade that brought Stevens to the Bruins “was a marriage made in heaven that deteriorated into hell.”

“Our intentions were to bring him here and have him finish his career here,” Sinden said. “But one situation after another arose that didn’t resolve itself. We started having concerns in training camp that never resolved themselves.

“We are sending them Kevin Stevens with a bad back; they are sending us Rick Tocchet with a bad shoulder. It’s a risk for us, a concern for us, but we went in with our eyes wide open.”

In his last five years with the Penguins, Stevens had 40, 54, 55, 41 and 15 goals. He was originally drafted by the Kings in the sixth round in 1983 but traded to Pittsburgh before playing in Los Angeles.

“We’re extremely happy to have acquired one of the premier forwards in the NHL,” King General Manager Sam McMaster said. “It was a difficult trade for us with Rich Tocchet being such an important part of our team.

“But the strength of the Kings was in right-handed shots, and to address our concern of obtaining a left-handed shot, this was a deal we had to make. Kevin Stevens is a major addition to the Kings.”

King Coach Larry Robinson said Stevens “gives us a big, strong power forward on the left side, which we’ve been missing. He really goes to the net and will be a big help on the power play.”

Tocchet, 31, said he welcomed the trade because “I wanted to go to a hockey team where there is passion in the air.”

Tocchet came to the Kings with a second-round 1995 draft choice on July 28, 1994 from the Penguins for left wing Luc Robitaille.

Before the trade, Tocchet played 7 1/2 seasons for the Philadelphia Flyers and 2 1/2 for the Penguins. He had his best season in 1992-93 for Pittsburgh with 48 goals and 61 assists.

In 44 games for the Kings this season, Tocchet had 13 goals and 23 assists.

“I don’t play as rambunctiously as I did when I was in Philadelphia,” Tocchet said. “I play a smarter game of hockey.”

Entering Thursday night’s game at Hartford against the Whalers, the Kings had a 16-21-11 record for 43 points and were winless in their last seven games (0-5-2) and 3-7-3 in their last 13 games.