July 2007 Archives

The story broke last week about Dave Taylor joining the Dallas Stars. The team is scheduled to make it official today, with Taylor becoming director of player personnel. According to Dallas Morning News beat writer Mike Heika, Taylor will handle the ``pro side'' while Les Jackson will handle the ``amateur side.'' For those not familiar with the situation, Taylor worked for the Kings last year even though he had been fired as GM after the previous season. Taylor still had one year remaining on his contract so the Kings had him serve it out in a different role. That contract was not renewed and it seems that Taylor has found a job that has more of a higher profile.

Here's the last installment of the Q&A with Jim Fox. Again, thanks to Jim for answering all the questions and providing his insight, not just as a top-notch broadcaster but as a former NHL player...

Dean Lombardi has booked his flight and hotel room for Toronto in advance of Michael Cammalleri's scheduled arbitration hearing on Thursday. I'm told that negotiations are still taking place but obviously with every day that passes, a settlement becomes less likely. I'm also told that Cammalleri's agent, Michael Gillis, is known for being a tough negotiator, even back to the time when Cammalleri was signing an entry-level contract with the Kings.

Now that I'm back in town, I'll do some work on that tomorrow.

In other news, the Sports Business Daily is reporting that the NHL might return to ESPN2, as soon as the 2008-09 season.

I'll have the last part of the Jim Fox Q&A up today...

After a 4 1/2-hour drive and plenty of sleep, I'm finally ready to post the third part of the Jim Fox Q&A. Thanks for your patience...

One more set of questions to go after this...

Here's the second part of the Q&A with Jim Fox...

When Jim Fox comes down with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, he's probably going to send me the doctor's bill and I'm probably going to have to solicit donations from you loyal readers. Just kidding, but Jim went above and beyond the call of duty in an amazing way today. I selected for him what I hoped was a good sampling of questions, hoping that he would answer a handful of them. What I got back from him in return was INCREDIBLE. He answered so many questions, and in such great detail, that I'm going to have to break it up into four parts. So I want to issue a public thanks to Jim, for taking the time to do this, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

Here's part one:

Here's what Michael Cammalleri, golfing in Canada, told The Canadian Press today regarding his contract negotiations with the Kings:

"The Kings have yet to make me an offer," Cammalleri said Wednesday during the NHL Players' Association annual charity golf tournament. "There hasn't been all that much communication. For me, I guess I can only take that as an indication of where I stand right now."

Dean Lombardi's response?

"To be honest, we're pretty far apart," Lombardi told The Canadian Press from his Los Angeles office. "But as ridiculous as it sounds, it's still early in the process."

Cammalleri's arbitration hearing will be held Aug. 2 unless a contract agreement is reached.

Either tonight or tomorrow morning, I'll be posting a great bunch of answers from Jim Fox. He's in the process of answering a bunch of your questions right now and as always, Jim is insightful and honest.

Since it's been a while, how about a new feature? Kings broadcaster Jim Fox has graciously agreed to come on board as a guest blogger, in a question-and-answer format. Feel free to post your questions here, and I will forward them along to Jim and get his answers. I can't promise that Jim will be able to answer every single question, but we'll try to get a good cross-section of topics.

Jim has been recognized by Sports Illustrated for his work and, for two consecutive years, has been named by the Daily News as Southern California's top sports television analyst.

John Zeiler signed a four-year contract today. The first year is a two-way contract and he would make $525,000 at the NHL level. The second year is worth $550,000 and the third and fourth years are worth $600,000 each. So potentially it's a four-year, $2.275-million contract.

John Zeiler signed a four-year contract today. I'm still waiting to get the terms of the deal but I should have them later today.

When Kings PR calls in the middle of a vacation lunch, my heart sinks a little, but in this case it was just to say that first-round pick Thomas Hickey has signed a standard three-year entry-level contract. It's mostly incentive-based with the kids, but Hickey is expected to spend next season with Seattle of the WHL anyway.

I apologize if this is already in the public domain, but Cammalleri's arbitration hearing will be on Aug. 2, which is a late date in the process. The Kings have until that date to sign him and avoid a hearing. Out of the 30 players who filed, nine have already re-signed.

Thanks for all the supportive messages. I truly appreciate all of them and all of the great points that were made. I'll try to keep everyone updated if I hear anything interesting, but I'm sure Lombardi is glad to have some time away from me...

Hey folks...I'm signing off for a much-needed two-week vacation. It comes with a bit of regret, since the blog really seems to have hit its stride recently, but I promise that I'll be back at the end of the month and we will start gearing up for training camp. If something of significance -- hello, Mr. Cammalleri -- happens over the next two weeks, I'll make sure to jump on and provide updates. I might even get bored at some point and just post some stuff anyway. I might also look into the possibility of having a mystery guest blogger or two provide their thoughts.

But regardless, when I get back I want to see us pick up right where we left off. It's been a lot of fun recently.

