Initial Lombardi comments
Here's the first part of what Dean Lombardi said about the signing of Patrick O'Sullivan, and the question on so many minds: what took so long?
``Part of the difficulty is that the market for young players is changing so rapidly. It's hard, because we don't know where we're going with it. This is one of the difficulties of doing contracts for young players right now, because it's all over the map. That's the first thing that can hold these up. Secondly, as I've said before, at this stage I just think terms are important, especially when you're far apart. Because of the CBA, we've lost a lot of creativity. In the past, you could get over these things by coming up with options or escalators or things. It takes away all the creativity to bridge gaps, so you're stuck with, OK, we've got to keep hammering away at this in a more confined area.
``We got to a point where we said, we're going to get this done and we're going to get it done right, so that it's a fair contract for him and also fits within our group that we're trying to put together. Both sides compromised. That's usually the case. It's not as much as he wanted and maybe higher than we wanted, and that's usually how contracts go.''
O'Sullivan is flying in from Denver tonight and is expected to be on the ice for practice tomorrow morning. Any decisions about when O'Sullivan will play, and on which line, will be made by Terry Murray, so we'll see what he says tomorrow.
I'll have more comments from Lombardi transcribed in a bit...
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Thanks Rich!!!!
I can't imagine Sully not being on the first line. I would imagine that Brown and Kopitar are going to lobby hard for it, and everyone who was here last year needs to just tell Murray that this is a no brainer.
I'd imagine POS will have a hard time sitting still on the flight from Denver and a harder time sleeping tonight. You know he's gotta be super anxious to get on the ice tomorrow with his teammates. Great job by DL to make this happen and kudos to POS and his agent for taking the three year contract and not letting this drag on into the season. Only 4 days 'til the puck drops folks!!!
Ya think Pati-O will be hungover tomorrow?
cheers
real glad DL played hardball with O'Sullivan. Great job by Lombardi on not giving in and also not being a cheapo. O'Sullivan has a crapload of money to spend!
All hail Dean Lombardi!!!
No losers here. Lombardi gets his multi-year contract and O'Sullivan gets more money than a lot of us will ever see. If he improves over the next three years he could break the bank, if the salary cap isn't broken by then...
Sully was obviously asking for Andrei Kostitsyn cash (which I think is a fair proposal), and Lombardi was probably thinking a million less. BOTH SIDES COMPROMISED. So what's this "all hail lombardi" chant?
Seems like a good deal for everyone. Where's Anthony? There has to be a negative angle...;)
jeri, those comments are for getting him signed for 3 years and no less, which it looked like might happen. 1 or 2 years would have been a bad precedent, but he got what he set out to get with atleast 3 yr deal. That's what the "hail lombardi" chants are for.
Hail Lombardi!
for now...
I would think that first line will stay how it is until O'Sullivan is up to speed, then he will jog the lines up to fit O'Sullivan in the first line and Moulson where he trickles down to best.
"Seems like a good deal for everyone. Where's Anthony? There has to be a negative angle...;)"
Read any of the other articles that Rich posted today and you'll find plenty.