Gary A. Vasquez-USA Today Sports
As the dust around the Staples Center settles and the Los Angeles Kings enter a sooner-than-expected offseason, it’s time for the team to roll up their sleeves and get to work so that they may ensure that missing the playoffs is a passing fad. The front office has a plethora of tasks to complete and need to take advantage of their head start to the offseason to give the Kings the best chance to be competitive next year. The largest and most important task will be signing Anze Kopitar to an extension beyond the end of his contract in 2016.
While the Kings have important players — proven playoff performer Justin Williams among them — who will be free agents this year none of them are anywhere near as important as Kopitar. According to NHL rules, the Kings can’t technically sign Kopitar until July 1, but the team and the center’s representatives can establish the framework for a new deal. Somewhere in the ballpark of eight years at $7.5-8 million per year which is the going rate for star first-line centers in the league.
It’s possible Kopitar would be willing to take a little less to give the team flexibility in order to keep the team as a perennial favorite, but that’s entirely up to him. While it would be admirable for Kopitar to this, the bottom is line he shouldn’t be criticized for trying to get as much as possible. Pro sports careers are the epitome of finite and the window to make as much as money as possible closes quickly, meaning Kopitar has to do what’s best for him.
I see negotiations starting in July and a deal getting finalized before camp opens in September as the team look to put this year behind them. Getting this deal done a year before any other team can enter the fray and try to woo Kopitar away from Los Angeles would work wonders for keeping the Kings in the elite class of the NHL. Quashing a potential contract distraction early will also free the Slovenian sniper of any distractions, allowing him to do what he does best — wreak havoc on the ice. That frame of mind coupled with the “us against the world” mentality is sure to make the Kings a force to be reckoned with.
