July 6, 2013
by Gann Matsuda
UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENCY – DAY 1: After bidding farewell to Rob Scuderi and Brad Richardson, the Los Angeles Kings welcomed defenseman Jeff Schultz to the team, signing him to a one-year deal on Day 1 of unrestricted free agency.
LA Kings newly-acquired
defenseman Jeff Schultz
Photo courtesy National Hockey League
LOS ANGELES — Day 1 of the feeding frenzy in the
National Hockey League, otherwise known as unrestricted free agency, ended with what turned out to be a rather expected result for the
Los Angeles Kings, who lost veteran, stay-at-home defenseman
Rob Scuderi, after he signed a four-year contract valued at $13.5 million with the
Pittsburgh Penguins.
In the end, family was the deciding factor for the two-time Stanley Cup winner, who will play his second stint with the Penguins, the team he won his first Stanley Cup with in 2009.
“Both [the Kings and the Penguins] have the ability to play deep into the spring,” Scuderi told the media during a conference call. “But Pittsburgh is much closer geographically to where I am from, and I thought at my age, I wasn’t going to get this opportunity again to pull the trigger on something like this.”
Scuderi is a native of Syosset, New York, and has many relatives who reside in New York.
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