[Rumor] - Lucic to re-sign

[Canadiens2099]

Hearing this through a friend of a friend that Lucic is close to re-signing long term in LA. It's a legit source, but obviously take it with a grain of salt.

[Rodgort]

For all the good moves D. Lombardi makes, I would qualify a long-term deal to Lucic a Dustin Brown style deal.. as in a bad one. the good news is if the Kings keep making their team worse they can't win the cup anymore!

[Axeman33]

If they can actually manage to get him re-signed, I can't wait to see what they have to do to pull off considering their cap situation.

[Doug Glatt]

I think signing Lucic would be great for both sides. LA to Vancouver is a hop skip and jump for him to go home. LA's style is perfectly suited to his game. Lucic can play on either of the top two lines and fill a lot of roles. I think the difference between Lucic and Brown is talent: Lucic is an elemental force of nature while Brown is just a overachieving scrapper type.

I am a Kings fan, but I agree with you that Brown's contract sucks. I hope he finds his scoring game again. Brown might have hit the wall though, and taken his career as far as hustle can get you with marginal skills and declining physical ability. All of the hits--given and taken--add up on a small guy over the years, this might have something to do with Brown's decline. He was a very fast skater, now there is no burst at all.

[Reuben]

It's easy for us to say, but I can't help thinking Brown is buyout material. And not sure how that would go over with Kings management, given that I think they're paying for Mike Richards still. Not 100% sure on that, tho.

But seven years and $30million-ish on that deal is just a massive anchor for anything they want to do

[Doug Glatt]

The Kings have a fair amount of money coming off the books with Vinny Versteeg and Schenn among others so I dont think we are at the Brown buyout stage yet. That would be a move that shakes things up though, hang the failure of the past two years around his neck and send him out the door with a nice check.

[Reuben]

Yeah, that's ^^ a fair point. More proof that it's easier to yell and shout about buyouts than actually do the work and figure out the cap.

[Axeman33]

The Kings have a fair amount of money coming off the books with Vinny Versteeg and Schenn among others so I dont think we are at the Brown buyout stage yet. That would be a move that shakes things up though, hang the failure of the past two years around his neck and send him out the door with a nice check.

All true, but they still need a backup goalie and they only have five NHL Dmen signed going into next season. Plus they only have one season left of Toffoli and Pearson and will need to re-sign them. It's about more than just next season.

Even with all those coming off, they still only have about 10M in cap space before they need to refill the holes left behind by those players.

[Doug Glatt]

Yeah the Kings dont have a great cap situation. The wages of success are expensive. The Brown and Gaborik contracts are both problems if this is what you can expect from them production-wise. Pearson might not be a lock to get a contract, everyone isnt going to get what they want and stay with the Kings. Kempe could probably handle his spot. I still think they will get a deal done with Lucic, then figure out how to make it all fit later.

[Goldendelicious]

I'm surprised to hear this. This was a guy I figured that the Kings would let walk due to Toffoli and Pearson coming up next year.

Then again, they did pay a very hefty price to acquire him.

[JagrBomb]

lucic will take a discount. it's LA, he must love it there. i think we'll see a similar to gaborik contract. low AAV but longterm.

guess kings want Brown to have some overpaid company in a couple seasons.

[forsbergfan]

i'm not liking where the kings are going. I think their Stanley cup days are over for this version of the team. Chicago has done a much better job of retooling than they did.

[newfcollins]

It would be crazy of them to buy out Brown. He'd be on the Kings books for the next 11 years. And in two of those years, his cap hit wpuld be $3.7 million. Here are the numbers from General Fanager.

Year Buyout Cap Hit
2016-17 $680,555
2017-18 $1,180,555
2018-19 $2,180,555
2019-20 $2,180,555
2020-21 $3,680,555
2021-22 $3,680,555
2022-23 $1,805,555
2023-24 $1,805,555
2024-25 $1,805,555
2025-26 $1,805,555
2026-27 $1,805,555
2027-28 $1,805,555

[Thunder]

It would be crazy of them to buy out Brown. He'd be on the Kings books for the next 11 years. And in two of those years, his cap hit wpuld be $3.7 million. Here are the numbers from General Fanager.

Year Buyout Cap Hit
2016-17 $680,555
2017-18 $1,180,555
2018-19 $2,180,555
2019-20 $2,180,555
2020-21 $3,680,555
2021-22 $3,680,555
2022-23 $1,805,555
2023-24 $1,805,555
2024-25 $1,805,555
2025-26 $1,805,555
2026-27 $1,805,555
2027-28 $1,805,555

They should just slip some pills into his luggage next time he crosses the border. It's cheaper.

[ericdaoust]

They should just slip some pills into his luggage next time he crosses the border. It's cheaper.

I'm not sure they would want to try this a second time.