Anyone want Lombardi quotes?

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No? OK, I’ll just get some sleep in that case…

(Just a joke)

(Don’t overrun the Daily News’ servers)

Give me a few minutes to get my notes together, but here are some bullet point (all according to Lombardi):

– The Kings, and two other teams, had exclusive negotiating rights to talk to Hossa before July 1. If they had signed him, they would have owed some type of compensation to Detroit. The Kings were prepared for a massive Hossa deal, but he wanted to go to a more successful team.

– The other big target was Mike Knuble, who ultimately decided to stay in the East.

– The Kings looked at Gaborik, and debated whether to give him as many as three years, but weren’t prepared to go anywhere near the Rangers’ offer. They also looked at Havlat, in a similar way, but less seriously.

– Lombardi said he will look at some of the remaining forwards, but sounded more prepared to look at trade possibilities, particularly with teams that have salary-cap issues.

– Adding a veteran defenseman is a possibility, but not a strong one right now. Lombardi said they “dabbled” with Francois Beauchemin, but that’s about it so far.

Pretty good stuff…give me a little while to put it together.

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  • kingsfanforlife

    thanks rich…but hey i am not down about all those guys, a little, but hey its all cool i would really love to see nik antropov in a kings jersey i think he would fit in great with kopi and brown or kopi and fro that would be ideal for me. also a trade would be cool as long as we dont give up too too much but hey i have a feeling it will all work out

  • Dominic Lavoie

    love you Rich. guess I’ll be staying up late now too….

  • kluka68

    Here is the answer to all people who were telling that DL fall asleep or who were upset with doing nothing today.This is wake up call to you ! DL is working and yes he is right- our team needs to get better in order to get to play offs and then talanted UFA would have interest in signing with LA.Or overpay which i think DL will never will and thanks God for it !

  • Jeremy

    Illya Kovalchuk.

  • petey

    “The Kings were prepared for a massive Hossa deal, but he wanted to go to a more successful team.”

    There you go folks, that says it all. Don’t expect any big name free agents to sign in L.A. until the youngsters can make it to the playoffs. That’s the reality of it.

  • MrMach5

    “The Kings were prepared for a massive Hossa deal, but he wanted to go to a more successful team.”

    Wow that says it all…I’m going to bed.

  • Anonymous

    As usual, Rich, a few paragraphs from you is worth more than 10 pages of internet BB raving.

  • Chris Bond

    Good stuff…..We are in LA dont they know that all the stars live there..all the hot hollywood chicks?
    Sell it Dean Sell it….

  • kozak

    ok rich, twist my arm and force me to stay up later for the Lombardi quotes

  • Steve Jensen

    Wasn’t next years UFA class suppose to be much better than this year’s group?

    There was no one out there that would really make an impact on this team.

    I’d be surprised if DL doesn’t trade some prospects and a top young player for a stud by the end of the summer. There are teams out there that need the cap space.

  • stevebone

    You can’t have a successful team when you let your blue chippers walk away. Who is going to want to stay and play in LA with a team that won’t make the big deal to get you over the edge? I wouldn’t be surprised if Kopitar ask for a trade in the next couple years if he doesn’t get any help.

    What about Tanguay? Or as soon as he is signed we can say we were interested BUT…. Sounds like we need someone that can pull the trigger.

  • speedy

    trade wtf are we going to trade. I just spit up all the koolaid I can stand. all we heard from this gm is we have cap room for when teams are in trouble. well they sure were not afaid to spend money today. are any teams really going to give us talent because they cant afford it. are guys really going to want to come to the kings. they would rather take pay cuts then come play for this ____ He pisses off the talent they leave and no one wants to come here why should they we arent doing anything to show winning means anything to us. draft pick young prospects it all means nothing the f n ducks have more respect then the kings Im sick. there is no way we win the bidding war for any top players next year. no way. they wont come and we wont pay. simple as that

  • Chaz

    Pretty soon the core players won’t even want to play here, let alone the superstars. Can’t blame JJ.

    Sheesh, you’d figure when Kopie and Brownie announced at the end of the season that we needed a scoring LW that we’d AT LEAST get that…

  • Cry Baby

    Remind me…who’s Chicago’s #1 goalie. Huet is not going to fetch a cup, and i cannot even remember the other’s guys name (not the wall). Bite it Chi town.

  • jom

    What Petey said…and that is EXACTLY how it should be. You also need to consider that the vast majority of teams who make these big signings never win a Cup. What happened to the Rangers after those two outrageous contracts for Drury and Gomez? Nothing…they couldn’t wait to dump Gomez. Philly with Brier? LOL. Just be thankful the Kings didn’t sign ANY of these guys. This year’s crop is pretty much the same thing.

  • Pumpernicholl

    For the life of me I don’t know why fans keep wanting Lombardi to overpay or make unreasonable offers on July 1. There is no day of the NHL year when acquiring a player is more expensive than July 1.

    The GM did indeed “pull the trigger,” but ultimately the signing on July 1 is not up to the GM who has made the offer, it’s up to the UFA, who holds all the cards on this day of all days.

  • Johnny Kick a Hole In The Sky

    It just so happens Philly has some cap issues..

    Who do we like from there? Gagne? He plays leftwing. What else is out there in terms of trading partners? Dean has to make a move, other teams are improving while we’re HOPING to improve. We need a player to strengthen this team.

