Jozef Stumpel was coming into his own as a playmaker with the Boston Bruins, and after a 76-Point year, he was traded to Los Angeles, who needed his abilities.

In Stumpel’s first season as a King, he had a career-high 58 Assists, a number that was good enough to land him fifth in the league.  Injuries compiled on Stumpel over the next two years, as he was missing a handful of games in both years, but when he was healthy, he was playmaking as well as anyone in the NHL.

Early in the 2001/02 Season, Stumpel was traded back to Boston, but two years later, he was dealt back to L.A., playing one more year before signing with the Florida Panthers as a Free Agent.  As a King, Stumpel scored 267 Points in 334 Games.

Los Angeles Kings owner, Bruce McNall, felt that Bernie Nicholls could score, but they already had players who could put the puck in the net.  McNall wanted grit, and he got that when he engineered a trade with the New York Rangers that sent Tony Granato to the Kings.

Granato did not put up the same Points totals that Nicholls did, but he was a completely different player.  The Right Wing still had his best years in Los Angeles, posting three consecutive 60-plus years, peaking with a career-high 82 Points in 1992-93.  That year, Granato helped the Kings make the Stanley Cup Finals, and he led all skaters in Shots (77).

After the Finals, Granato’s hard-hitting style caught up to him, and he was frequently out of the lineup due to injury.  When his contract expired, he signed with the San Jose Sharks and would go to his first All-Star Game.  

With the Kings, Granato scored 305 Points in 380 Games.

Jari Kurri was one of the legends in Edmonton in the 1980s, winning five Stanley Cups with the Oilers and earning five post-season All-Star Selections.  Kurri returned to Europe after the fifth Cup win, but on May 30, 1991, his rights were traded twice, first to Philadelphia, who subsequently dealt him to Los Angeles to reunite him with Wayne Gretzky, and just like that, Kurri was ready to return to North America.

Kurri was not the explosive player he once was but was still an above-average Right Wing.  Playing for L.A. for four-and-a-half years, Kurri averaged .89 Points per Game, and was an All-Star in 1993, the same year the Kings went to the Stanley Cup Finals.  That year he scored 87 Points, his best with Los Angeles.  He left L.A. when he was traded to the New York Rangers, where coincidentally, he again joined a former Oiler legend, Mark Messier.

Kurri was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2001.

Mattias Norstrom was traded from the New York Rangers to Los Angeles during his third NHL season as part of an eight-player trade, and the Defenseman would remain with the Kings for 780 Games, making him one of the more tenured players in franchise history.

Norstrom had far more ice time in L.A., and while he was not a blueliner who would rush the offensive end, he could protect his own end of the ice and was so well regarded that he was named an All-Star in both 1999 and 2004.  The shutdown defender managed to accumulate 142 Points for Los Angeles before he was traded to Dallas late in the 2006-07 Season.