Jason Lewis: Kings Nearing Dangerous Territory with Milan Lucic Extension

Come on Kings! Just sign this moron already.

Going to be impossible if the CAP is 69.5 million (no escalator) to re-sign Lucic. It will be difficult if it is 72.8 million (both numbers thrown out today by Friedman). Reality bites.

Jason Lewis: Kings Nearing Dangerous Territory with Milan Lucic Extension
- Jason_Lewis

Would love the Oilers sign him & continue to ruin there cap plans....

Kings please sign ML to kesler sort of contract help Ducks out -

Welcome to cap hell, Its a pretty terrible place to be. Although It's a little nice to know we're not all alone down here. This all sounds like the scenario(s) we in chi town have been in the last few years. I guess that is the price we pay for having the two best teams in the league over recent years. If you guys can somehow get rid of Dustin Brown, you might be able to work it out. It's a lot like our situation with Bickell

Would love the Oilers sign him & continue to ruin there cap plans....
- Ur Not Me

Get it down DL! We need LOOOOCH

Kings please sign ML to kesler sort of contract help Ducks out -
- dozerD10

Your team is in a bit of a deeper poop hole than ours... do you even have a coach yet?

Welcome to cap hell, Its a pretty terrible place to be. Although It's a little nice to know we're not all alone down here. This all sounds like the scenario(s) we in chi town have been in the last few years. I guess that is the price we pay for having the two best teams in the league over recent years. If you guys can somehow get rid of Dustin Brown, you might be able to work it out. It's a lot like our situation with Bickell
- Glovig

yeah i think deano missed the mark with the loyalty above pragmatism thing. even the gaborik contract is pretty bad.

Your team is in a bit of a deeper poop hole than ours... do you even have a coach yet?
- Deadmau55

It is ? - Hey at this point no coach is no problem since ducks are done playing -

I'm putting all my praying into the expansion draft happening sooner than later!!!

freaking McNaab, ugh. well there goes any hope of shipping his slow a$$ out.

I don't like the 6-36 deal, that sucks for us the 4 at 5.5 is perfect

let him go, trade Gaborik, get a solid #2 defenseman, let versteeg go, let shore dowd and mercshe play.

and trade greene too!!

Our cap plans are solid. Do you own a calculator?

Really sucks for giving up so much the past 2 years for players leaving for FA. Although, it's NOT worth it to sign Lucic for the years he wants. Kings need is defense. Bring Mersch up to lessen the blow for Lucic

NA NA NA NA.... NA NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOOOOOODBYE.....NA NA NA NA.... NA NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOOOOOODBYE Sharkies

NA NA NA NA.... NA NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOOOOOODBYE.....NA NA NA NA.... NA NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOOOOOODBYE Sharkies
- KINGS67

I want to see TEARS next game

Really sucks for giving up so much the past 2 years for players leaving for FA. Although, it's NOT worth it to sign Lucic for the years he wants. Kings need is defense. Bring Mersch up to lessen the blow for Lucic
- KINGS67

5 years 5.75 per.

5 years 5.75 per.
- Stu17

Too bad there's Brown right there. MAYBE JUST MAYBE Brown can get his poop together next year.

The post understates the cost for Lucic. Recall that:

1. Dealing for Lucic foreclosed the ability to resign Justin Williams who produced similar points last year and many fewer penalty minutes (about 45 fewer which translates to costing the team ~4 goals).

2. The price for Lucic was so high partly because we paid Boston to buy half of his salary (~$3m) as we were up against the cap. That means to resign him this year we need to dump one or more players that combine to make about $3m. Any accounting of Lucic's cost going forward should include those players as well.

That said, they are stuck. They cant afford to let any more assets go without getting a return.

The simple answer is to give him a market rate deal and then trade him after next year's playoffs. By that point, one of the young teams looking to break through should be willing to give up quite a bit for him. The Kings still absorb injury risk under this scenario, but at his age he shouldn't experience too big a drop off over the next year.

Lucic time in Los Angeles is done. There is noway in hell Deeno is gonna give him 6 years. I think he learned his lesson on some of the other contracts that was awarded. The longest hes willing to give is 4 years max contract. 6years is just too many. If really wants to stay on the team they he'll try to compromise. If not he could chase the big money and be comfortable the rest of the career.

Hey Jason, I'm curious, with the increase of analytics in hockey, have you seen anything about the value of super high $ players compared to more affordable players? Lucic seems a perfect example, is it worth $6M a year for a team like the Kings when there are potentially much less expensive yet very good players (Versteeg and Bonino come to mind) where you could sign 2 or 3 of that type of player for a year or two and have depth but perhaps fewer superstar players and end up with a better overall team than via signing a Lucic level player...?

Hey Jason, I'm curious, with the increase of analytics in hockey, have you seen anything about the value of super high $ players compared to more affordable players? Lucic seems a perfect example, is it worth $6M a year for a team like the Kings when there are potentially much less expensive yet very good players (Versteeg and Bonino come to mind) where you could sign 2 or 3 of that type of player for a year or two and have depth but perhaps fewer superstar players and end up with a better overall team than via signing a Lucic level player...?
- ColoTim

That's a great question, and I think you have touched on something very important in the cap era that we are starting to see. Truth is there is an extreme amount of overpayment for players who may not offer anymore than, like you say, players like Bonino and Versteeg who maybe make a 1/3rd of what the upper end of that spectrum makes.

We are getting to a time with so much analysis that it's easier to weed out the good, bad contracts. However the world of comparables will kind of always drive up the asking price. So while we may be able to get away from the "Bad contract" a bit, there will always been kind of that balancing act or rotation if you will of players paid too much and players underpaid for what they brin. That being said, you are right, those underpaid players help you way more than the mid or overpaid ones. Paying a few superstars doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense nowadays if you try to stay competitive long term

Losing Lucic would hurt in the short term, but keeping him would hurt in the long term. Keeping him largely because you gave up so much for him is not smart decision making, IMO. You risk compounding one questionable decision with another. It's like going all-in on an unexceptional poker hand simply because you've already put quite a bit in the pot and don't want to walk away. Sometimes, you need to just cut your losses and spend your remaining chips more smartly elsewhere.

Losing Lucic would hurt in the short term, but keeping him would hurt in the long term. Keeping him largely because you gave up so much for him is not smart decision making, IMO. You risk compounding one questionable decision with another. It's like going all-in on an unexceptional poker hand simply because you've already put quite a bit in the pot and don't want to walk away. Sometimes, you need to just cut your losses and spend your remaining chips more smartly elsewhere.
- Osprey

Pot committed!!