Alexander: Jonathan Quick, best goalie in Kings history, leaves a legacy

It’s worth remembering that Jonathan Quick wasn’t the guy in his early years in the Kings’ organization.

He was a third-round pick in 2005 out of UMass Amherst, the 72nd player selected in what was otherwise known as the Sidney Crosby draft following a yearlong lockout. But a Kings organization that had struggled to develop goaltenders for much of its history seemed to stake its future on another youngster, Jonathan Bernier, the 11th player picked overall in the 2006 draft.

Bernier was briefly a big-leaguer at the start of the 2007-08 season, playing four games for the Kings before going back to his junior team in Lewiston, Maine. But by the time Bernier got back to L.A. for a brief cameo in the 2009-10 season, Quick was the full-time starter.

And not only wouldn’t Quick surrender the position for more than a decade, we can stipulate that he’s the best goalie in Kings history with 370 career victories and two Stanley Cups. I don’t think Kelly Hrudey or Hall of Famer Rogie Vachon would have much argument.

Rob Blake said as much, in fact, on the Zoom call Wednesday morning a few hours after the trade of Quick to Columbus, for left-handed defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and goalie Joonas Korpisalo, was officially announced.

“Jonathan Quick’s the best goalie to ever play in this organization, let alone the league,” the general manager who made the trade said. “And he’s taken this (team), with a handful of players, to the highest level two different times.

“We are so thankful for what he’s been able to do for this organization as a player, as a person, him and his family and his kids. We’re indebted (for) what he’s been able to do for us.”

Shall we elaborate?

Start with those two Cups, in 2012 and 2014. Add a Conn Smythe Trophy as the outstanding performer of the playoffs in 2012, when he was 16-4 with a save percentage of .946 as the Kings ended their fans’ 44 seasons of frustration and finally lifted the Cup on home ice.

Quick also won William M. Jennings Trophies, given to goaltenders who played at least 25 games for the team allowing the fewest regular-season goals, in 2013-14 (when he played 72 of 82 games) and 2017-18 (when he played 64 of 82). Quick was in the top five of Vezina Trophy voting by the league’s general managers three times and was second in 2012 (to the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist), fifth in 2014 (to Boston’s Tukka Rask) and third in 2016 (to Washington’s Braden Holtby).

He played for two U.S. Olympic teams, backing up Ryan Miller in 2010 in Vancouver and winning a silver medal, and starting in 2014 in Sochi with a .923 save percentage in five games for a team that finished fourth. Those 370 career victories, in addition to being No. 1 in franchise history, are 19th on the NHL’s all-time list and third among U.S.-born goalies.

Beyond the numbers, Quick was stubbornly, ferociously competitive, setting an example for his teammates and performing his best when the lights were brightest. He was, in those years when the Kings were considered an elite team, the best money goalie in the world.

And maybe this is even more significant: The Kings have reached the postseason only three times since that 2014 championship, but Quick, Dustin Brown, Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar were still around from those championship teams to make sure the next generation of Kings’ players understood the organization’s culture and expectations.

“I mean, it’s hard to explain unless you sit and you watch it every day,” Blake said. “And … the players you mentioned are going to go down as the best players at those positions on this team ever, and very deservedly so.”

With all of that said, you could reasonably make the case that Quick was unceremoniously and unfairly dumped, exiled to a Columbus team with the league’s worst record. But you also have to recognize that this was coming, if not now, then at season’s end when Quick will be an unrestricted free agent.

In the summer of 2021, Quick was left unprotected in the expansion draft, but the Seattle Kraken passed, in part because of his $5.8 million salary-cap hit last season and another $5.8 million this one, the final seasons of the 10-year extension he signed after that 2012 Cup win.

And his play has slipped significantly. He woke up the echoes at the end of last spring’s seven-game first-round loss to Edmonton, but only after a season where he lost playing time to heir apparent Cal Petersen.

This season, the 37-year-old Quick has a career-worst .876 save percentage, but instead of Petersen – demoted to AHL Ontario because of his own inconsistent play – journeyman Pheonix Copley has started 26 of the Kings’ 35 games since his recall from Ontario on Dec. 1. And while no one game is ever the difference, maybe the four goals Quick allowed in seven shots against the Rangers on Sunday in Madison Square Garden was a tipping point.

Still, it was sudden and shocking when word spread of the trade after Tuesday night’s shootout victory in Winnipeg. The situation was awkward because Blake made the deal from L.A. and had to inform Quick of the trade by phone after the game, and then had phone conversations with key players, including Kopitar and Doughty. By most reports, none were happy about the trade.

Even more awkwardly, Quick rode back to L.A. on the team plane. There must have been heavy conversations on that flight.

Was it insensitive? Probably. But professional sports is an insensitive business, and the first job of a general manager is to find ways to make his team better.

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Will this trade for Gavrikov and Korpisalo, bolster the Kings for the postseason? That remains to be seen, and there’s still the possibility of more moves before Friday’s trade deadline.

But we know this: The Blue Jackets will play the Kings in downtown L.A. on March 16, two weeks from Thursday. If you attend, and if Quick is still a Blue Jacket and hasn’t been flipped to another team, I’m guessing you’ll know how to show your appreciation.

Make it loud.

jalexander@scng.com