Kopitar: O'Sullivan is ``frustrated''

we like you Patty 0. we really do. However, you are young and unfortunately you have not yet learned that you are not bigger than the game, or the team for that matter. You have obvious talent and tremendous upside, but there are plenty of players with as much or more talent waiting in the wings. You had a good season last year. We'd love to see you continue improve and most of believe the Kings are moving in a direction that will provide you with that opportunity with an excellent core of young, talented, exciting players to work with for many, many years to come. But if you only looking after "patty o" and not looking to achieve great things with this team (for many years rather than one), then I will bid you farewell, wish you the best of luck and maybe even cheer for you when you are not playing the Kings.

Not just frustrated, but REALLY frustrated. Kopi kinda giving up some inside stuff there. I wonder what DL thinks about that?

But I have a question for anyone who knows:

Can't many of the differences between the two sides be accounted for via incentives in the contract? It seems to me that is a great way to find common ground. I'm not clear on what the rules are for incentives, but for some reason I think that the players union prohibits some of them...???

Care to comment Rich? You haven't in quite some time...

It's hard to gague who is holding this up, O'Sullivan, his agent or DL. The Kings are KNOWN as a team that plays hard ball with their players, something that has happened MANY times over the past few years (Boucher, Blake, O'Sullivan, etc").

At the end of the day, I don't see how it's so difficult unless it's O'Sullivan not wanting a long term deal. The Kings are of course not going to sign him for 1 or 2 years, they are looking long term. But if you want a guy to sign a 3-4-5 year deal, you have to pay a preimum to make it worth while for him to give up those negotiating years.

I was thinking something in the range of 3.85-4 mill per year over a 3-4 year deal would be a "fair" area.

If this is NOT going to work out, then I would like to see O'Sullivan moved in a deal for a guy that is an impact type player (Boumeester maybe?)

Kopi, A true professional and obviously a mature adult. I love this guy and he is the definition of leader. Slap that "C" on his chest and lets start the season.. HE better get the "C", I have already put mine on my Kopi Jersey!!!

Kopi, A true professional and obviously a mature adult. I love this guy and he is the definition of leader. Slap that "C" on his chest and lets start the season.. HE better get the "C", I have already put mine on my Kopi Jersey!!!

I'm frustrated as well. Meanwhile, it's just a dream to think Moller or Purcell can take his place. They will never be as good as Sully.

Pay the man, Dean. He ain't asking for anything ridiculous, and you know that. Just do it.

Incentives are only allowed for entry-level contracts and for older players (i think over 35) or players coming back from long-term injury. Something like that. But to answer your question in one word, No.

Pretty sure incentive bonuses can only be included in rookie contracts.

if you really are frustrated sully, why dont you just sign on the dotted line and get it over with.

POS needs to get un-frustrated and come to terms with DL. He can cash in on his next contract if he is so valuable. I have this feeling like its cammy all over again. I know its slightly different, but this cant be good for either side. And that is the problem, there are SIDES, not a team trying to build something together. So distracting all of this, I wonder what we could get for him?

O'Sully is not eligible for an incentive oriented contract according to the CBA.

The three groups of players who can sign contracts with performance bonuses:

1. Entry-level players
2. Players 35 and older signing a 1-year contract
3. Players who were on IR for at least 100 days in the prior season and signing a 1-year contract.

Thanks THH! In what section of the CBA did you read about that? I thought that there were limitations. I can see why the players union doesn't want incentives too much, but as an outsider looking in, it seems like a good idea. I can also see where it opens a can of worms.

If he is so frustrted then perhaps he should sign his contract. Remeber Patrick you have only had one decent season on a last place team. You are not a superstar yet. Prove that you are and you will get your big dollars.

If Sully is frustrated, he should just sign the contract already or fire his agent. He's not as frustrated as some of us fans!

POS is missing the larger picture: each day he is not playing for the Kings is a day that Moulson or Purcell or Moller is performing in his slot on Line 1.

DL has to get this contract right - whether POS thinks DL is being fair or not - because the agreement affects every upcoming Kings contract on a young team filled with Kopi, JMFJ and other guys down the line whose 2nd contracts come due in the next 1-2-3 years.

Lastly, you have to wonder what great scheme POS's agent is concocting with just 7 days until Opening Night and POS still not in a uniform or skating for a new coach. Who's gonna blink - DL...or POS?

I don't think saying POS is frustrated is giving anything away. It goes without saying. He's not playing. He's not getting paid. Of course he's frustrated. Safe to say everyone is, DL, POS, fans, everyone.