Along those lines...I don't like doing this, because this blog isn't about ME, but there have been some questions about what I might be doing when the NHL/NBA seasons come around. And I'll just be honest with you. There has been some serious talk about me moving over to handle a lot of Lakers stuff, but the success of this blog in recent weeks is leading management to reconsider. I'm very hopeful and optimistic that I'll still be covering the Kings in the fall. I've enjoyed doing this more than anything I've done in my 11-plus years of daily journalism, and that's largely a tribute to all the support and enthusiasm that has come from you. I'm very grateful for that, and I'll promise you this: if you continue to visit this site in huge numbers -- as you have been in the last few weeks -- it won't be going anywhere.

So my parting question is this: how can I make this better? Once the season starts -- and training camp too, other than when they're in Europe -- the possibilities are tremendous. By September, this won't just be a blog. It will be a much more functional page for Kings information and discussion. So let me know what you'd like to see. Be as creative as you'd like, and we'll sort it all out and see what's popular and realistic.

Again, thanks to everyone for your continued support...

Yesterday, we spent most of the time talking about guys who probably are shoo-ins to make the team. Here's what I want to know today: who's the spoiler? Who's the guy you think will come in and take a roster spot (or at least a lineup spot) from a more-veteran guy based on his play in training camp.

We're talking about guys such as Boyle, Cliche, Gauthier, Harrold, Hersley, Kanko, Lewis, Meckler, Moulson, Murray, Parse, Petiot, Piskula, Purcell and Tukonen. Did I miss anyone? I leave O'Sullivan off the list because I think most people already consider him a ``lineup'' guy.

I'm going with Harrold. I think the cup of coffee in the NHL last season will pay off, it probably wouldn't be that hard to bump Modry and Harrold is a guy who has Lombardi squarely in his corner.

Who do you think, and why?

I'm heading out to the Riptide lacrosse game later this afternoon. For anyone who has ever been curious, or wants to check out something new, I recommend it. Great action and great athletes.

Great responses, everyone. All of you made compelling arguments about who might fit where. I had to laugh when a couple people pointed out that all this would be out the window before the end of the first game. That's so true. Crawford switched lines so often last season that it made me dizzy.

The consensus seems to be a first line of Brown, Kopitar and Cammalleri, followed by Nagy, Handzus and Frolov, followed by Calder, Armstrong and O'Sullivan, followed by some combination of Zeiler, Ivanans, Thornton and Willsie.

That makes sense to me. Brown and Kopitar did indeed seem to click at the end of the season, although I wonder if the Kings will revisit the idea of Frolov and Kopitar playing together. It just seems a bit potentially problematic to me, if you're Crawford and your best center might have chemistry issues with one of your top two wingers. I'm sure every team has that problem to some extent, but I wonder if it's something they might try to resolve in training camp.

Seems as though there's a general agreement on the defensive pairings of Visnovsky-Stuart, Blake-Johnson and Preissing-Modry.

I think the two linchpins in all of this might be Patrick O'Sullivan and Peter Harrold. If they can play well enough in camp to force themselves into better positions, it might shake things up. You could say the same about any number of young players, but I think those two have the most potential to considerably shake things up.

Thanks for the responses everyone. Feel free to keep posting them. I'll throw another topic out there tomorrow morning.

Since it's a light period for news, I figured I would throw this open to everyone... if you were Marc Crawford, how would you have the team look on opening night? (or, in our case in the U.S., opening morning). Of course, a lot of factors go into this and a lot of tinkering will be done in training camp, but what makes sense right now?

Here's one, off the top of my head. Maybe we can use it as a starting point and see how it evolves with your recommendations.

Frolov-Kopitar-Cammalleri
Nagy-Handzus-Brown
Calder-O'Sullivan-Willsie
Thornton-Armstrong-Zeiler

The third line is perplexing to me. I wasn't certain what to do with it. I'm not certain that O'Sullivan's game would work well with Calder and Willsie, but I think the Kings want Nagy and Handzus to play together. Putting O'Sullivan with them, on RW, might make sense but then who is the third-line center? Do you make it Calder-Armstrong-Brown on the third line? Then if so, who centers the fourth line?

The defense is even tougher. Do you go Visnovsky-Stuart, Blake-Johnson and Modry-Pressing? Or Johnson-Preissing, Blake-Modry? It's hard, not having seen a lot of Preissing, to know where he fits.

I'm curious to see what everyone thinks.

It should be a quiet day. The ``bigger names'' have left the development camp and it's now primarily the recent draft picks and free-agent guys working out. I'll get out there tomorrow to get some final thoughts from Crawford and make a guy such as Oscar Moller, who seems interesting.

As always, if anyone has any questions that I might be able to answer, feel free to post them here and I'll do my best to answer.

Other than that, I'll leave you with some reading material. TSN did a feature/preview of the Kings that you can read here. Nothing groundbreaking, but I think it can be interesting to see how the Kings are viewed in Canada.

Finally, thanks to reader Don for passing this along. Seems that the folks in Dallas aren't very happy with the Stars' inactivity on the free-agent market. Below, I'll attach a letter that team president James R. Lites sent out to fans today. It's actually quite a letter...

Here's the quotes from tonight's interview with Lombardi. For those who would like the abridged version...

-- He's happy to get the deal done, and thinks it came at a reasonable price because a) it got done early and b) Visnovsky's desire to stay in L.A. made things easier.

-- Cammalleri and arbitration? ``It looks like it's headed that way,'' according to Lombardi, although they're still looking to get a deal done before it comes to that.

