Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Bernier Can Play

06/23/2013 at 6:29pm EDT

from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

For all those Maple Leafs fans who weren’t quite sure what to make of Sunday’s big trade, consider this message from the man who was worked most closely with Jonathan Bernier the past several years.

'He’s the real deal," Kings goalie Bill Ranford told ESPN.com Sunday. "He’s really highly regarded by us. He’s not only a great goalie but he’s a great person. They’re going to love him there."

I can tell you that for GM Dean Lombardi and the rest of the Kings front office, this was a tough pill to swallow. They feel they’re trading away a future star, franchise goalie. But they had to. You can’t keep two star goalies in a cap system, not with the cap going down next season and the Kings needing to re-up Slava Voynov (done) and Rob Scuderi (not done yet) and other RFAs.

And there was a promise to keep. Lombardi, true to his word, told Bernier a year ago that he’d deal him either at the trade deadline or before the draft, a promise he reiterated at the player-exit meetings a few weeks ago, providing he could find a deal that made sense for the Kings.

continued

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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