from Helene Elliott of the LA Tmes,

Every now and then, goaltender Jonathan Quick would flash his glove or kick out his leg or repel an intruding opponent from his crease with a feisty shove and it would feel like the Kings’ best years all over again.

Yet those moments had become all too rare the last few seasons for Quick, who was the most valuable player in the Kings’ surprise 2012 Stanley Cup playoff run and was up to the challenge of working even harder to help them win a second championship over a grueling 26 postseason games in 2014.

No athlete has defeated time and the indignities the passing years bring — the slower reflexes and longer recovery periods, the eager, young challengers who had your poster on their bedroom wall or grew up watching videos of your technique.

Even Quick, a Connecticut native who ranks among the best American goalies to wear the mask and pads of the profession, couldn’t make time stand still. Nor could he even pause it, so he could be part of the Kings’ next championship run.

In this, the final season of his 10-year, $58-million contract, it became painful to watch him as he became slower, almost immeasurably but enough to become vulnerable. Quick, 37, couldn’t intimidate shooters anymore, couldn’t make the big saves when the Kings most needed them.

He was the franchise leader among goalies in games (743), wins (370) and shutouts (57), but he couldn’t lift the Kings back to the level he and they had once enjoyed. A man of few words and little regard for anything but winning, he must have hated that.

There’s little room for sentiment in business or hockey, but there was a breathtaking finality to the news that the Kings were trading Quick, along with a conditional first-round draft pick in 2023 and a third-round pick in 2024, to the Columbus Blue Jackets for goaltender Joonas Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.

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