-- The camp has been good, but Lombardi is more concerned with improvement than rating players.

-- The schedule is a concern, particularly since the Kings have to return to the West Coast after the trip to London. Lombardi also shares his thoughts about the challenges faced by playing in Staples Center.

Here's the interview...

The white team, the one with Daniel Taylor and Mike Ouzas in goal, earned a 4-2 victory over the black team, with Jeff Zatkoff and Linden Rowat in goal. Goals were scored by Lauri Tukonen, Matt Moulson, Kevin Westgarth, Brady Murray, Vladimir Dravecky and Dwight King.

Afterward I talked to Lombardi for a few minutes, although long because I had to dash home and file my story for the Daily News. I'll do the transcript tonight, but here's the 10-second version.

Visnovsky...good.
Cammalleri...not good.
Schedule...worrisome.

More later.

Visnovsky got a five-year, $28.25 million deal. That's $5.65 million per season.

I had to laugh when I actually saw the press release. The long, winding saga of Scott Parse ends, finally, with a two-year contract. I'll attach the press release below...

Here's what Visnovsky told TSN today:

`'I'm very happy that I'll be staying with this organization for a long time,'' said Visnovsky from his off-season home in Slovakia. ''I love Los Angeles and I want to play in the playoffs with the Kings.''

I would have given him a call myself but a) I was chasing Kobe Bryant around Hollywood (long story, not that interesting) and b) frankly, I knew the chances of getting much out of Lubo weren't great. Nice guy, but not a great quote at this stage of his English development.

I'm still waiting to get a salary figure on the contract...should have one before the scrimmage tonight, so stay tuned. I'm also going to track down Lombardi and get his thoughts. Here's a copy of the press release from the Kings below.

Also, I have the Kings' schedule, but I can't figure out an easy way to cut and paste it. It's on the Kings' main site, if you want to check it out.

Lubomir Visnovsky has signed a five-year extension with the Kings. I'll have more information later, and possibly an interview as well.

For those interested in the development camp, the morning practices are scheduled to go from 8-10 a.m. and the scrimmage is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available, first-come, first-served, at the training facility in El Segundo today and tomorrow. The teams for the scrimmage seem to be weighted a little bit, with guys such as O'Sullivan, Zeiler, Johnson, Boyle and Bernier on one team and Tukonen, Purcell, Parse, Harrold and Zatkoff on the other.

Here's the interview with Trevor Lewis:

Here's my talk with the most identifiable player on the ice, 6-foot-6 defenseman Brian Boyle. And he is, indeed, a defenseman this week, and probably will remain at that position for the long term.

The Boyle interview follows...

I talked to both Brian Boyle and Trevor Lewis after today's practice, so I'll get those interviews up shortly.

To answer some of the questions...

-- The regular-season schedule is indeed being released tomorrow. I don't know exactly what time, but the news release from the NHL said it would be in the ``afternoon.''

-- I'm not certain who the captain will be, although it's hard to imagine it being anyone other than Blake. As for alternates, I think you also have to include Derek Armstrong in the mix.

-- I think John Zeiler's chances of making the team are very good. His game is different from those of Sean Avery and Tom Kostopoulos, but I think Zeiler is a natural to fill one of those fourth-line energy roles.

-- O'Sullivan is a very soft-spoken guy, at least when he talks to me, but when you read his quotes he does seem to exude that confident/cocky tone. To me, he's almost the opposite of a guy such as Cammalleri, who is more outwardly confident/cocky but doesn't tend to come across that way when he gives interviews.

-- Oscar Moller is part of the second group that just started working out. I imagine he will play in tomorrow's scrimmage and that will be a better chance to get a look at him.

-- Thanks to everyone for the kind words on the message boards. You're very kind. And really, thanks to everyone who visits this site on a regular basis. The numbers have been outstanding and it's gratifying to know that so many people are enjoying it.

For anyone planning to come to the camp this afternoon, I'm told there has been a schedule change. There will only be one afternoon session, from 3:15-4:15 p.m., instead of two sessions.

Things are switched up a bit today at the prospects camp. There were drills this morning and the players will be split up into two teams (to prepare for Wednesday's scrimmage). The first group practices from 2:30-3:30 p.m. and the second group from 3:45-5 p.m. I'll be out there to grab some more interviews, hopefully from guys such as Boyle, Lewis, Purcell, Zeiler and Harrold.

Bill Ranford, the Kings' goaltending coach, sat down for a few minutes to talk about Jonathan Bernier, Jeff Zatkoff, Dan Cloutier, Jason LaBarbera and the way the goaltending situation looks heading into training camp.

I'll try to grab some guys tomorrow. I intended to get more today but they slipped through my grasp...

Here's Ranford:

For those who might have missed the previous post, Jonathan Bernier is in camp even though he's still recovering from a high ankle sprain, which he suffered during the QMJHL playoffs. Later on, I'll post an interview with Bill Ranford, in which he elaborates on the possibility of a young goalie (namely Bernier) making the team this season.

Here's the Bernier interview...

More of the same today. For the most part I just got a look at the goalies, which was good since I didn't get to see much of them yesterday. The four goalies in camp right now are...

