It’s Perfect Occasion to Spend Like Kings

This is the time for the Kings to make a significant trade.

Not because they’ve lost four of six games.

Not because they’ve been shut out in back-to-back games at the Forum for the first time and take a home shutout streak of 126 minutes 12 seconds into tonight’s game against St. Louis--a game their owner, Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, is scheduled to attend.

Not because their announced home attendance after four games was down 6% from last season to 12,585 per game--and appeared to be far less.

Not because they’re desperate, although their average of 1.91 goals a game is worrisome even in a league where scoring is down and teams are averaging fewer than 2.5 goals a game.

This is the time for the Kings to make a significant trade because they can. And because several impact players are available who could transform a big but too often plodding team into a dynamic, successful team that could move to the Staples Center next season with a feeling of hope.

This is the time, and they know it.

“The reality is, in this marketplace, I’m convinced a star in L.A. is critical to the long-term success of hockey,” said Tim Leiweke, the Kings’ president. “Is [a major deal] imminent? No. I can’t say that. But is it more probable today than ever before? Yes.”

For the first time since the heady early days of Bruce McNall’s lavish spending, the Kings are dealing from a position of financial and personnel strength. Other teams have approached them with proposals. Holdout Vancouver right wing Pavel Bure is available and, according to General Manager Brian Burke, probably will be traded in the next few weeks. Calgary, squeezed by small-market finances, is willing to move right wing Theoren Fleury. It will be difficult but not impossible to pry restricted free-agent right wing Ziggy Palffy away from the Islanders. There’s reason to believe the Penguins, who last month filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will unload former scoring champion Jaromir Jagr for cash to keep them afloat.

The Kings need Bure, Jagr or Palffy. Not because they miss the bandwagon jumpers who showed up during the Wayne Gretzky era. They need an elite player because they’re not good enough to go beyond last season’s four-game playoff exit, and a star can lift them out of the Western Conference pack.

Jozef Stumpel’s abdominal and hip injuries will heal, and he will make wingers Glen Murray and Vladimir Tsyplakov more effective. But without him, no one carries the puck into the offensive zone with speed and the ability to finish. There’s no explosiveness on the wings. Defenseman Steve Duchesne will get on track, but he’s not a go-to guy, the player you want to have the puck with the game on the line. No one is.

It makes sense, competitively and financially, to make a move soon.

Deals the Kings rejected as economically unsound weighed against an annual deficit of $12 million to $15 million at the Forum are no longer instantly vetoed because they can factor in revenues from suites, premium seats, sponsors and advertising at the Staples Center. And they know they can’t bring an inferior product to their new pleasure palace and expect it to become the focal point of the revitalized downtown they envision. Making a major move would signal they’re serious about hockey, not merely real estate deals and luxury boxes.

“It would be great to walk into the new arena and see someone who’s able to fill it up every night,” Leiweke said. “A new arena means we’re in a new financial scenario.”

Judging from General Manager Dave Taylor’s outbursts during games, he’s frustrated with his team, as he should be. He has been steadfast about building through the draft, which is fine in theory but painfully slow. In a 27-team league, a team picking late in the first round gets what would have been a mid-second-rounder 15 years ago. The draft is not the only answer.

If it takes money or draft picks to get Palffy, do it. If it takes money to get Jagr, whose contract is worth $42.75 million through the 2002-03 season, do it. The Kings can afford it. If it takes trading the rights to Aki Berg and a couple of other young players to get Bure, do it. It’s not necessary to mortgage the house, just to rearrange the furniture. Any of those players, properly managed, would fit on a team whose main problem has been putting into starring roles players who really belong in the chorus.

One of those deals will be made. Not today or tomorrow, but soon.

“We will not sell our soul. We have a good young team. We don’t have to panic, which this organization has had a tendency to do in the past,” Leiweke said. “I’m not going to put Dave in a position where he has to deal from weakness. At the same time, because several teams are talking to us, it’s more likely. I’m more optimistic than I’ve ever been. . . .

“We have learned from lots of people in this marketplace that if we really wanted to turn this town on, this town can be turned on by star power. Will a winning team turn it on? If we brought a star onto this team, and I think we have a good team, and with the new arena opening, I think you will see a level of interest and enthusiasm in this town that’s more than when Gretzky came. If we could find the right star, with this nucleus and new arena there will be more enthusiasm and excitement with the Kings than we’ve ever had before.”

The time is right. The move is theirs.