The Los Angeles Kings and GM Dean Lombardi engaged in something like roster rejuvenation this offseason. Already known for gritty, powerful and talented players up and down the roster, the Kings added to that personality by trading for Milan Lucic, allowing aging veterans Jarret Stoll, Justin Williams and trade deadline addition Andrej Sekera to walk in free agency, resigning Tyler Toffoli to a bridge deal and signing back-up netminder Jhonas Enroth.
One piece of business Lombardi wasn't able to take care of was the soon-to-be expiring contract for No. 1 center Anze Kopitar. A recent report suggests that Lombardi and Co. have made almost no headway on their star forward.
"The Kings have their own cap issues, none of which are Kopitar's fault, but he will no doubt be asked to scale back salary expectations in the name of winning another Stanley Cup. According to a source, contract talks between the two sides haven't gotten off the ground yet this summer," ESPN's Craig Custance reported Wednesday.
Kopitar, 27, finished the 2014-15 season for the Kings with 16 goals and 48 assists in 79 mostly disappointing games for the NHL's Los Angeles-based franchise. Kopitar is an easy 20-plus goal scorer - last season and the lockout-shortened 2012-13 are the only times he hasn't reached that plateau since entering the NHL on a full-time basis in 2006-07 - who paces the Kings offensively.
He's got two Stanley Cup rings to his name and, per an unnamed NHL executive, is likely to point to that and the dual deals the Chicago Blackhawks handed to captain Jonathan Toews and electrifying winger Patrick Kane as a main bargaining chip in his coming negotiations with the Kings.
Toews and Kane, of course, were handed matching eight-year, $84 million contract extensions in July of last year. They've already forced Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman's hand in several instances this offseason, leading directly to the trade of blossoming power forward Brandon Saad and the inability to retain Johnny Oduya or Antoine Vermette.
Unfortunately for Kopitar and other top players looking to cash in, like Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos, the only consensus amongst NHL executives when it comes to top-line center contracts seems to be that there is no consensus.
"I'm sure of course that Stamkos and [Anze] Kopitar's agents are saying that but those two guys are getting $10.5 million because they have Stanley Cup rings all over their hands," one unnamed executive said, via Custance. "That's what I would say to the agents of guys who haven't done what those two guys have done. That would be the negotiation. Those guys are getting paid for what they've done."
Per NHLNumbers.com, as of right now, Lombardi and Co. have just over $7 million in salary cap space. That doesn't include the new deal Lucic, who is also entering the final year of his deal, is likely to command and includes either a re-signing or replacement for Trevor Lewis.
In the end, the decision, it always has been and always will be, will be a difficult one for Lombardi. Do they pay Kopitar handsomely and hope that a top-heavy Kings lineup is still able to compete for a Cup? Or do they risk the potential fallout from drawing a hardline in negotiations with their top offensive weapon and attempt to build a deeper roster that isn't paced by one star player?
