Kings Ship Visnovsky to Edmonton

Over at Inside the Kings, Rich Hammond pulled the following Lubomir Visnovsky quote out of his archives, one that the defenseman uttered about a year ago when he signed a 5-year, $28 million contract extension with the team:

``I'm very happy that I'll be staying with this organization for a long time,'' said Visnovsky from his offseason home in Slovakia. ``I love Los Angeles and I want to play in the playoffs with the Kings.''

As it would turn out, Lubo's stay was only for one more year, as Kings GM Dean Lombardi shipped the puck-moving defenseman to Edmonton in return for center Jarret Stoll and defenseman Matt Greene. One fact that Hammond uncovered last night: Visnovsky has a no movement clause in his contract that kicks in on July 1 and runs to 2012, after which it turns into a limited no-trade clause. Looks like Visnovsky is going to be in Edmonton for a long time.

To take a look at how the trade shakes out for the Oilers, stop over at Lowetide, where the reaction seems uniformly positive, while Covered in Oil seems more than a bit hesitant. In any case, with Visnovsky in the fold, it looks like Joni Pitkanen's days in an Oilers uniform may be coming to an end.

Then again, I'm sure there's at least one party who is probably happy with the deal: That would be Los Angeles-based supermodel Rachel Hunter, who will probably be happy to have her boyfriend, Stoll, back in town a little more often.