Gagne spent his first 10 NHL seasons with the Flyers, but won his first Stanley Cup title last season in Los Angeles after a late-playoff return from a concussion. He hasn’t scored a goal in 11 games this season for the Kings, who decided the veteran didn’t fit in coach Darryl Sutter’s system.

Before Gagne even got up the nerve to ask for a trade, Kings general manager Dean Lombardi sent him back to Philadelphia.

“They just did it on their own,” Gagne said. “It just shows you the class those guys have. Even if it’s hard getting traded in the middle of the season, going to Philly — and they told me it was the best place for me to go — they’re really gentlemen to do that to me this year.”

Los Angeles will get a third-round pick if Philadelphia makes the playoffs or a fourth-round pick if the Flyers miss the postseason.

Gagne had 259 goals and 524 points in his decade with the Flyers, who traded him to Tampa Bay in July 2010 partly to get under the salary cap. The Kings signed him a year later, but Gagne has scored just 24 goals in 108 games since leaving Philadelphia.

“This is a good player that I’ve known a long time, and I know that if he would have wanted to go anywhere, that would be the place he wanted to go,” said Lombardi, a former Flyers scout. “Given that we had to do this, if we can, I would certainly put him someplace I know he’d be happy.”

Gagne scored a career-high 47 goals during the 2005-06 season while playing mostly on a line with Peter Forsberg and Mike Knuble, who re-signed with Philadelphia last month. Before the lockout last July, the Flyers re-signed Ruslan Fedotenko, who began his career alongside Gagne with the Flyers more than a decade ago.

Flyers GM Paul Holmgren spoke with Lombardi a few days ago about Gagne, but suddenly had urgency to add front-line depth. Matt Read is sidelined for six weeks with torn rib cage muscles, and Tye McGinn will be out for a few weeks after breaking an orbital bone in a fight with Toronto’s Matt Brown on Monday night.

“He improves our depth up front automatically,” said Holmgren, who traded Gagne three years ago. “He is a good two-way player that can skate. … Coaches have watched tape of him playing, so we feel comfortable that he is fine. He seems excited to be coming back, and looks forward to an opportunity to play and help us.”

The seven-time 20-goal scorer was sidelined for more than five months of his first season in Los Angeles with his latest concussion, but returned to action in the Stanley Cup finals. He played four games while winning his first NHL championship, but underwent neck surgery five days after raising the Cup for the first time.

Gagne’s ice time was down sharply this season, and he had been a healthy scratch recently for the Kings (9-6-2), who have won four straight after a slow start. Gagne had five assists this season, but lost playing time recently to fellow veteran Dustin Penner.

Gagne only recently pulled up some of his Philly roots. Flyers coach Peter Laviolette has been renting Gagne’s old house in Philadelphia’s New Jersey suburbs for the past 2½ years, but Gagne recently sold the house, with the closing scheduled for March 15.

While Los Angeles started clicking after a slow start, Philadelphia is off to just a 9-11-1 start despite scoring 60 goals, third in the Eastern Conference.

Gagne has a $3.5 million salary for the season and will be a free agent this summer, but Holmgren said the Flyers could afford him after losing players to injury.

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The Canadiens also received a third-round draft pick from the Stars.

Ryder originally was drafted by Montreal and played his first four NHL seasons with the Canadiens from 2003-04 through 2007-08.

Ryder carries a $3.5 million salary this season and is slated for unrestricted free agency in July.

Cole has two more years on his contract past this season at a $4.5 million cap hit.

“[Cole] gives us more size and strength to compete in the West,” Stars general manager Joe Nieuwendyk said. “The fact that he has this year plus two years remaining on his contract is a little security for us.”

Both players scored 35 goals last season, which established career highs for each player.

Cole has struggled this season with only three goals and three assists in 19 games. Ryder has six goals and five assists in 18 games this season.

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The 35-year-old Redden was placed on waivers this week by the New York Rangers, who bought out the final two years of his contract on Thursday.

Also on Friday, the Blues released 35-year-old defenseman Colin White, who was brought in for a tryout earlier this week. White is three games shy of 800 over 12 NHL seasons. He played in 54 games for the San Jose Sharks last season after 11 seasons with the New Jersey Devils.

Redden, who spent the past two seasons with Connecticut of the AHL, had five goals and 35 assists in 156 regular-season games with the Rangers over two seasons after he signed a six-year, $39 million deal to leave Ottawa.

Under the new labor deal, Redden will earn a pro-rated $3.341 million this season plus two-thirds of the $5 million he was set to earn next season. In 994 career NHL games over 13 years, Redden has 106 goals and 344 assists.

“Wade is a solid two-way defenseman,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said Friday. “We believe his experience will complement and add stability to our defensive core.”

Redden is scheduled for a physical on Sunday, a day after the Blues open the season at home against the Detroit Red Wings. He was the second overall pick by the New York Islanders in 1995.

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The team announced Friday that it has officially suspended the 36-year-old veteran defenseman. Despite conflicting reports whether he would return from Russia to fulfill his contractual obligation with the Islanders, he has not yet arrived for training camp.

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Visnovsky, acquired in June from Anaheim, attempted to have the trade overruled but an arbitrator ruled in December that the deal was valid.

The Islanders open the season Saturday at home against the New Jersey Devils.

Visnovsky has tried to remain with his European club, Slovan Bratislava, in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, despite a rule prohibiting that. The NHL and KHL have a memorandum of agreement that any player with an NHL contract must return to his club once the lockout is lifted.

The KHL is complying and won’t let Visnovsky play in Russia now that the lockout has ended.

The suspension was done in order for the Islanders to officially get down to the 23-man roster needed for opening night.

Visnovsky scored six goals and had 27 points — 10 on the power play — in 68 games with the Ducks last season.

In 771 games over 11 NHL seasons with Los Angeles, Edmonton and Anaheim, Visnovsky has 117 goals and 450 points. He was an All-Star in 2007.

The Islanders also announced on Friday that they claimed defenseman Brian Strait off waivers from the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Strait has played in 12 NHL games with the Penguins, notching one assist and four penalty minutes.

Pittsburgh chose him with the 65th pick (third round) of the 2006 draft, but the 25-year-old native of Boston has spent most of his time in the minors. Strait has eight goals and 32 assists in 220 career AHL games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

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