On rumors…

Since this lovely rumor seems to have gained some traction among legitimate news organizations, I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about rumors in general and the “Marian Gaborik might be coming to L.A.” rumor in specific. It’s rumors such as this one that tend to make my hair fall out in clumps.

Gaborik makes $6.3 million this season and will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Those are two HUGE red flags that should indicate to anyone that he’s not coming to the Kings. The Kings are already at their self-imposed payroll cap, plus if you think the Kings would give up anything of value (meaning prospects or high draft picks) to get a player who will be a free agent in a little more than eight months…they just won’t. It would go against everything Dean Lombardi has preached for two-plus years.

Unless someone thinks the Wild is willing to take at least $5 million worth of fourth-line forwards and extra defensemen, it’s very hard to see how a deal like this would ever happen. That’s not to say that the publications which reported the story were irresponsible. The main report out of Minnesota said the Wild contacted teams about Gaborik. No doubt, they did. If the Wild really is shopping Gaborik, chances are calls went out to every team that has cap room. Doesn’t mean there’s going to be a fit. In the case of the Kings, there isn’t.

Some other things to remember about rumors:

1. Ninety-five percent of them never come close to being reality.

2. If you hear rumors of a specific trade, as in, “The Kings are considering sending Player X to City Y in exchange for Player Z,” the trade isn’t going to happen. Maybe that specific trade was discussed at some point, but by the time it hits public, it’s d-e-a-d.

3. I stopped paying attention to rumors a few years back, when I covered a different local team (not the Kings). During the offseason, a rival paper reported that the local team had held talks about trading for a certain player. The next day, I talked to the GM of the local team, and he told me, “I talked to (the other GM), but that player’s name never even came up.” After that, I stopped paying attention to most reports.

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