On a not-quite-but-maybe-sorta-related note, this snippet on the Kings site caught my eye:

As a result, Derek Armstrong, who basically centered for every line at some point a year ago, has made the move from pivot to the wing this preseason.

“I was drafted as a winger, I played wing in junior,” Armstrong told Daryl Evans in an interview on Kings Vision. “It doesn’t bother me. I have always prided myself on knowing the game and being a smart player, I am not the fastest skater, so you have to rely on your smarts.

“I am just proud to be an LA King and proud to be in the NHL. If they want me to fill water, I will fill water.”

I am not a big Armstrong fan (though I recognize my opinion has been colored by the fact that he has been, in past years, asked to play top-six minutes, which is a job he's not really suited for). But this quote makes me love him. People have talked a lot about what kinds of attitudes we as fans can expect from professional athletes, whether they can be expected to be loyal, not to follow the money wherever it leads, whether its reasonable to expect a player ever to value playing over, say, contract issues, etc.. I know Armstrong is on the downward slope of his career and may have reason to be more humble than, say, POS, or Cammy, or whomever. But it's a sign of character; I hope it rubs off on the rest of the Kings. (I can see why Terry Murray has had nice things to say about him, leadership-wise...)

There's a reason Armstrong is still around after all these seasons, and after so many changes in coaching and management.

I wouldn't be surprised to see him wear the C.

DL wants to lock up long term but yet is saying he has not proven that much yet and does not want to pay him
market value. This is becoming Cammy part 2 and most fans seem to be on Kings side. DL had no problem giving
Cloutier an extension without seeing him play a game or
paying Handzus 4 million with a NTC but now he is going to draw his line in the sand with POS. How come no other team in the league is having problems locking
up their young talent?

DL wants to lock up long term but yet is saying he has not proven that much yet and does not want to pay him
market value. This is becoming Cammy part 2 and most fans seem to be on Kings side. DL had no problem giving
Cloutier an extension without seeing him play a game or
paying Handzus 4 million with a NTC but now he is going to draw his line in the sand with POS. How come no other team in the league is having problems locking
up their young talent?

metalmaster --

DL wants to lock him up long term because that's what's best for the Kings; a short term deal just creates instability. DL is stating the obvious when he says POS has had 1.5 seasons in the NHL. I'm sure DL thinks the offer of a long-term deal is a vote of confidence in what POS can become, as opposed to an affirmation of what POS already is. As far as "market value," I don't see why you think the Kings aren't willing to pay market value for POS. I'm sure the Kings would be willing to give Patrick a contract on a par with any other players who have played 1.5 seasons, notched one 20 goal season, and who scored a lot in the minor leagues. Who are these players?

The Cloutier deal was a mistake and everyone including DL admits that freely. It's not a template for how DL would like to do business, I'm guessing.

Handzus was a UFA. You can't compare Handzus money and POS money, any more than you can compare Kopitar money (i.e. entry level money) to POS's situation or anyone else's.

I don't know why you think other teams don't have trouble locking up their young talent. This is not something Dean Lombardi invented.

Quisp,

Accepting what you have said, then the contract Sully should get should be what Kostitsyn got which is 3 years at 3.25million per year. that's a swet 9.75 for three years, and I would bet my own nut that DL (or the Shill as I call him) hasn't come anywhere close to that offer. If they want to lock him in, they should make it a flat 10 million for 3 years, and it would be a done deal.

But trying to get him to take less is going to prove to be pennywise and pound foolish, which is exactly what the owners seem to be all the time.

Diehard -

Yeah, that's the neighborhood I was thinking, too: $3MM-ish per year for 3 or more years. But we know that POS is asking for a short-term contract (which DL won't do) and also that they are not close on money. DL simply has to be offering around 3 (or all this talk about "comparables" is nonsense); in order for them to be "not close" on money, POS has to be looking at around 4. Like I said before, if it turns out DL is offering 2 and POS wants only 3, I will blame DL for the whole thing. Otherwise, this one's on Patrick.

Quisp
Diehard explained it better than I ever could. Everything that DL has done here affects negotiations
of the future. He locked up Brown cheap and now will try to lock up all the other talent cheap. Not all the
young talent on this team is going to give a hometown discount to play on a last place team. It is a disgrace
that a major market team like L.A. is at the cap floor
while Anaheim is either at or above the maximum. That
falls on ownership which DL is a part of. All of his
bad free agent signings and the resulting finishes are
probably the reason AEG cut the budget. Lombardi likes
to sell the future of this team based on player potential but he does not like to pay for that potential. What happens to Kopitar when he asks for
$6 or $7 million a year? Frolov is as good as gone when
he hits his FA year because the market for him will be
atleast $6 million.