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Lucic and Kings begin extension talks

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Have you guys been impressed this year with Looch? Has he exceeded your expectations when the deal first happened.

Loved him as a Bruin just couldn't bring it every night. Haven't been able to watch the Kings much this year so very curious how the LA fanbase feels about him.
 
TimThomas24 said:
Have you guys been impressed this year with Looch? Has he exceeded your expectations when the deal first happened.

Loved him as a Bruin just couldn't bring it every night. Haven't been able to watch the Kings much this year so very curious how the LA fanbase feels about him.
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He's been everything I expected and more. Would like to see him cut down on the turnovers in his own zone and the neutral zone, but he hustles hard to prevent chances and his playmaking ability is something I felt never received as much credit as it deserves.

Looch has been a perfect fit with Kopitar and I hope Dean Lombardi finds a way to lock him up long term. The Kings haven't had a power forward like this since Adam Deadmarsh, and guys like Lucic are an extremely rare breed in the NHL today.

I make that trade again and again and again and again without blinking. The way Lucic plays the game exemplifies Kings/Darryl Sutter hockey.
 
I already knew what Lucic was going to bring to The Kings, but I didn't know he brought a ton in his playmaking abilities as well as ability to be a force in front of the net.

He def. plays an LA style of game and has worked on Carter's line or Kopitar's line in spades.
 
Trolfoli said:
Who replaces Lucic on in the top 6? I've seen what Brown/Lewis looks like for an extended period of time in the top 6 and that's not an answer.
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Fat Elvis said:
This is a valid point that I've been thinking about. Look at similar players Brown, Callahan, Backes and even Ladd. Their numbers have or are declining. These types of players begin their decline around 30-31. Is smart to sign Lucic to a 5-6 yr deal, knowing that his skills will diminish in 3 years. That's not even taking in to account that Lucic is playing contract year hockey.
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AlphaBravo said:
You are absolutely right and wrong in the same post. Lucic will regress because of his playing style and will not be as effective in his late 30s, as you mention in your post. I 100% agree. But it is worth giving him a 7 year deal just to get good two or three years from him because that is the length of our cup window. How he plays 3 years from now is not very important because we wont be competitive anymore and will start dumping players for assets if we can. And if no one is willing to take Lucic off our hands because of his cap hit, so be it. He will be a good leader to the younger players coming in.

Further, if we do not sign Lucic, replacing him in the offseason will be very difficult. We can likely find someone that can put up the same numbers as Lucic, but there wont be many players available that are true competitors, physical, can put up numbers, and are a great locker room leader like Lucic (I heard Sutter mention that a few times in post game interviews). These qualities are essential for us to be competitive for the cup, considering many of our leadership group left the past few years.

After this season, our core group should be Kopitar, Quick, Doughty, Muzzin, Toffoli, Lucic, and Carter. Everyone else on the roster can be replaced (if necessary) except for these guys.
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All make very good points. I agree that having Brown/Lewis logging top six minutes on a consistent basis is something to avoid.

I agree that Lucic would be extremely hard to replace in the short term. My worry with signing him is what happens with Pearson and Toffoli when they're due for new deals and How are we filing out the rest of the defense after Doughty, Muzzin, Martinez - what happens with Schenn and McNabb. The cap crunch will force some tough decisions. If it comes down to Pearson and Lucic, what do you do? Take the guy who will be better over the next 5-7 years or take the guy who will be better over the next 2-3?

I can get on board with the thinking that these next three years are the wheelhouse for adding more Cups and that after that we will have to possibly take a step back and rebuild a bit. So if Dean can get him for a deal like he did with Gaborik that helped keep the cap number down, that is something that intrigues me.

However, I still can't overlook the fact that he is playing contract year hockey right now. How much does he change once he's locked in for 6 years?

And on top of that, how many years until his body is just shot? We've seen the way a guy like Backes has taken a nosedive in recent years. It's impossible to keep up that pace. I know some Bruins fans and the People in Boston thought Lucic was potentially shot a few years ago.

Addiction problems aside, we've already seen a guy's body start to break down on us with Richards. That was the main concern people had about him when Philly was trading him. How long can he keep up that tenacious style of play? We still debate to this day whether the short term impact of bringing in Richards was worth giving up Schenn and Simmons who could've been longer term contributors here but may not have put us over the top for the Cup back in 2012. Some, like Dean, say yes because we never win that first cup without him. Some say no, with hindsight it wasn't worth it.

That is the main question in my mind. Will we look back in the next few years and talk about what a mistake it was to give this guy a long term deal because we let some of our younger talent get away while Lucic didn't provide the type of contributions we thought we were getting?

It is a great point that was raised regarding the age of the core being older now and closer to 30 and being on the back nine of Cup quests with this group. Is it better to go all in for the now or try to maintain a balance for when the "next" generation of guys start to take over the team. It's a fascinating discussion IMO. I don't think either answer is necessarily right or wrong. Just like i don't think there's a right or wrong answer to the Richard's thing - i can see why people say we couldn't have won without him and can also see the side of it where people say yeah we might not have been ready in 2012 but we would have been set up better in the years following.
 
Lucic has been everything I had expected. He had a wrist injury last season, which many of you guys chose to ignore, but the man can play hockey. I will say that he's a better playmaker than I had anticipated. So, a nice surprise there.
 
He's less mean and aggressive than I expected but also definitely faster. He's been good, I wouldn't say great because he's still invisible in some games but he brings a lot to the table which is hard to find in a scoring role. He's the best guy on the team in front and around the net in my opinion, great at screening the goalie which is something the Kings have been missing.

Really interested to see him in the playoffs, knock on wood.
 
Not only is he better than I thought, but he plays a team game and defends his teammates more than I anticipated. I know the Ducks got a goal on on of Lucic's penalties last week, but he took it defending Kopitar. And it's not like that goal was the difference in that Kings crap show that night anyway......
 
His line mates need to find a way get him more shot attempts. He could have more goals if he shot the puck more.
 
kingsfan said:
Use Lucic's cap hit to find someone.
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It may not be feasible but the first person that comes to my mind is Kyle Okposo. The difference in price tag isn't much when you think about it and they're the same age. But that's someone who plays a tough grinding game with good scoring touch. They have similar styles IMO.
 
DSuttersface said:
It may not be feasible but the first person that comes to my mind is Kyle Okposo. The difference in price tag isn't much when you think about it and they're the same age. But that's someone who plays a tough grinding game with good scoring touch. They have similar styles IMO.
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Okposo is much more talented with the puck but I agree and would love to sign him
 
TimThomas24 said:
Have you guys been impressed this year with Looch? Has he exceeded your expectations when the deal first happened.

Loved him as a Bruin just couldn't bring it every night. Haven't been able to watch the Kings much this year so very curious how the LA fanbase feels about him.
Click to expand...

I love him so much that I legally changed my name to Lilan Mucic
 
Would honestly rather see this money spent on a legit top 4 Dman, its a way more important position than a left winger, even of Lucic's caliber.
 
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