Jonathan Bernier, last year's first-round pick who had a successful year in juniors. Bernier is still recovering from a nasty high ankle sprain. He actually suffered it in the playoffs but played through it for a few weeks, so the Kings have been taking it a little easier on him this week.

Jeff Zatkoff, a third-round pick of the Kings last year who had a strong season at Miami (Ohio) University.

Linden Rowat, who just turned 18 a couple weeks ago and was drafted by the Kings in the fifth round last month. Rowat had a 2.87 goals-against average with Regina of the WHL last season.

Mike Ouzas, who is the unknown wild card. Mike Futa of the Kings worked with Ouzas in Owen Sound of the OHL in 2005-06. Ouzas is 21 and played four seasons of juniors. He's an undrafted free agent who spent last season with the University of New Brunswick and had a 2.97 goals-against average. He's not one of the ``Rudys.'' He's a prospect brought in by the Kings to get a look.

It seems that most of the players skipped out while we were watching the goalies, but I was able to get Jonathan Bernier and Bill Ranford for interviews. I'll try to get those up here shortly. Again, for those interested, there's a full-squad practice today from 4-5 p.m. in El Segundo.

I can confirm that Scott Parse does indeed exist. The funny thing is, he still hasn't actually signed a contract. It's been agreed to, and he said he expects to sign it in the next couple days, but it's somewhat fitting that after all this time, he still isn't officially under contract.

Tukonen is an interesting guy, from the standpoint that he's only 20 years old, but it seems as though he's been around forever (at least to me, anyway).

Here's the last of today's interviews. I'll try to grab a few more guys tomorrow...

Here's what Patrick O'Sullivan had to say. Keep in mind, I talked to him before I talked to Crawford, so I wasn't able to bring up some of the conditioning issues that Marc brought up in reference to O'Sullivan...

Here's the latest from Jack Johnson, who looked impressive this morning and who seems on track to defend his title as ``hardest handshake on the Kings.''

From a journalism standpoint, I hope Thomas Hickey, the Kings' first-round pick last month, makes it big in the NHL. He's incredibly bright and well-spoken and a very nice kid. And ``kid'' is the operative word when you see him on the ice. He looks small, but you have to remember that he's 18 and skating next to guys such as Jack Johnson, who is two years older and had two years in a top NCAA program, and Brian Boyle, who is just an all-around monster.

Here's the Hickey interview from this morning...

I figured I'd get the Crawford interview out of the way first, since 1) he's the coach and has a lot of pertinent things to say, and 2) it's (by far) the longest interview and I wanted to get it out of the way...

Below, you'll find Crawford talking about his hopes for the camp, his reflections on free agency, his view of the new additions and some of the Kings' younger players and, everyone's favorite topic, the goaltending.

So, here you go. I'll work on getting some of the player interviews up later today...

8 a.m. on a Sunday is really too early for hockey, or much anything else for that matter. But I was able to get out there for the morning session of the camp, and afterward I grabbed interviews with Jack Johnson, Lauri Tukonen, Thomas Hickey, Patrick O'Sullivan, Scott Parse and Marc Crawford. No rhyme or reason to those six...they were just available. I'll grab different guys in the coming days. I'll transcribe those interviews and have them up over the course of the afternoon/evening.

Here's the list of the guys who are participating as part of the ``gold'' group today and tomorrow. (The second group, the one that's practicing Thursday-Saturday, is made up primarily of recent draft picks.)

FORWARDS
12 -- Patrick O'Sullivan
34 -- Lauri Tukonen
47 -- Vladimir Dravecky
54 -- Teddy Purcell
58 -- David Meckler
61 -- Trevor Lewis
63 -- Scott Parse
68 -- Brady Murray
70 -- Matt Moulson
73 -- John Zeiler

DEFENSEMEN
2 -- Richard Petiot
33 -- Jack Johnson
37 -- Thomas Hickey
42 -- Joe Piskula
49 -- Peter Harrold
56 -- Joe Ryan
62 -- Niclas Andersen
64 - Patrik Hersley
71 -- Brian Boyle

GOALIES
31 -- Mike Ouzas
36 -- Jeff Zatkoff
45 -- Jonathan Bernier
75 -- Linden Rowat

The guys in the gold jerseys are primarily former (or perhaps some current) Jr. Kings. Team officials have taken to calling them ``Rudys,'' in reference to the well-known Notre Dame walk-on player. A couple of them really held their own with the prospects and one got into a bit of a shoving match with Brady Murray during the first session.

The forward drills were surprisingly intense. Lots of one-on-one battles and work in the corners and in front of the net. The defensemen seemed to be doing more skating drills and the goalies were very individual-drill oriented, and the Kings brought video cameras onto the ice to record them individually.

It's a bit early to talk about impressions. Even Crawford said that this week is more about improvement than competition. Wednesday night's scrimmage will be a good chance to see some competition. But if you're looking for some initial thoughts...Boyle did indeed play defense and he looked smoother than I expected, for someone who doesn't have a ton of experience at the blue line. Hickey is tiny, but remember that he's younger and much less experienced than most of the other guys out there. Johnson looked very solid and, when I talked to him later, seemed to have put on some muscle in the last couple months. None of the forwards particularly jumped out, but again, they were working on a lot of battle drills. Zeiler seemed to have a lot of energy out there.

