The new guy

By Rich Hammond on September 17, 2007 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) |

I got a chance to catch up with Tom Preissing, who was probably the least-heralded of the Kings' free-agent acquisitions but is fresh off the experience of playing in the Stanley Cup Finals in Ottawa.

Preissing said the process of adjusting to the Kings has been made easier by the fact that he played two years in San Jose. Although, in all honesty, there aren't many players left from those Kings teams that Preissing faced with the Sharks in 2005-06, for instance.

Preissing signed a four-year contract with the Kings.

``The free-agent process, as a whole, is a great experience,'' Preissing said. ``You can get the feeling that teams really want you. You know you're going to go to a team that wants you and values you as a player. I picked the Kings because there's so much young talent here. It's only a matter of time before this organization is a real good organization.''

Preissing had a plus-40 rating in 80 games with Ottawa last season. With the Sharks in 2005-06, he had career highs with 11 goals and 32 assists.

1 Comments

imamonsta said:

i was easily most excited about the signing of Preissing out of the bunch, i really enjoyed watching him throughout the playoffs with ottawa

September 17, 2007 9:49 PM

J.P. Hoornstra writes about NHL and IHL hockey for the Los Angeles Newspaper Group. He welcomes any and all dialogue on the finer points of hockey. E-mail J.P. at jp.hoornstra
@inlandnewspapers.com.

Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews
.com.