Kopitar; For or Against a trade if it comes to it?

[Reclamation Project]

I bet he does. He's wanted Lucic for a while.

 

[Wisp]

I bet he does. He's wanted Lucic for a while.

Knowing your cap situation and the fact Kopitar is up for a payday, I doubt it.

In any case, nothing to worry about it. Unless, Benning gets fired, Lucic is a boat anchor my Canucks are going to get stuck with. Lucic's not going to age well and Benning is going to overpay.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

I'm sure he intends to try to keep Lucic in the same way he tried to keep Sekera. It just may not be in the cards for a variety of reasons.

 

[TopT]

And I'll disagree. Yeah, Kopi's a very important piece to us winning the cup, but the last time I've looked, guys named Quick and Williams won the Conn Smythe in our cup winning years.

Heck, Doughty's a lot more important to us winning than Kopi is.

Heck; he is not

 

[TopT]

Remember when we got Carter and everyone thought he and Richards would be a great linemates for many years to come? Remember when people didn't want Carter moving to 2C? Where are those people now? Believe me, if Carter has to be a 1C, he'll make a GREAT 1C! He just hasn't had the opportunity to be one is all.

I think the big difference in your thinking and mine is that I have a lot more faith in Lombardi than you do. I honestly don't see Lombardi hitting the panic button, just because Kopi moves on. If anything, it'll light a fire under Lombardi, and he'll put together another stanley cup team, before you know it.

Btw, IF Kopi were to get moved, it's a lose/lose situation for both kings and Kopi. No one ever mentions how lucky Kopi has been to be on a great team that plays puck possession hockey. Maybe a change of scenery, he'll realized how good he had it in LA.

God one; it does wonders for his personal stats

 

[TopT]

Worth every penny.

I dont think the song is appropriate for this topic

 

[kingsfan]

Pittsburgh isn't winning another Cup with those two taking up 25% of their cap. Furthermore, Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Scuderi, and Fleury take up 48% of their cap. Rubbish. Couple that with them having one of the more disaster GMs in the business, and yeah, no more Cups.

As painful as that 48% number is it isn't fatal. The GM on the other hand is.

 

[Reclamation Project]

In comparison Kopitar, Carter, Doughty, Muzzin, and Quick are only at 40%.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

This is really not true. The Kings were out of a playoff spot and falling fast before that trade. The Kings finished the year 13-2-7 after the trade, beat the Wings in the first round and came within a Smolinski goal post in game 7 of likely beating the Avs.

Can't predict injuries, Deadmarsh had 13 goals in 23 games the year he got hurt and looked like he had turned the corner into being a dominant power forward. Taylor crapped the bed taking Aulin and blowing the two picks, but no one would call it a bad trade if the Kings had chosen Vrbata from the prospects and drafted say Cammalleri and Perry. Or if Deadmarsh had stayed healthy.

And the situations really aren't comparable. Blake was extremely injury prone and had achieved basically nothing since being named captain of the team (not all his fault), Kopitar has won 2 Stanley Cups and been a major force in the playoffs. Trading Blake was going in a new direction after a failed post Gretzky era. Trading Kopitar would be putting an end to the most successful era in Kings history before it has to end. The trading of Kopitar would signal the beginning of a massive rebuild with a cupboard that is pretty bare. And goodluck getting a true championship caliber 1C (Carter isn't it). It took the Kings a decade to draft Kopitar after Gretzky was traded.

The package in return for a soon to be UFA was fine, it's what they did with that return and sadly Deadmarsh's short tenure here that made the trade look worse than it actually was. Everyone knew Deadmarsh was coming in as a player who was likely a concussion away from having his career ended, and sadly that did end up happening. His fights with Jovanovski pretty much signaled the slow end to what should've been a long and successful career.

Blake didn't have much support in the post-Gretzky era, but he was one of the reasons this team was somewhat respectable in 1997-98 and 2000-01. While the Kings still did well enough after his departure, the team got throttled with a series of unfortunate events, with injuries to a lack of depth and no defenseman ever being able to fill his shoes until Drew Doughty was drafted in 2008. So between that time frame, the Kings had no legit #1 defenseman.

And as you pointed out with Kopitar, the Kings didn't have a legit #1 center like him since Jason Allison, who turned out to be another short tenured player here.

I'd much prefer to erase those memories and not have to go through that process again with an ugly divorce from Kopitar or Doughty. As we've seen before, a couple of big mistakes can set a team back for many, many years. Losing a player of Kopitar's caliber would kick start a downward spiral.

 

[Little Psycho]

I picked Option Other cos I love Lucy is still a great show.

 

[theMajor]

Carter just can't compare to Kopitar. Literally the only thing JC does better than Kopi is score goals. Kopitar is better offensively, defensively, on special teams and in the circle.

agreed. I, for one, was really quite blown away to see how defensively responsible Carter is and how he can shutdown opposing forwards just as well as he can score clutch goals. its pretty remarkable that Kopi and Carts are our #1/#2 centers. if Richards wouldve kept his game at just 3/4 of his potential we'd be rocking and rolling down the middle

 

[KINGS17]

Talk about a low ball and what I would call insulting deal.
Basically Getz/Perry money on a deal that isn't max term and starts 3 years after theirs.
Any hopes of that cap hit are going to be max term.

That would be paying him in the neighborhood of $90M over 11 years post-ELC. I wouldn't call that an insult.