I'll start transcribing interviews in a bit. I'll probably skip the practice this afternoon (in other words, I'll probably be asleep) so if anyone goes -- it's from 4-5 p.m. -- and wants to post their observations, that's both welcomed and encouraged. I'll go out to tomorrow's afternoon practice.

There had been some discussion about the seating at the development camp, and it seems as though there has been a change in policy. LAKings.com now has this paragraph posted above the schedule: ``The Rookie Camp will be free and open to the public. Wednesday's scrimmage game will be a ticketed event, however, coming on a first come, first served basis. Stay tuned to LAKings.com as more details on how to obtain the tickets will be released soon.''

That makes more sense to me. Restricting the lower seating makes sense if there's going to be a big crowd on hand, but not on a Tuesday morning. So it seems as though it will be back to the way it was last year.

The camp gets going tomorrow, with skill sessions from 8-11:30 a.m. and a practice from 4-5 p.m. I'll be out there throughout the week, trying to grab as many interviews as possible.

Calder called a couple hours earlier than I expected -- and quite frankly, before I'd had some time to prepare a lot of questions -- but here's what I got from him...

Q: What was the free-agent process like for you? Did you talk to a lot of teams or were you focused on the Kings right away?
A: I talked to quite a few teams. The process is pretty nerve-racking and exciting at the same time. To be able to come here with good intentions and try to win, it's exciting. Dean and Ron, they're great and I'm really looking forward to working with them.

Q: What was it about the Kings that you found attractive?
A: I wanted to go somewhere I could play and help out, play my style of game and have it be suitable with the other players on the team. I thought my best fit was right here. When you look at the young core of players, with Kopitar and Brown and Frolov and Cammalleri, it's great. There's a core of guys and you can build around them. That's awesome. The defense is immaculate. We've got six or seven defensemen back there who can really carry a team.

Q: Have you talked to Crawford at all about what your role might be?
A: I've talked to Marc and all the coaches. I know my role. I have to get in on the forecheck and do all the little things that maybe don't show up as much, but they have to be done. I have to provide that every game.

Q: Things have been rough for the Kings recently. Do players still see this as an attractive place to play?
A: It's definitely an attractive place to be. The weather and the travel and all the little things, that's a big attraction. Things are going to get turned around here. Teams go through slides all the time but it's great to give yourself a challenge. We want to get better and it's going to come from all the young guys. It's going to be fun and I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Q: Did Dean sit down with you and give you his vision for the future of the franchise?
A: Oh yeah, we talked quite a bit. It was great to look at where he wants to go in the future. It's good to have a relationship like that with the GM.

Q: Can you talk about what happened last year with Detroit? I imagine it wasn't easy moving to a new team.
A: There was a little bit of an adjustment period, for sure. Their lineup was so deep and they had so many good players on their team. It was awesome and a privilege to play for them. Unfortunately we parted ways but you can't dwell on the past. You can only be optimistic about the future.

Q: Were there some positives you took away, in terms of playing on such a good team?
A: Definitely. When you play with great players such as them, you learned from everyone. That was the good thing about it. There are always some things you can learn. I'm going to try to learn here as well.

Q: You're a guy who has been mostly consistent throughout your career, in terms of stats and effort. Does that help you, in terms of knowing where you fit in on a team?
A: That's a big thing, for sure. I know what I want to bring to the table every night. If I can try to do that, I know I can help the team. It's better when you're consistent and you can do well from year to year.

I'm expecting to get Kyle Calder on the phone in a little while. If anyone has any questions for him, feel free to post them here.

I have some information on the camp. It will start Sunday morning (July 8) and conclude the following Saturday morning (July 14). There will be two groups, the Gold group and the Purple group. The Gold group will practice Sunday and Monday and the Purple group will practice Thursday, Friday and Saturday. All players will practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and on Wednesday, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a game.

The daily schedule is consistent. Players will have skill sessions from 8-11:30 a.m. in three hour-long shifts (first forwards, then defensemen, then goalies) and then the entire group will practice from 4-5 p.m. The exceptions are Tuesday, when practice will be from 2:30-5 p.m., Wednesday, when the game is played, and Saturday, as the camp will conclude at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

Did I explain that well enough?

The roster is still a bit fluid, but you can expect most of the top draft picks, such as Hickey, Moller, King and Turnbull, as well as some of the top prospects such as O'Sullivan, Johnson, Harrold, Parse, Lewis and Murray. The exact roster has not yet been set in stone.

Here's the link to the schedule...my limited talents don't allow me to cut and paste it here without it looking like a mess...

Development camp schedule

Michael Cammalleri has elected to file for arbitration, to no surprise. The Kings have until tomorrow afternoon to seek arbitration when it comes to Richard Petiot and John Zeiler.

I'll do my best to answer some of the questions that were posted last night and today...

-- The Kings did not have conference calls with any of their signings, at least not yet. Usually those are reserved for really big names, but perhaps I can look into getting Stuart on the phone or perhaps a couple of the guys might be in town at some point. If they are, I certainly would like to speak with them.

