Taylor Keeping the Door Open

The Kings would rather not tinker with their nucleus but will continue to discuss deals with other teams right up until today’s noon PST trade deadline, General Manager Dave Taylor said Monday.

“We’re open and we’re listening,” Taylor said from El Segundo, “but we don’t necessarily want to mess with our core or the chemistry we’ve had to this point. We’re just talking to see if there’s anything out there that makes sense.”

If the Kings did make a deal, Taylor said, “we’d probably be offering draft picks or prospects, as opposed to players off our roster.”

The Kings acquired left wing Cliff Ronning from the Nashville Predators on Saturday for seldom-used defenseman Jere Karalahti and a 2003 draft pick.

Predator defenseman Kimmo Timonen told the Nashville Tennessean that Karalahti, who had played in only nine games since November, had been asking the Kings for some time to trade him.

“I had a talk with him earlier,” Taylor said. “His first choice would be to stay here, but at the same time he wanted to play. And if he wasn’t going to be playing for us, he [said he] wouldn’t be against going somewhere else.”

Karalahti told the Tennessean, “I had a good couple of years in L.A., but this year around Christmas time it started turning bad. The team was winning all the time and it was hard to break into the lineup. There was a lot of talk about trades.”

Steve Heinze, who has one assist in his last 17 games and no goals in his last 20, was benched Monday night for the third time in six games.

“The only thing you can really do if the performance level is not there is try somebody else,” Coach Andy Murray said.