The Arizona Coyotes are welcoming a new addition to their blue line after they traded for Los Angeles Kings defenseman Sean Durzi, the team announced on Saturday. In return, the Kings get a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL Draft from the Coyotes, who acquired that pick from the Montreal Canadiens.

Sean Durzi still has one more year left remaining in his current contract and it appears that the Kings had no plans of putting an extension offer on the table for him, so they just opted to use him to boost their draft capital in the future. Durzi signed a three-year deal worth $2.775 million with the Kings back in 2019 and then inked a two-year extension contract worth $3.4 million with Los Angeles in 2022.

Durzi could potentially be a top-pair defenseman for the Coyotes in the 2023-24 NHL season, which means a bigger opportunity for him to boost his stock. In what turned out to be his last season with the Kings, Sean Durzi recorded nine goals and 29 assists with a plus-minus of minus-12 in 72 total games. In the 2023 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Durzi appeared in six games and scored a goal, which was the first of the night in Game 6 of Los Angeles' series against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.

“Sean is a reliable two-way defenseman who has good vision and contributes offensively,” Arizona general manager Bill Armstrong said of Durzi, who was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second round in 2018. “He will be a very good addition to our blue line and we look forward to having him on our roster this season.”