-- As far as player interviews, my general philosophy on that is that I try not to bother them during the summer, unless it's an emergency situation. I have some numbers, but the thing is, these guys are obliged to talk to me almost every single day from mid-September until April. The summer is their time to relax and get away from their daily obligations. If I run into someone at the rink, that's one thing, but I don't get in the habit of calling them just to chat. An exception this summer would be when Cammalleri signs. In that case, I'll definitely want to get his thoughts.

-- Yes, I think there is good reason to expect a big free agent next summer. I don't know who, but when Lombardi spoke the other day, he was very encouraged about how much cap room the Kings will have in '08 and '09. It's far too early to speculate, because guys can still re-sign, etc., but having that cap space is a big part of Lombardi's plan. Which makes it all the more befuddling that people would buy into stuff about Hasek. I can think of five reasons, off the top of my head, why that's a bad idea and why it's probably just a funny Internet rumor.

-- I believe that O'Sullivan is the most interesting King going into next season, in terms of which direction he will go. The first half of last season was a mess for him, but he impressed Crawford when he came back. When Lombardi talks about the young guys having to earn their spots, he might as well be painting a big bull's eye on O'Sullivan's back. At the start of last season, O'Sullivan didn't seem prepared for the transition to the NHL. He seemed to figure it out in the last couple months. We'll see if he carries it over.

-- Dallman does indeed look as though he's stuck in that No. 7 spot. But you never know. Injuries can happen, trades can happen and he might just flat-out out-play someone penciled in ahead of him.

-- The signings certainly make the Kings a lot better. If LaBarbera provides solid goaltending, it should be a playoff team. If some of the young guys develop quickly and show that they're NHL-ready, maybe the Kings could do what the Ducks did two years ago. But I don't think so. I think that's another year away.

-- The top young guy in the system who would push Ivanans for that ``enforcer'' spot is Kevin Westgarth. But Westgarth has only one year of pro experience so I'd be surprised if he grabbed that spot this season.

There was a question about Cammalleri's status as a RFA... Tomorrow is the deadline for him to declare that he will seek an arbitration hearing. It does not, however, prevent the two sides from continuing to negotiate and getting a deal done before the hearing. This year's hearings will be held between July 20 and August 4.

Since there shouldn't be anything going on today, I'll turn this into a thread for other questions, if anyone has any. I might not have all the answers but I'll give it a shot, or you guys can answer your own questions if you beat me to it. I'll be in and out today. I hope everyone has a great Fourth...

Jason LaBarbera has been signed also, for two years and $1.65 million. He was a restricted free agent his summer.

Fascinating. Just a couple hours after I was led to believe Stuart would sign with a different Western Conference team, he has agreed to a one-year, $3.5-million deal with the Kings.

The Kings haven't announced it officially...but it's a done deal. Seems as though the market dried up a little bit today all around, particularly for defensemen, so Lombardi was able to get a one-year deal done at an acceptable price.

I didn't mean to be vague before. I just meant that I believe the ``one year'' portion of the deal made the difference for the Kings. Stuart probably sought a multi-year deal over the last couple days but ultimately found this to be the best option. Again, that's just my opinion...it's the most logical explanation I can think of.

Things have calmed down a bit, thankfully, after a couple crazy days. I'm told that the Kings are still shopping around for a defenseman, but I don't get the sense that they MUST get one. It's highly doubtful that it's going to be Stuart and it's certainly not going to be Souray. The Souray thing represents everything that's wrong with Web site rumor-mongering. For days, the Kings were talked about as ``leaders'' for Souray. The Kings aren't interested in Souray and never have been, unless he wanted to sign some sort of one-year, bargain-basement deal, and that's not going to happen.

I've asked about the prospects camp, and it seems as though the Kings are still finalizing details. I'm told that the information will be released Thursday. It's looking like a Monday start, at least for on-ice activities.

This thing is a real monster, but if you plug through it, I think you'll find some real interesting stuff, particularly in terms of what Lombardi thinks about the free-agency process, the salaries of young players and the mindset he has in terms of building the Kings. He also gives a solid analysis of each of the four players he picked up today and a look back on what happened yesterday.

That's all tonight, folks. I guess there might be rumblings of talks with Stuart, but even if they're serious I don't think it will pick up again until the morning.

Here's the transcript of Lombardi's conference call...

Like I said in the post below, I'm working the Bertuzzi story so I won't have time to transcribe Lombardi for a while, but here's some quick answers to questions you might have:

-- He's really fond of Handzus, has been since his days in Philly and believes he's a hard-working impact player. No concerns about his knee being an issue.

-- Nagy got a one-year deal basically as a trial balloon. Dean pretty much said that now is the time for Nagy to put his issues behind him and go forward.

-- Having Visnovsky on the roster was a bonus in terms of signing Handzus and Nagy and, on the flip side, Lombardi believes having those two guys will help the Kings in terms of retaining Visnovsky.

-- They have started talking to Visnovsky about an extension and definitely want to keep him. They have not yet started talking to Cammalleri, but will now.