I don't care that it starts 3 years after their deals. Everyone is 3 years older as well and are that much further away from their prime production years. The cap is not going up. He doesn't need an 8-year deal. If you listened to the agent in the audio link I posted in the other thread, he said the term was the big issue in Giordano negotiation and that EVERY GM is cracking down on term for older players.

Giordano got six years, you don't think he wanted eight? I would love to negotiate a deal with some of you guys.

 

[KINGS17]

I bet he does. He's wanted Lucic for a while.

Dean is going to have to dump Brown if he wants to keep Lucic. As painful as it might be for him to do that, it may be the right thing to do for the team.

 

[Little Psycho]

This season is do or die time for Brown and I bet he knows it too.

 

[kingsfan]

That would be paying him in the neighborhood of $90M over 11 years post-ELC. I wouldn't call that an insult.

I don't care that it starts 3 years after their deals. Everyone is 3 years older as well and are that much further away from their prime production years. The cap is not going up. He doesn't need an 8-year deal. If you listened to the agent in the audio link I posted in the other thread, he said the term was the big issue in Giordano negotiation and that EVERY GM is cracking down on term for older players.

Giordano got six years, you don't think he wanted eight? I would love to negotiate a deal with some of you guys.

I'd love to see what the Kings look like 5 years from now with you as the GM.

 

[Choralone]

I'd love to see what the Kings look like 5 years from now with you as the GM.

 

[Herby]

The Kings are going to be pretty bad five years from, whether the GM is The Oracle of Delphi or Mike Milbury. Just the way it is, the Kings would happily do it again because it helped them win two Stanley Cups, but the fact remains you can't just trade away that many high draft picks and young players and expect to have a decade long run.

Hopefully the next CBA says the max deal is five or six years, the eight year deals actually hurt teams like the Kings and Blackhawks who have great teams in their primes but now have to sign and pay those guys into their potentially unproductive years. The Kings are now in a spot where they have to either pay Anze Kopitar until he is past his mid 30's or throw away the final 3-4 years of their potential dynasty. It sucks, but that is the way it is. I would personally do what Chicago did and just sign them to the eight years and just take whatever lumps come after the good years end.

 

[Fishhead]

Hopefully the next CBA says the max deal is five or six years, the eight year deals actually hurt teams like the Kings and Blackhawks who have great teams in their primes but now have to sign and pay those guys into their potentially unproductive years. The Kings are now in a spot where they have to either pay Anze Kopitar until he is past his mid 30's or throw away the final 3-4 years of their potential dynasty. It sucks, but that is the way it is. I would personally do what Chicago did and just sign them to the eight years and just take whatever lumps come after the good years end.

Absolutely. The team is gonna be in the crapper, but we can take solace in the fact that the team has won cups and you know you have a GM that can build a championship roster. It's either going to be DL or someone like Futa who knows what it takes.

 

[kingsfan]

The Kings are going to be pretty bad five years from, whether the GM is The Oracle of Delphi or Mike Milbury. Just the way it is, the Kings would happily do it again because it helped them win two Stanley Cups, but the fact remains you can't just trade away that many high draft picks and young players and expect to have a decade long run.

Tell that to Detroit. They've traded a ton of young guys and picks over the years, they have never even missed the playoffs, never mind been bad.

A teams future can look bright or gloomy five years down the line but its not a predestined thing.

 

[TheBannermen]

 

[Reclamation Project]

Was cleaning out some old boxes and stumbled on a Kopitar rookie card. Pay him anything he wants.

 

[HYORI 1963]

The Kings are going to be pretty bad five years from, whether the GM is The Oracle of Delphi or Mike Milbury. Just the way it is, the Kings would happily do it again because it helped them win two Stanley Cups, but the fact remains you can't just trade away that many high draft picks and young players and expect to have a decade long run.

Hopefully the next CBA says the max deal is five or six years, the eight year deals actually hurt teams like the Kings and Blackhawks who have great teams in their primes but now have to sign and pay those guys into their potentially unproductive years. The Kings are now in a spot where they have to either pay Anze Kopitar until he is past his mid 30's or throw away the final 3-4 years of their potential dynasty. It sucks, but that is the way it is. I would personally do what Chicago did and just sign them to the eight years and just take whatever lumps come after the good years end.

Gotta love your positive outlook.

 

[Herby]

Tell that to Detroit. They've traded a ton of young guys and picks over the years, they have never even missed the playoffs, never mind been bad.

A teams future can look bright or gloomy five years down the line but its not a predestined thing.

Ok I stand corrected.

If Doughty plays at a hall of fame level until he is 41 and the Kings draft two hall of fame players in back to back drafts then they can contend for over a decade.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Ok I stand corrected.

If Doughty plays at a hall of fame level until he is 41 and the Kings draft two hall of fame players in back to back drafts then they can contend for over a decade.

In or around the 7th round too.

I mean, crazier things have happened, but tough to bank on that.

 

[kingsfan]

Ok I stand corrected.

If Doughty plays at a hall of fame level until he is 41 and the Kings draft two hall of fame players in back to back drafts then they can contend for over a decade.

Give me a break.

Drafting quality players will keep LA going for a long time at a playoff caliber level and thus far LA's scouting team has shown they can do that.

Detroit drafted Zetterberg in 1999. Since then the best player they have drafted is arguably one of Niklas Kronwall/Jimmy Howard/Jiri Hudler. Good players but nothing even close to hall of famers.