EL SEGUNDO, CA. - The Los Angeles Kings have acquired goaltender Roman Cechmanek from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for a second-round choice in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, Kings Senior Vice President/General Manager Dave Taylor announced today.

“Going into the off-season one of our top priorities was to address our goaltending situation for next season,” said Taylor. “After looking at all the options we had available, we felt that making a trade and acquiring Roman Cechmanek in particular was our best course of action. Roman will help stabilize this position for the Kings as he has proven to be one of the NHL’s top goaltenders for the past three seasons.”

Cechmanek, 32, played in 58 regular season games with the Flyers this past season and had a 33-15-10 record, a 1.83 goals-against average and six shutouts. Originally drafted by the Flyers in the sixth-round (171st overall) of the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, the 6-3, 187-pound native of Gottwaldov, Czech Republic, spent the last three seasons in Philadelphia, where he played in 163 career games and posted a 92-43-22 record, a 1.96 goals-against average and a .923 save percentage. His career goals-against-average of 1.96 is the lowest among goaltenders with at least 150 regular-season games since 1943-44, and his 20 career shutouts rank second on the Flyers all-time list.

This past season, Cechmanek’s 1.83 goals-against-average was second (to Dallas’ Marty Turco) in the NHL and his .925 save percentage ranked third among all NHL goalies. An NHL All-Star in 2001, he was also named by the Flyers as the 2003 winner of the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the team’s Most Valuable Player (he also won the award in 2001). During this past post-season he had a 6-7 record in 13 games, along with a 2.15 goals-against-average and a .909 save percentage.

Cechmanek (ROH-muhn chechk-MAH-nehk) - who also in 2003 won the William Jennings Trophy which goes to the goaltenders who played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it (shared with teammate Robert Esche and New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur) - had represented his native Czech Republic most recently at the 2000 World Hockey Championship where he helped the team earn a Gold Medal in St. Petersburg, Russia (was named to the Tournament Media All-Star First Team as the best goaltender). He was also a member of the Czech Republic Olympic Team in 1998 that won a Gold Medal in Nagano, Japan. In addition, before coming to the NHL, Cechmanek was named the best Czech goaltender six times (1995 through 2000) and was a member of five Czech Elite League championship teams (1995 through 1999) as well as a member of three World Hockey Championship teams (1996, 1999 and 2000).

Career Stats
Season	Club	League	GP	MIN	GA	SO	AVG	W-L-T
94-95	HC Vsetin	CZE	41	2413	98	5	2.44	NA
95-96	HC Vsetin	CZE	36	2142	77	4	2.16	NA
96-97	HC Vsetin	CZE	48	2762	98	3	2.13	NA
97-98	HC Vsetin	CZE	41	2306	76	0	1.98	NA
98-99	HC Vsetin	CZE	45	2696	77	5	1.71	NA
99-00	HC Vsetin	CZE	37	2141	88	0	2.47	NA
00-01	Philadelphia	AHL	3	160	3	0	1.12	1-1-0
	Philadelphia	NHL	59	3431	115	10	2.01	35-15-6
01-02	Philadelphia	NHL	46	2603	89	4	2.05	24-13-6
02-03	Philadelphia	NHL	58	3350	102	6	1.83	33-15-10
NHL Totals			163	9384	306	20	1.96	92-43-22

Playoffs
Season	Club	League	GP	MIN	GA	SO	AVG	W-L
94-95	HC Vsetin	CZE	11	619	23	1	2.23	NA
95-96	HC Vsetin	CZE	13	783	17	2	1.30	NA
96-97	HC Vsetin	CZE	10	602	11	2	1.10	NA
97-98	HC Vsetin	CZE	10	600	16	1	1.60	NA
98-99	HC Vsetin	CZE	12	747	23	1	1.85	8-4
99-00	HC Vsetin	CZE	9	545	15	3	1.65	5-4
00-01	Philadelphia	AHL	-	-	-	-	-	-
	Philadelphia	NHL	6	347	18	0	3.11	2-4
01-02	Philadelphia	NHL	4	227	7	1	1.85	1-3
02-03	Philadelphia	NHL	13	867	31	2	2.15	6-7
NHL Totals			23	1441	56	3	2.33	9-14