As you may or may not know, the Kings have traded oft-maligned goaltender Jason LaBarbera to Vancouver for a seventh round pick in next year's draft. By opening up a roster spot, it allows Brian Boyle to re-join the club.

Now keep in mind, the NHL Draft now only has seven rounds. And to be quite frank, players drafted in the last round are usually prospects or long shots. That doesn't mean you can't uncover a gem or two that deep down. Hell, Detroit grabbed Tomas Holmstrom in the tenth round of the 1994 Draft. But the chances of that happening are few and far between. Hence the bag of pucks. As a player, would you take offense of being traded for a pick in the last round? I know I would.

More than likely, the pick was thrown in there to look as if there is an actual transaction there. The fact of the matter (or at least what I like to think) is Vancouver is taking LaBarbera off the Kings' hands to complete the Dan Cloutier deal back in 2006.

You remember that deal, one of the first trades made by Dean Lombardi when he took the reins of the Kings. Good ol' Beachball. Yeah, didn't work out so well, did it? Dean has been frantically trying to erase the memory of that lapse of judgement.

Now, many Kings fans absolutely despise Jason, which I think is unfair. He was just stuck in the wrong situation, asked to step into shoes that he just couldn't fill, that of a solid number one netminder. But the fans don't see that, they just see a losing goaltender. Fact of the matter is, Jason was enjoying his best season: his goals against was at 2.83, the lowest of his career, and was ahead of Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury and Anaheim's J.S. Giguere in GAA. It's his save percentage that was killing him: 89 percent on a team that allows the second least amount shots? Yikes.

However, he did have other problems between the pipes, like handling the puck. Not his strong suit, to say the least. Then, there's the shootout. He was 0-for-3 when both teams kissed their sister this season. He faced seven snipers, and only stopped one. That's 14 percent, dead last in the NHL. Double yikes.

So, even though I'm happy to see the Kings find a trade partner for LaBarbera, I'm a little sad to see him go. Always personable and ready for an interview, Jason was the type of goaltender you'd play with in a beer league. He's be the one blasting metal in the parking lot as he strapped on his pads, and offer to buy you a beer afterward.

Here's my 2007 interview with Labs during training camp. Best luck in your future endeavors.