-- The stuff from yesterday...he was convinced early that Briere would stay East. As for Drury, he said playing for the Rangers was a big draw and that the whole house-in-L.A. thing was overblown. In relation to Gomez, he made a general statement about how he just wasn't willing to give out seven- or eight-year contracts. He talked about the Rangers' payroll and how it might leave them vulnerable to an offer sheet to Lundqvist. Foreshadowing, anyone?

-- Dean is essentially done on the FA market but said he might be looking at one more thing. It didn't sound as though it would be major.

Like I said, I'll transcribe later. I think those were the major points.

Calder gets two years, $5.5 million (I believe)
Nagy's deal is for one year. I don't have a dollar amount yet.
Handzus gets four years, $16 million.
Preissing gets four years, $11 million

I've got a ton of quotes from Lombardi, via conference call, but it's going to be a while before I can transcribe them, as I'm also working the Bertuzzi story. You'll have them by the end of the night, I promise.

Here's a quote from Scott Gomez, on the Rangers' official website, about why he chose the Rangers:

``New York offered everything -- the city, the atmosphere, everything you would want," said Gomez. "But most of all I think this team is ready to win, you can just feel the buzz around them and that starts with the goaltending, I think. Playing against them they just have so much confidence. Out of the other teams I felt like this was the place I could win in.''

Ladislav Nagy and Michal Handzus are on board with multi-year contracts. Both are listed as wingers but I believe Handzus also plays center.

From TSN.ca:

The 28-year-old Nagy played in 80 regular season games in 2006-07, posting 12 goals and 55 points. Nagy began the season with the Phoenix Coyotes, playing in 55 games before being traded to the Dallas Stars at the trade deadline.

Nagy was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the 1997 entry draft. After two seasons in St. Louis, he was traded to Phoenix in 2001 with Handzus, Jeff Taffe and a first round pick in the 2001 draft for Keith Tkachuk.

Nagy has played in 397 regular season games over his six-year career, posting 106 goals and 285 points.

The 30-year-old Handzus suffered a knee injury after just eight games last season and did not play again. He had three goals and five assists.

In 517 career NHL games with the Blackhawks, Flyers, Coyotes and Blues, Handzus has totals of 115 goals, 185 assists and a +51 rating.

Here's an article on Preissing from the Minneapolis Star Tribune (Preissing is a native of Minnesota) from the Stanley Cup Finals. It gives some good insight into Preissing and where he came from.

Ottawa Knows Preissing Now

This still has not been announced by the Kings, so perhaps they're still working on details.

The Kings are set to give defenseman Tom Preissing a four-year, $11-million contract. This has yet to be signed/made official but it seems to be a done deal. (This is as reported initially by the Ottawa Sun.)

Preissing had seven goals, 31 assists and a plus-40 rating for Ottawa last season.

Interesting, he signed with San Jose out of college, but if my math is correct, it was about two weeks after Lombardi got fired from the Sharks.

More info later.

As I said, I'll talk to Lombardi later, but for those searching for an answer to the question of ``what went wrong?'' I can offer this: a member of the organization, who was familiar with the negotiations yesterday, said the Kings' biggest obstacle was their lack of recent success. Meaning that even if the Kings fielded a competitive offer, a free agent was more likely to go somewhere else, with the belief that he had a better chance to win. I believe (my theory) that this was particularly the case with Drury, who waited for Gomez to sign with the Rangers, then jumped on board. I'm not sure how that factored in with Briere because, well, he chose Philly.

It almost creates a chicken-egg situation, because you need talented players in order to win, but you're not going to get talented players until you win. Obviously the way you solve that is to win by developing your prospects and making good decisions with second-tier free agents, but that hasn't worked out for the Kings in a long time.

I know yesterday was a frustrating day for Kings fans, but I wanted to again say thanks for the tremendous support. Yesterday, this page got HUGE traffic, so much that the managing editor of the paper e-mailed me to say so. That's staggering to me, and again I thank you for the continued interest and support.

We'll keep it going. I've been told that Lombardi will be available to talk at some point today, so I will certainly get a detailed explanation of what went wrong yesterday. Plus, I'll do my best to provide extensive coverage of the developmental camp next week.

Thanks also for the intelligent conversation on here. Like I said, I know things were frustrating yesterday, but I'm very impressed with the way everyone kept it civil and made really good point, on both sides of the fence. Everyone should feel free to contribute and comment. Thanks again!

Scott Parse has verbally agreed to a contract with the Kings that should be signed and announced tomorrow (Monday). As you might recall, contract talks broke down with him a couple months ago but negotiations took a turn for the better several weeks ago. I believe it's a two-year deal, but my brain is too fried at the moment to look that up.

At the end of my call with Lombardi the other day, I was joking around and asked him if he was going to make me work -- meaning, write a story about a free-agent signing -- on Sunday. He answered with, ``Well, you're going to work either way, right? It's either (writing) or you answer questions from people wondering what the hell we're doing.''

Good point, Dean, good point.

As for Drury, my thoughts are similar to those expressed in Goallum's post. I have to believe that the Kings had a competitive offer but that Gomez's signing pushed the Rangers over the top in terms of signing Drury. For the Rangers to land both of them is fascinating, a very high-risk, high-reward proposition.

