More than likely their will be more compliance buyouts after the next work stoppage (either side can opt-out after 18-19, effective 19-20), so if they needed to get out of this deal, Brown's deal or Quick's deal, they can.
Is there any possible scenario where we re-sign Kopitar for 9-10 million AND keep Lucic. Ugh.
More than likely their will be more compliance buyouts after the next work stoppage (either side can opt-out after 18-19, effective 19-20), so if they needed to get out of this deal, Brown's deal or Quick's deal, they can.
Is there any possible scenario where we re-sign Kopitar for 9-10 million AND keep Lucic. Ugh.
While both sides are working towards an eight-year extension, money, structure of the contract and bonuses are among the items that are still unresolved.
The Kings would like to get Kopitar signed to a contract well below $10 million per season, while Kopitar's camp appears to be holding firm on a deal at or above that mark.
If DL has offered $9.75M, that better be his final number. Somebody in Kopitar camp is no good at math. $11.5M x 7 years is a $2.5M higher gross number than $9.75 for 8 years. How many teams that he'd actually want to play for can afford that? Is it worth $2.5M? I hate to jump to conclusion but Kopitar ('s agent) is out of his mind if he is penny pinching that much.
DL should give him a take it or leave it offer to be decided by a week before the trade deadline.
Stamkos is likely gone and that is because of salary cap restraints and younger players that need future contracts. They were talking about this on NHL radio today.
Same problem with LA.
If the Cap is at 70 million and you give one guy 10 million, that is crazy.
Especially with Carter, Brown, Gaborik, Doughty, Quick, Muzzin, Martinez all making big money. Lucic and Lewis seem like Sutter favorites and they are UFA's and Toffoli is going to want big money in 1.5 seasons. What about Pearson and King? They need new deals soon too.
Also, Kings need to address the defense, so allocate another 4-5 million for a replacement for Scuderi, RR, Mitchell, Voynov.
I love Kopitar guys, I just don't see Lombardi pulling a Stan Bowman.
If we do not re-sign kopitar than that money would be going to try and adress our #2 C not D.
I think everyone here (or most) would be delighted if Kopitar re-signed for a $7.8M cap hit. Is everyone prepared to let him walk over $2M with no replacement in place?
Nope. Especially knowing that another work stoppage is inevitable 4 years into the new deal and if his play has dropped off they can likely get out for just 2/3s the remaining cash via a compliance buyout (no cap penalty), which might not be that much depending on the deal structure. For example, Toews/Kane get $53.4M of their $84M in the first 4 years.
Bob McKenzie's latest:
http://www.tsn.ca/what-s-holding-up-kopitar-s-new-contract-1.399719
Of course a player of Kopitar's age is going to want the max length (8 years) because it will carry him into retirement. And of course a player is going to want the most money he can get on his last contract because, well, it's his last contract.
And of course he's not going to be the same player 4 years from now. And unless the Kings strike gold repeatedly in the drafts, or find a replacement for Columbus as a trade partner, they're going to suck eggs around that time too.
So the question is, do you pay Kopitar a bunch for the next 4 years or so of production? And the questions to ask before answering that one are:
- Do you think the Kings' window is still open for the next few years if Kopitar is your center?
- If not, is there anyone else out there who you can obtain for that spot who will keep the window open instead?
I personally think the window is still open, and I don't think Carter is a 1c - at least not on a Stanley Cup contender. (I think his production as a 2c has benefited from having Kopitar in the 1c spot.) So in my view we're not looking for a 2c to replace Carter, we're looking for a 1c to replace Kopitar.
Unless there's another 1c out there, I think we're stuck - especially since we'd have to give up more than Kopitar to swap for this hypothetical better center.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I respect McKenzie, but it surprises me that he fails to understand the dynamic under which the Kane and Toews deals were signed. The salary cap was expected to continue to grow to nearly $80M by next season at that time.
It also surprises me that he thinks Kopitar is worth a $10M AAV, or something approaching that. The longer this goes the more I hope Dean is exploring all of his options. Brisson doesn't seem to be giving him any choice.
I think an AAV for Kopitar that is over $9M a season starts doing damage as soon as next season.
As an aside, while I agree that there will be another work stoppage that may afford the GMs around the NHL to use compliance buyouts that will not count against the cap to get rid of undesirable contracts, I think it sucks to use that as part of the equation in their strategy to sign a player.
All this talk about Kopitar going away is pure nonsense. I really don't think you guys are thinking in terms of the real world and the realities of contract negotiations in this day and age.
Clearly he is going to resign here, and clearly if they gave Gaborik a 7-year deal at age 31 then they are most certainly going to give Kopitar an 8-year deal at age 28.
And it's going to be right around $10 million per year. That much is obvious. If the Kings offered him $9.75 million, then they most certainly will round it up to get the deal done. And my guess is it gets done by early December.
Come on, guys. Think. Let's get real here.
And stop complaining about Kopi "declining." Have any of you watched the past two games?
This is HF boards. Logic is not allowed