Scrivens traded; Jones recalled

Ben Scrivens was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a third round draft pick earlier today, ending the tenure of a goaltender who backed up an accessible personality with quality minutes in net, most of which were spent spelling Jonathan Quick during the 24 games the Kings’ top goaltender missed due to a Grade 2 groin strain.

In 19 games with the Kings, Scrivens posted a 7-5-4 record with a 1.97 goals-against average, .931 save percentage and three shutouts.

Prior to the announcement of the Scrivens trade, Edmonton traded goaltender Devan Dubnyk to the Nashville Predators for forward Matt Hendricks.

To fill the roster spot vacated by Scrivens, Los Angeles recalled goaltender Martin Jones from AHL-Manchester. Jones, who was 8-3-0 with a 1.41 goals-against average, .950 save percentage and three shutouts in his earlier tenure with the Kings, was the NHL’s Co-Rookie of the Month in December and won his first eight NHL games to tie a league record. Both he and center Linden Vey will join the team in St. Louis.

Since his assignment to Manchester on January 5, Jones won both of his starts with the Monarchs, stopping 63-of-65 shots.

Though Scrivens’ numbers were very strong, a third round draft pick was a quality return for a player who has logged only 51 games of NHL experience and still qualifies as a backup. Though Scrivens has certainly proven that he has value and had been trending upwards in his career, playoff-bound teams are for the most part set in net, while non-playoff teams would be wary of exchanging futures for a player who will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Perhaps the Oilers are confident in their attempt to convince the Edmontonian to resign; regardless of their projections, the Kings did well to haul in what will amount to be a high third round pick in 2014 for a player who would not have resigned in Los Angeles and was originally seen as the lesser of the three pieces (Scrivens, Matt Frattin, Toronto’s second round draft pick) acquired in the Bernier trade.