[Signing] Kings sign Kopitar to 8 yr extension. $10 mil AAV

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

yeah its kind of funny... Kopitar is a top 5 player in the league, will make what Denis Wideman + Matt Stajan make... people think this is a bad signing. LOL

You could also say that Gaudreau, Monahan, Bennett, Ferland and Brodie combined are cheaper than Kopitar, so...

[BACKCHECK!!!]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

We also tried cheating the system by back diving contracts, we were the first... but lets not that get in the way of all the Mike Richards whining.

More importantly, not only were we the first team to have a cap circumvention contract, we're the only team to date that I know of who have actually followed through on the cap circumventio, and had the player retire on the tail end of the contract.

Before we get on our high horses about cap circumvention.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

yeah its kind of funny... Kopitar is a top 5 player in the league, will make what Denis Wideman + Matt Stajan make... people think this is a bad signing. LOL

apples and oranges

Wideman and Stajan are not signed for eight years each and the team was in a totally different spot when those contracts were signed. When Calgary (hopefully) has a contending team in the next while here neither of those guys will be on the roster at top dollar

[Mr.Coffee]

this is a horrible contract, and there's no way he's worth this or that LA should sign it. This reminds me of many, many horrible deals... Toews included, to be honest. I'm sorry but if you're a forward that puts up 60 points but is sound defensively, that's not worth 10mm a year. That's just absurd.

The odds of a guy making this deal make sense are about, well... extremely low. This is simply idiotic. If he's putting their feet to the fire, let him walk. It's just not worth it. I don't get it at all.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

this is a horrible contract, and there's no way he's worth this or that LA should sign it. This reminds me of many, many horrible deals... Toews included, to be honest. I'm sorry but if you're a forward that puts up 60 points but is sound defensively, that's not worth 10mm a year. That's just absurd.

The odds of a guy making this deal make sense are about, well... extremely low. This is simply idiotic. If he's putting their feet to the fire, let him walk. It's just not worth it. I don't get it at all.

Kopitar is a 60 point player the same way Yzerman was a 70 point player.

The new NHL is a few players at the top making a lot, and you fill the rest of your roster with low contracts. Pretty obvious. In a few years he probably will decline, but he's one of the top players in the game.

Enouch - by the time Kopitar's new contract takes into effect, Gaudreau+Monahan+Brodie will be over $15M. Use your head. And obviously its stupid to include rookie contracts.

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Kopitar is a 60 point player the same way Yzerman was a 70 point player.

The new NHL is a few players at the top making a lot, and you fill the rest of your roster with low contracts. Pretty obvious. In a few years he probably will decline, but he's one of the top players in the game.

Enouch - by the time Kopitar's new contract takes into effect, Gaudreau+Monahan+Brodie will be over $15M. Use your head. And obviously its stupid to include rookie contracts.

I was making a purposely stupid comment to rebut your stupid comment.

And then you come back with this? lol

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Kopitar is a 60 point player the same way Yzerman was a 70 point player.

The new NHL is a few players at the top making a lot, and you fill the rest of your roster with low contracts. Pretty obvious. In a few years he probably will decline, but he's one of the top players in the game.

Enouch - by the time Kopitar's new contract takes into effect, Gaudreau+Monahan+Brodie will be over $15M. Use your head. And obviously its stupid to include rookie contracts.

And Wideman/Stajan will be off the books within 2 seasons

8 years at 10M may be the going rate but it will surely be a bad contract at some point

[IgiTang]

Just wait until we are staring down a barrel of a gun when it comes to signing Money, JG and Bennett.

That's gonna be 12mil x 8 x 3. 36 Mil in 3 players. But they're gonna be worth it!

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

Kopitar is a 60 point player the same way Yzerman was a 70 point player.

The new NHL is a few players at the top making a lot, and you fill the rest of your roster with low contracts. Pretty obvious. In a few years he probably will decline, but he's one of the top players in the game.

Enouch - by the time Kopitar's new contract takes into effect, Gaudreau+Monahan+Brodie will be over $15M. Use your head. And obviously its stupid to include rookie contracts.

The concern for me would be that his production is already trending down. He's gone from a PPG player to 0.8 PPG these last two years. If he keeps trending downward - its a troublesome contract with 5 years remaining.

That said - the Kings are a Stanley Cup contender. They can't replace him - so you just have to swallow hard and hope you win another cup or two and then suffer at the end of it.

There's no prize for best cap managed team or having the fewest terrible contracts.

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

...
There's no prize for best cap managed team or having the fewest terrible contracts.

