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Kings and Lucic Can't Reach Deal, Lucic to Become Free Agent

June 22, 2016, 3:49 PM ET [67 Comments]
Jason Lewis
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT



It was released over the weekend by Dean Lombardi that after not having talked for a bit that the Kings were going to make "Their best offer" to Lucic early this week.

Apparently they did, it wasn't good enough, and Milan Lucic is heading to free agency.

It was confirmed by the main man himself, Dean Lombardi.




While this may feel like an extreme gut punch to Kings fans everywhere, it actually is not as bad a scenario as you would think.

Short term, the implications are difficult as the Kings have to stare down the barrel of yet another failed rental strategy. This comes on the back of the Sekera, Versteeg, and Lecavalier Schenn deals which parted the Kings with decent assets for very little in return.

On the other hand, Dean Lombardi, rightfully stood his ground on what we could imagine was a contract demand that was either out of their comfortable term and/or money range. Even with the cap elevator in play, the Kings have some significant long term contracts in players like Gaborik, Carter, Quick, Martinez and Brown that are going to potentially come up big later on. Adding Lucic to something like a reported six years at six million would have been really pressing the future cap implications with so many young players needing contracts in the near future. Most notably Drew Doughty, Tanner Pearson, Nick Shore, and Tyler Toffoli.

In short, the Kings did not double down on the already invested risk in Lucic just to save face. It had to be a difficult business decision, and one that the Kings knew would hurt in the short term. However, in the long run it may end up being better off for the team overall. Hindsight is 20-20 on the trades made, and it has been talked about almost ad nauseum about the pitfalls of rental players. The Kings cutting Lucic now may very well save them from a longer term devastation suffered from the deal. (Imagine losing Tanner Pearson in a few years due to this contract for instance)

Lucic is now free to negotiate with all other teams up until July 1st when he will hit the open market and be one of the biggest free agent targets out there. It would be too easy to say Vancouver and Edmonton are the front runners, but it seems likely given reports.

Lucic, while his tenure was short, was one of the better offensive catalysts with the Kings. He fit the system fairly well and found a solid home on a line of Carter and Toffoli. However, it should be noted that Lucic's lack of puck movement and zone exit proficiency may have been a reason for Toffoli and Carter having small spikes in their defensive zone numbers. (It's not damning evidence, but it is a theory)

As far as the data for his zone entry and exits go, he was one of the worst King forwards in both categories.

View post on imgur.com



View post on imgur.com


We will discuss the implications of Lucic's decision in the coming days.

For the Kings, they can now move forward with several decisions and a ton of cap space to go on with. Players like Derek Forbort, Jamie McBain, Kris Versteeg, Nic Dowd, and the previously considered dead and buried Trevor Lewis, need contracts. They will also have a decent amount of money to operate a trade if they wish to go that route. The Kings at the moment have around $7.1 in cap space available with a good majority of the team locked up. They could go after a defenseman, which many fans believe is a priority, but it seems like a depth forward addition would be prompt.

And now with the first domino down the Kings can move on with offseason plans, albeit a much shorter window to now operate.

More details are certain to come and the blog will be updated accordingly.

Lucic is hitting the free agent market, and that might simply be the best for the Kings.


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