As for the Kings, I suppose there are two camps. You either a) applaud Lombardi for his restraint, for sticking with his plan and for keeping the future (Kopitar, Johnson, Cammalleri, Brown) in mind or b) you grit your teeth at the fact that Lombardi had $23 million to spend and didn't drop a dime today, when he could have filled a big position of need.

Both sides make compelling points and I'm not passing judgment. I fully expected the Kings to sign one of those three centers but I also did not expect to see eight-year and seven-year contracts today. I guess that was naive on my part. It all came down to what I posted on the blog this week: Lombardi had a ``right player for the right price'' philosophy, and it seems that he stuck to his guns, right or wrong.

Of course, it's not over. The defensemen are still out there, in addition to some quality forwards, but it seems a little anticlimactic at the moment, doesn't it?

(In the time it took me to post that, Hannan signed with Colorado at four years, $18 million.)

(Also, for the record, I have put in a request to talk with Lombardi tonight, but initial reports are that he probably won't be speaking tonight.)

The Rangers have picked up both Scott Gomez (seven years, $51.5 million) and Chris Drury (five years, $35.25 million).

The Rangers have signed Scott Gomez to a seven-year contract, leaving only Chris Drury among the Big Three centers. Think the bidding for Drury is going to get intense? Maybe just a little?

On the other hand, with Jason Allison wanting to return, and Adam Deadmarsh and Ziggy Palffy still out there... Well, I think it's obvious, isn't it? (That's just a joke, honestly.)

We seem to have hit a lull here, although the last time I thought that, Briere signed about 10 minutes later. There's nothing groundbreaking to report on the Kings front. They're still working on the guys you'd assume they're working on, and Kings fans should take heart in the fact that Drury, Gomez, Hannan and Stuart all remain unsigned. I'm not sure how the Kings got attached to Souray, although I imagine it's through an unfounded Internet rumor. It's just a ton of back-and-forth negotiation right now. The idea that there's a ``leader'' for any free agent is laughable. I can't imagine what it's like for Drury right now, having to sort through so many offers. Although, given the contract he will eventually sign, I'd gladly trade places with him...

I'm still in shock over Briere's contract. Oh well, NHL financial stability was fun while it lasted...

Certainly looks that way. Here's the statement just released by Ducks GM Brian Burke:

``Scott Niedermayer has informed me that he is leaning toward retirement,” said Burke. “Typical of his character and leadership, he made the call this morning in order to allow us to make alternative plans in the event he does not return. Although he has not retired and would be welcomed back, we felt adding another top NHL defenseman was critical to defending our championship. Mathieu Schneider fits into that category and will be a great addition to our team.''

Also seems that Niedermayer will be on a conference call later, so...well, you can see where this one is headed.

I was absolutely certain that something big would happen as soon as I stepped outside for 10 minutes. Well, as you've probably already seen, Briere got eight years and $52 million from Philadelphia, with a no-movement clause.

That leaves Drury and Gomez among the big-three centers, although a radio station in New York is reporting that Gomez will sign with the Rangers. All quiet on the defenseman front.

(All signings as reported by TSN or ESPN. Most confirmed by team announcements.)

SIGNINGS
Petr Sykora to Pittsburgh, two years, money unknown
Darryl Sydor to Pittsburgh, two years, $5 million
Paul Kariya to St. Louis, three years, money unknown
Ryan Smyth to Colorado, five years, $31.25 million
Jon Sim to NY Islanders, three years, $3 million
Scott Hannan to Colorado, four years, $18 million
Dany Sabourin to Pittsburgh, two years, $1.025 million
Viktor Kozlov to Washington, two years, $5 million
Chris Drury to NY Rangers, five years, $35.25 million
Jason Blake to Toronto, four years, $20 million
Scott Gomez to NY Rangers, seven years, $51.5 million
Eric Perrin to Atlanta, two years, $1.5 million
Michel Ouellet to Tampa Bay, two years, $2.5 million
Jeff Hamilton to Carolina, two years, $1.6 million
Shawn Thornton to Boston, terms unknown
Radek Dvorak to Florida, two years, money unknown
Yanic Perrault to Chicago, one year, $1.5 million
Brian Rafalski in Detroit, five years, $30 million
Cory Sarich in Calgary, five years, $18 million
Daniel Briere in Philadelphia, eight years, $52 million
Dick Tarnstrom in Edmonton, one year, money unknown
Mathieu Schneider to Ducks, two years, $11.25 million
Richard Zednik to Florida, two years, $3.25 million
Brett McLean to Florida, three years, $5.1 million
Tom Poti to Washington, four years, $14 million
Todd White to Atlanta, four years, $9.5 million

TRADES
Edmonton sends Jason Smith and Joffrey Lupul to Philadelphia for Joni Pitkanen, Geoff Sanderson and third-round draft pick in 2009.

RE-SIGNINGS
Sergei Zubov in Dallas, one year, $5.35 million
Denis Grebeshkov in Edmonton, one year, money unknown
Ryan Whitney in Pittsburgh, six years, $24 million
Chris Mason in Nashville, terms unknown
Pascal Dupuis in Atlanta, one year, $880,000
Barret Jackman in St. Louis, one year, money unknown
Joe Thornton in San Jose, three years, $21.6 million
Keith Tkachuk to St. Louis, two years, $8 million