Rookie camp

Sweet. Best time of the year right now. Dodgers, football, hockey around the corner. I know not all plans pan out but I am excited about the Kings and look forward to an excellent future full of championships and celebrations:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/10524/kings_top20_prospects_fall2008/

Rich, any idea on Hickey's foot/ankle? Is he 100% now?

I would have to presume that Hickey's foot is 100 percent. When I talked to him in early July, he was scheduled to start skating in two weeks and I haven't heard about any setbacks.

I know this is off topic, but with the announcement of Stall's new 7yr, $57.75 mil deal, anybody see this as a somewhat close model of what Kopitar would expect? Kopitar's numbers have been similar to Stall's so far, and where Kopitar would be at Stall's age, in three years, seems about right (hopefully with a 100 point season under his belt, too.)

I think this would be a fair deal for both the Kings and Kopi...

any thoughts?

to quote a friend of mine from an early morning email exchange we had...

"Staal also has had 3 70+ point seasons including a 100 point season, and a stanley cup. I bet Kopi gets in the neighborhood of $7 mil a season. That being said, I think that Kopitar is every bit as good if not better than Staal, and Kopi's season this coming year will do a lot to determine his worth."

and i agree.

Rich,

This may be outside your scope but can you look into why the Kings will only broadcast 10 games in HD? I know I don't have to argue the benefits of HD to anyone here but I am baffled as to why, with all the resources in this town, the Kings have so few games in HD.

Looking around at other teams TV schedule, I am seeing smaller markets with more games broadcast in HD than Los Angeles is offering:
Nashville has 22 on FSN South.
Washington has 70 on Comcast SportsNet.
Phoenix has 40 on FSN AZ.
Florida has 38 on FSN Florida.
San Jose has 40 on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.
And then there is this quote: "The Stars are working very hard to get EVERY game in HD..."

Thanks,

To Daniel,

Its so refreshing to see a Kings fan being postitive and hopeful! Keep it up and GO KINGS!!!

Jank Handy-

Deep thoughts...jk

Yeah the Stanley Cup is a good point. But let's hope when Kopitar is negotiating his next contract after this initial extension coming up this year, he can use his Stanley Cup as leverage as well!!

Rich- regarding the HD equipment - Does the equipment belong to the building or to the Lakers (laker/Clippers) and the Kings rent it when it is available?

Micah - you know it!!!

If the Kings start handing out money in the $4 mil and $7 mil range to Sully and Kopi, I don't expect to see Brown and Fro around for too much longer. As soon as they can get out and to a team that will pay more, they'll be gone.

anonymous...

i disagree with you about the money part with sully and kopitar. lock up sully for 4-5 years at $4 mil. that will be a bargain. lock up kopitar for 5-7 years at $7 mil. he is the #1 guy on offense on our team. he will be worth every penny. brown is already locked up for 5 more years. i do agree that frolov could be out after next year though. there may not be room for him with all the kids coming in.

jedi,

I hope your wrong about Frolov, although I think you might not be. He will command big bucks, atleast 5-6 million, but I think he's worth every penny. I don't see any Frolov type players coming through the pipeline, and if we lost him, I think we'd regret it big time when we make it to the playoffs. I pray Fro is around several more years, at least until he is 31-32 and starts to probably decline or plateau.

Brown, if he plays for the next 5 years like he did this last year, and especially if he is named Captain during that period, will easily get offered a big contract with a huge raise after this one ends. If he were the type to be bitter about being underpaid on the team in comparison to others, he would never have taken a discount in the first place. Had he wanted more, he could have easily held out until RFA and made 4 or 5 million, but it probably wouldn't have been for quite as long, and clearly he wants stability and want to see this team into the future, whatever it holds. That's not to say he wouldn't want to leave at the end of the contract, but I think he could easily be offered an extension with a huge raise in the last year of his contract. Also consider that he will most likely have another kid by then, and the one he has now will just be getting enmeshed in elementary school. A guy who puts family first won't necessarily jump at the opportunity to uproot his family for more money... at least not a guy who is already very wealthy.