{"id":365984,"date":"2025-12-20T13:38:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/365984\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T13:38:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:38:15","slug":"canadiens-acquire-phillip-danault-from-kings-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/365984\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadiens acquire Phillip Danault from Kings &#8211; Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\tBy The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted December 20, 2025 8:12 am\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>MONTREAL \u2013 Phillip Danault is heading back to Montreal.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Montreal Canadiens acquired the veteran centre from the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for a 2026 second-round draft pick Friday night, announcing the move a little more than an hour before the NHL\u2019s holiday roster freeze.<\/p>\n<p>The draft selection previously belonged to the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>Danault returns to the Canadiens after spending six seasons in Montreal from 2015 to 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated Videos\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Call of the Wilde: Habs dominate Blackhawks'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/wilde_dec19.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t4:56<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCall of the Wilde: Habs dominate Blackhawks\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old from Victoriaville, Que., signed a six-year, US$33-million contract with the Kings in free agency after helping the Canadiens reach the 2021 Stanley Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles did not retain any salary on Danault\u2019s deal, which holds a $5.5-million average annual value through next season.<\/p>\n<p>A two-way centre and penalty kill specialist, Danault had just five assists in 30 games in a diminishing role with the Kings this season.<\/p>\n<p>He produced a career-high 54 points with Los Angeles in 2022-23, and has tallied 125 goals and 274 assists in 741 NHL games after being drafted in the first round, 26th overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11585563\/flu-hospitalizations-double-h3n2-influenza\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766237895_729_CHEO.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tFlu hospitalizations nearly double as H3N2 spreads across Canada\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11582030\/epstein-files-released-photos\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/epstein-dec-19-release-4.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tEpstein files: U.S. DOJ says more to come after 1st batch released\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Canadiens, meanwhile, add Danault while centres Kirby Dach (foot) and Alex Newhook (ankle) nurse injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Dach was expected out four to six weeks as of Nov. 16. Newhook isn\u2019t scheduled to return until March.<\/p>\n<p>Montreal (18-12-4) hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins (14-10-9) on Saturday. The Canadiens did not know when Danault would join the team as of Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Sports<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By The Canadian Press The Canadian Press Posted December 20, 2025 8:12 am 1 min read Descrease article&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,18448,2656,18450,5,264,21,18451,5147,285,4,18452,18453,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-365984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-canadiens-hockey","10":"tag-habs","11":"tag-habs-hockey","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-montreal","14":"tag-montreal-canadiens","15":"tag-montreal-hockey","16":"tag-montrealcanadiens","17":"tag-national-hockey-league","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-quebec-hockey","20":"tag-quebec-sports","21":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115752173967741102","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}