This is more relevant to a discussion in another thread. But I really wanted to highlight this statement as 100% agreeable. Thank you.

[sureLoss]

Chris Nichols @NicholsOnHockey
Friedman: "I hear the #LAKings still want to re-sign Lucic, and I think they're going to take a big run at it."

GM's please prepare your Tofolli offer sheet in 2017

[hockey.modern]

Tofolli would be a perfect player for the Flames

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by hockey.modern

Tofolli would be a perfect player for the Flames

For sure, but even with a threat of an offer sheet, Kings will most probably trade him to the East than the Flames.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by Phanuthier

yeah its kind of funny... Kopitar is a top 5 player in the league, will make what Denis Wideman + Matt Stajan make... people think this is a bad signing. LOL

Kopitar is most certainly not a top 5 player in the league.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Kopitar is most certainly not a top 5 player in the league.

I personally think he is (I see almost a 13 way tie for best player in the NHL, I give winning a cup extra pedigree) but probably why I see this deal happened. You got Doughty and Kopitar and a good supporting cast that can get you a cup, and Kopitar is rare and hard to replace - we spent 20 years looking for a replacement for Nieuwendyk. In a few years, they could be in cap hell but as mentioned before, the CBA expires and depending on what the NHL is looking for, they may have compliance buyouts to shave off dollars for the cap and that'll get the LAK out of cap hell. The pending lockout would probabyl eat a year off the deals too. They're going for it now, and the future is a blur... but might as well since there are always options to get out of it (savvy deals like dealing Pronger or Nathan Horton, or even better convenient circumstances so sport fans can whine on for months after it happens)

[BigTuna]

The Kings have a horrific cap situation for years to come. Mike Richards is on the books till 2031. Then There's Carter, Brown, Quick, Gaborik.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Kopitar is most certainly not a top 5 player in the league.

I don't think there is any forward in the league that I would definitely want more than Kopitar moving forward. Toews, Kane, Crosby, Tavares, maybe Seguin and until this year Getzlaf would be about equal with him for me.

So I would say he is not not a top 5 player, but not necessarily a top 5 player. The 13ish way tie for best player sounds about right.

The Hurricanes are the only team in recent memory that have won a cup without having at least two of the top 25 players in the league at the time (almost always including C, D and/or G).

The Kings still have top 25 C and D, and a G on the fringe of that. There chances of a cup are much better with Kopitar than without.

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by BigTuna

The Kings have a horrific cap situation for years to come. Mike Richards is on the books till 2031. Then There's Carter, Brown, Quick, Gaborik.

It will be sad for you when they continue to finish ahead of the Leafs in the standings until at least 2031

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

I don't think there is any forward in the league that I would definitely want more than Kopitar moving forward. Toews, Kane, Crosby, Tavares, maybe Seguin and until this year Getzlaf would be about equal with him for me.

So I would say he is not not a top 5 player, but not necessarily a top 5 player. The 13ish way tie for best player sounds about right.

The Hurricanes are the only team in recent memory that have won a cup without having at least two of the top 25 players in the league at the time (almost always including C, D and/or G).

The Kings still have top 25 C and D, and a G on the fringe of that. There chances of a cup are much better with Kopitar than without.

Well said. On top of that, how often does a team get to have a No 1 C (one of the best in the league), a No 1 D (arguably the best in the league) and a No 1 goalie (there are less than 10 of them in the league right now)? Only 2 teams have that right now IMO... we haven't been able to have that combo in 25 years.

If you got the window, you go for it... whatever happens in the future, happens. Maybe 2 years will suck of having to dump draft picks for cap dumps, but I'll bet we see another round of compliance buyouts. The CBA expires in 6 years, so if we do get any kind of variation of a compliance buyout, this could very likely be more like a 5 year, $10M AAV deal (with extra dollars in Kopitars pocket for a buyout).

(Side note : I noticed both Gaborik and Carter's deals $$ value drop to $3M in 3 years, I'd expect if their window is closing in 3 years, some team looking to reach the cap floor will probably take on their contract, probably for a 2nd round pick.)

[Jason14h]

The odds of a guy making this deal make sense are about, well... extremely low. This is simply idiotic. If he's putting their feet to the fire, let him walk. It's just not worth it. I don't get it at all.

The point of hockey is to win the cup. He is a 2 time winner, and the Captain of the team. They are not a rebuilding team.

What good does 10 million in cap room do when you are now missing this type of player. Who would they sign?

Look at last years FA crop. Good players don't make it to FA anymore.

LA doesn't care what their cap looks like in 5 years when their core is all late 30's. They can trade the players then and retain and rebuild if they suck.