The Los Angeles Kings are close - as has been reported time and again over the past several months - to locking up No. 1 center Anze Kopitar to a likely eight-year extension expected to clock in somewhere in the vicinity of $9.5 million to $10 million per season. The deal is not done yet, of course, but it seems a pretty safe presumption at this point that it'll get done. For the Kings though, locking up Kopitar may just be the first move in a succession of moves that could result in a similar, if ultimately very different, Kings team going forward.
One of the biggest pieces - literally and figuratively - expected to be affected directly by the Kopitar extension is winger Milan Lucic. Per Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, Lucic is a guy Kings GM Dean Lombardi is intent on locking up as well.
"To me, the interesting thing is I hear the Kings still want to re-sign Lucic. And I think they're going to take a big run at it," Friedman said Thursday, while appearing on Calgary's Sportsnet 960, via Today's Slap Shot. "So I'm curious to see, if they get the Kopitar deal done - and I think they will - if they actually have the cap room to do this."
As of this very moment, the Kings have just over $600,000 in cap space, per General Fanager. Kopitar, Lucic, Trevor Lewis, Christian Ehrhoff, Luke Schenn, Brayden McNabb, Jamie McBain and Jhonas Enroth are operating on expiring deals. With Kopitar expected to re-sign, and potentially Lucic as well, that means a lot of money tied up in the top of the roster with a few key slots on the backend to fill for Lombardi and Daryl Sutter.
Interestingly, Friedman also suggested that another important piece of Kings business could potentially come in the wake of the Kopitar extension and, in turn, alter the entire makeup of the NHL's L.A.-based franchise.
"And I'll tell you something else too. There are a lot of people who believe Anze Kopitar is going to be the captain of the Kings next year. And I'm very curious about what that's going to mean for Dustin Brown," Friedman said.
Of course, Friedman's not suggesting that Brown, the team's captain since 2008, will be headed elsewhere, but it does seem to raise questions about the future direction of the team's on-ice and in-room leadership.
"I think they would prefer - I think they'll look and see if anybody is interested," said Friedman. "But I think it might be a situation where - Dean's really loyal. If he can't find somewhere for him to go, he's probably just going to have to give it up."
