Anze Kopitar is one of the best players in the national hockey league, period. The Los Angeles Kings star's two-way skills, production and two Stanley Cups paint a pretty solid picture of his status among the elites in the league. Those traits should also end up making him one of the best-paid players in the league as he is set to enter the final year of his current contract.
Kopitar will be wrapping up a seven-year, $47.6 million contract at the end of the 2015-16 campaign. His current $6.8 million cap hit should be expected to get a big boost on his next contract. He’ll be 29 years old when the next deal kicks in, meaning he should have some really good years left ahead of him. The fact he could become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2016, only raises the price.
The Kings surely would like to hang on to their big-time center. But it’s going to cost them and it doesn’t sound like early negotiations are off to a promising start.
More from Kings Insider, Jon Rosen:
The Kings and Kopitar are are “not even in the ballpark” in their discussions, Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi told LA Kings Insider over email when asked whether the two sides were “close” to reaching an agreement.
Not an ideal situation for either side, but it gets even a little more distressing after this follow-up report from Craig Custance of ESPN.com:
To follow up on @lakingsinsider report, gap in Kopitar/Kings negotiations a good couple million per season apart. Pretty significant.
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) September 1, 2015
Kopitar also has no interest in negotiating during the season so there's going to have to be some serious progress made in short term.
— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) September 1, 2015
Training camps are set to open in just over two weeks across the NHL. So the clock is really ticking on this one.
Kopitar, along with Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning, would be among the big prizes on next year’s unrestricted free agent market it they get there. Not getting a deal done this summer would only increase the chances that either makes it to the open market. Without new deals for two of the league's better players before the season begins, it will be the storyline hanging over both teams in a big way all year. Neither club probably wants that kind of distraction involving their best players throughout the season.
What makes the Kings’ situation a little more difficult is the money they’ve already committed to players in 2016-17 and beyond. According to War-on-ice.com, the Kings have nearly $51 million committed to 15 players for the 2016-17 campaign. It will be less if the NHL and Kings decide to reinstate suspended defenseman Slava Voynov and his $4.16 million cap hit.
On top of that, the Kings also are still set to face an arbitration hearing with the NHLPA on Mike Richards’ behalf. The team terminated Richards’ contract and it is unclear what will come after the NHLPA filed a grievance contesting the Kings’ decision. Once that gets resolved, perhaps the Kings will have a better idea of what’s to come and what their cap situation will look like going forward.
Kopitar could end up commanding something in the neighborhood of the $10.5 million annual average tied to the new long-term contracts of Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks. The Kings would have to brace for some more significant player movement after next season to accommodate such a salary.
There’s little question that Kopitar is worth a big payday, but the salary cap always makes these particular deals harder to get done. The sooner the Kings can figure out how to make it work, the better for all involved.
