Lombardi talks Sturm trade

During the first intermission, Dean Lombardi spoke about his trade with Boston for forward Marco Sturm. Lombardi stressed that the trade is still contingent upon Sturm passing a physical. Sturm will fly to Los Angeles tomorrow and have the testing done, starting Monday at 10 a.m. If he passes the physical, Sturm will likely join the Kings during their road, but his return date — Sturm is recovering from knee surgery — is still in question. Here’s what Lombardi said tonight…

LOMBARDI: “It’s still very much contingent on the physical. Usually when you say it’s a physical, it’s a formality, but this is real. That’s why it’s an extended period on this one. There’s still a significant hurdle here.”

Question: Will he go through more stringent testing than the average player?

LOMBARDI: “Well, there’s the MRI. Obviously there was a knee injury in the past. The old one didn’t effect him, obviously, when he played in the playoffs last year, but you’ve got to look at both of them. So you’ve got everything from an MRI, a strength test and everything else. He’s got to be put through the rigors.”

Question: He will come to L.A. for the testing?

LOMBARDI: “Oh yeah, for sure. That was one of the things that made it a little awkward. Your doctors can talk and exchange videos and everything, but there’s no substitute for our own doctors. He’s flying here tomorrow.”

Question: If the physical is OK, is it possible that he would play during the road trip?

LOMBARDI: “It’s conceivable, if everything were to line up, but I think it’s probably safe to say closer to Christmas. It’s conceivable, but until our doctors see him, I don’t know if it makes much sense to guess. With what we’ve seen, up to this point, it’s a reasonable assumption that if what we’ve seen matches what we find out on Monday and Tuesday, that he could play before Christmas, yes.”

Question: You have a history with him. What made this the right fit for you?

LOMBARDI: “Well, there’s a lot of things. When we found out Parse was going to be done, I’ve been looking at something since we found out about Parse. It’s really hard to find deals early in the year. There’s just not a lot happening out there. I started looking at this about four weeks ago, as a possibility, as well as looking at our other options. This was clearly our best option, and I think it’s a good option. He’s a solid guy. He can play with good players. Assuming the knees are good, he brings a lot of speed, and he plays hard. So I think he can do a lot of things for us. He’s a very strong option for us. The other thing it does is, it keeps our flexibility. This contract doesn’t take us out of pursuing other things at the trade deadline, as well as keeping all our options open, even next year, depending on how all this works out. So it works from a player standpoint, the character standpoint and the contract standpoint. Now if he just passes a physical…”

Question: Have you kept in touch with him since you left San Jose?

LOMBARDI: “He came up to the (GM) box when we were in Boston, to say hi. All I wanted to know is if he was going soft on me. [smiles] That was the extent of our contact, and he assured me that he wasn’t. Taking him in the first round, at that time, was kind of outside the box, but he was one of Darryl Sutter’s favorite players, and you know what Darryl Sutter likes, so this kid comes to play hard.”

Question: Can you talk about what the future considerations might be?

LOMBARDI: “[laughs] Let’s just say it depends on how he plays. We’ll leave it at that. It’s kind of like the Modin thing, a little bit.”