LA Kings: The three best players to play for the Kings and Ducks
The three best players to have played for both the LA Kings and Ducks.
Ever since the then-named Mighty Ducks of Anaheim joined the NHL in the 1993-94 season, a rivalry has steadily grown between them and their rivals just up the freeway, the LA Kings.
In the not-that-distant past, they both won Stanley Cups and were consistent contenders. They even met in an epic second-round playoff series in 2014, in which the Kings ended up winning in seven games on their way to their second Cup in three years.
The Kings and Ducks will meet at Staples Center on Tuesday for the first of eight games this season, though with both teams currently in rebuilds and there not being fans at the games. Things may not be quite as spicy between them this year. So with that in mind, we thought it might be a good time to instead take this opportunity to look back at some of the shared history between these teams and give you the top three players who suited up on both sides of the rivalry.
Keep in mind this list is mainly just going to look at the contributions the players made to each of these teams. For example, while you could say Jari Kurri had the most accomplished career of anyone to suit up for both the Kings and Ducks, Kurri’s best days came with the Edmonton Oilers, and he played just one unimpressive season for Anaheim late in his career.
Dustin Penner
We’ll start with the only player to win a Stanley Cup with both Southern California teams.
Dustin Penner broke out to score 29 regular season goals on Anaheim’s 2006-07 championship team. Looking like a promising young power forward, Penner became a restricted free agent after that season and would sign a five-year offer sheet worth $21.25 million with the Oilers. Ducks GM Brian Burke was grumpy about it but didn’t match it. Penner remains the most recent NHL player to change teams via offer sheet.
After parts of four up-and-down seasons in Edmonton, Penner returned to Southern California in a 2011 trade deadline deal with the Kings for defense prospect Colten Teubert, a first-round pick and a third-round pick. Penner was largely a bust with the Kings, scoring just 11 goals and 37 points in 117 regular-season games over parts of three seasons in LA.
He did, however, contribute 11 points in 20 playoff games during the Kings’ 2012 Stanley Cup run, including scoring two of LA’s biggest goals of that postseason. The first was the game-winner late in Game 1 of the Kings’ first-round series against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Vancouver Canucks.
The Kings would go on to take a 3-0 lead in that series and complete the stunning upset in five games. If Penner doesn’t score that goal and the Kings end up losing Game 1, who knows how the rest of the series might have played out?
Then there was his overtime goal in Game 5 of the Western Conference Final against the Phoenix Coyotes that sent the Kings to the Stanley Cup Final.
After leaving the Kings, Penner returned for a second stint with the Ducks in the 2013-14 season. He was actually fairly productive, scoring 13 goals and 32 points in 49 games before somewhat surprisingly being dealt to the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline.
Lubomir Visnovsky
Already 24 when he was drafted in the fourth round of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft by the Kings, Lubomir Visnovsky was able to step into LA’s lineup and contribute right away. He was a popular and productive player as an offensive defenseman for seven seasons with the Kings before being dealt to the Oilers in a 2008 offseason trade for Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene.
(There seems to be a theme here that players who played for the Kings and Ducks also played for the Oilers.)
Visnovsky was then sent to Anaheim in a 2010 trade deadline deal and quickly showed he still had plenty left in the tank. In Visnovsky’s first full season with the Ducks, he set career highs with 18 goals and 68 points despite being 34 years old.
Overall, Visnovsky recorded 279 points in 499 regular-season games with the Kings and 108 in 165 with the Ducks. He ranks fifth all-time in scoring among LA defensemen, and despite playing just two seasons and change with the Ducks, ranks ninth all-time in scoring among Anaheim defensemen.
Sean O’Donnell
Breaking into the NHL with the Kings in the 1994-95 season, Sean O’Donnell established himself as a regular on their blue line the next season until being claimed by the Minnesota Wild in the 2000 expansion draft.
In 2006, while playing for Phoenix, O’Donnell was sent to Anaheim in a trade deadline deal. He was a regular on the Ducks’ blue line when they won their first Stanley Cup the next season, playing in 79 regular-season games and 21 playoff games. He then rejoined the Kings in an offseason trade in 2008. He played two more seasons in LA and served as a veteran mentor to a young Drew Doughty.
Next. Doughty says bad blood developing with Wild. dark
O’Donnell didn’t rack up points. He was an old-school, physical, stay-at-home defenseman who managed to churn out a heck of a career. A sixth-round pick by the Buffalo Sabres in 1991, O’Donnell went on to play 1,224 regular-season games with eight different franchises. More than half of those games, though, were played with the Kings and Ducks.