Straka Close to Returning

The trade deadline is a week away, but the Kings effectively picked up a top-flight player Monday -- without giving up a thing.

Forward Martin Straka practiced Monday with the Kings’ No. 2 line, taking his biggest step yet in returning from January surgery for torn cartilage in both knees and a torn ligament in his left knee.

“I don’t feel any pain,” Straka said. “I’m doing all the drills, a lot of stuff in the corners. I feel a little bit tired after battling in the corners, but I guess that’s normal. Practice shape and game shape are different.”

Straka, who probably will play Thursday against the Minnesota Wild, was matched Monday with right wing Alexander Frolov and center Jozef Stumpel.

“Frolov’s been hot and he’s got 20 goals,” Straka said. “Stumpel’s been our best player the last month or so. The guys have been playing really well since Ziggy’s [Palffy] last game [because of a season-ending dislocated shoulder]. The last couple of months, everybody’s picked it up.”

Straka, who had six goals and five assists in 18 games after being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins, was injured in a knee-to-knee collision with Columbus Blue Jacket defenseman Anders Eriksson. He underwent surgery Jan. 22.

Doctors found ligament and cartilage damage in Straka’s left knee as a result of the collision, and they also operated on his right knee, which had caused discomfort before the collision.

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Rookie winger Dustin Brown left the ice gingerly Monday after getting hit in the left ankle by Kip Brennan’s slap shot.

Brown was hit in the same ankle that he’d sprained earlier, causing him to sit out 39 games. He said, though, that this injury felt different.

“The ligaments feel fine,” he said. “It hit me in the inside of the foot instead of the outside, where the sprain was.”

Brown was trying to get position in front of the net when he was hit by the puck.

“I know it isn’t sprained again, but it’s like, why did it have to hit me in the ankle instead of the knee or shin pad?” Brown said.

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Goaltender Roman Cechmanek will not play in either of the Kings’ games this week, Coach Andy Murray said. Cechmanek has sat out five games because of a groin injury. “He’s not even skating,” Murray said.

Right wing Scott Barney skated without contact for the first time since suffering a shoulder separation Feb. 13 against the Buffalo Sabres.