  • AK47

    Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan… We’ve been waiting WAY too long DL, you’ve got to do something.. I understand he’d rather acquire someone through a trade, but who’s available?

    Phil Kessel? We’d probably have to give Boston way too much

    Dany Heatley? You already lost that one (surprisingly.. sarcasm)

    Simon Gagne? Of course you’ll go back to your philly connections..

    Ugh, I need some time to sleep on all of this, cuz I really thought we would come away with a winger.. We have a HUGE and I mean HUGEEEEE hole on the 2nd line left wing..

  • speedy

    jom I should be thankfull are you kidding me thankfull for what. all the players wanted was a scoring LW. that should have been the first thing done today. oh well there always next year. yeah right

  • http://www.insidesocal.com CupRun2012

    This is exactly the way I thought it would play out. COME ON PEOPLE!!!! Put yourself in the UFA’s skates…why would you want to go to a team that’s not quite there yet. You didn’t see any of the marquee UFA’s go to Atlanta, or Phoenix, or any other bottom dweller? Until we can make a legitimate run for the cup, would we even stand a chance of landing one of those UFA’s. Either we get real close (i.e. Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Philly), or we trade. I’m surprised DL tried to get Hossa! I don’t understand some of the teams that DID land some player…espectially the Habs!

  • vicarious

    thanks rich (and DL for giving the interview)

    Its not too much of a surprise that the top free agents want to go to strong winning teams. Anyone think Hossa wld hv gone to Chicago 2 years ago or last year? the kings are pretty much in the same spot they’ve been the last 12-14 years–top free agents do not want to play here because they want to win and do not think the team strong enough. If nobody strong is out there for the signing, well you dance with who you brung. And give thanks\hope your dance partner is not someone like heatley.

    Not that suffering is my 1st choice, but I still say its better to play the young kids and suffer on their learning curve then to sign a middle of the pack vet to an overpriced contract–and then probably suffer anyway. Stories abound with teams blowing up their rebuilds just when they are near bearing fruit.

  • Quisp

    Attention all rampaging ids. Get yourselves a small dose of super ego and calm the f*** down.

  • JPKelly

    Mmm, all this pent up frustration. It brings such a charge to the summer night. There’s nothing like being chained to a palm tree and wondering… of all the babes who strut their stuff along the palisade, which one will it be that’s gonna set me free? How much would you be willing to endure to ultimately get your name etched on the Cup?

  • Quisp

    And by the way, to the geniuses who think we can’t trade for anyone on a cap-strapped team because “what do we have to trade?” The answer is … wait for it … picks and prospects. Why? Because THEY CAN’T TAKE ANY SALARY BACK. That’s why it’s called a salary dump. Philly, as we speak, is $2MM OVER the cap with four players left to sign. This means they are, at minimum, going to have to DUMP $4MM worth of salary, probably closer to $5-6MM.

    Say it’s Gagne. I pick him because — oh — he’s a left-wing and his cap hit is $5.25MM (from memory, could be $5.5MM). They don’t want to do, say, Gagne for Johnson, because that only saves them HALF of what they need to save. They have to trade, for example, for our first round pick. Which makes even more sense when you consider that they just traded away their own 2010 1st. Now, maybe DL doesn’t want to give up the 1st for Gagne without getting some of his kind of picks back. I originally thought, okay maybe a 2nd, but someone pointed out, we already have their second. Maybe we force them to take Preissing and let Philly banish him to the minors. Why not? They did it to Gauthier. In any case, if they take on Johnson, or Frolov, or whoever, they’re going to have to deal yet more pieces because they have to clear $5-6MM by October. (you can be 10% over the cap during the off-season.)

    So all this self-loathing about how our players are so worthless we don’t even have anyone to trade away, is not only inaccurate, it’s utterly beside the point.

  • speedy

    Quisp I respect and enjoy your comments as always but when I say “what are we going to trade” I dont mean that we dont have anything its that we cant afford to let go of the likes of a Fro or JJ. giving up an apple to get an orange its different but does it really make our team any better. If Im Philly do I really want to give you a scoring LW that can produce or will I dump the Tom Pressings of my club.

  • Trant

    The point of Quisp’s post was that Philadelphia (in this case) can’t afford to take on Frolov or Johnson’s salary as it only puts them even further over the cap. Yes, I’m sure they would want to dump their equivalent of Tom Preissing, but in their case it may be impossible to trade multiple mid level salaries while still being able to fill out their full roster. Remember that if they’re dumping a player than they find themselves with yet another roster spot to fill.

  • Quisp

    speedy -

    I just re-read this thread and my comments and I disagree with myself to the extent that I seem awfully angry and it’s apparently directed at you for no reason. I’m sorry. In my ALL CAPS RANTING I also wasn’t clear in trying to make my point. I don’t want to trade Frolov (especially) or Johnson, either. And Philly doesn’t want to take salary back, so we don’t need to trade an expensive body. Just picks and prospects. We’re in a good position in that regard.

    The fact is, no matter what anybody feels about this situation, the Kings can only add ONE BIG FISH. So it had better be the right one. I frankly don’t give a shit if it’s through free agency or a trade, as long as he doesn’t trade the players I have personally exempted from trading in the privacy of my own mind.

    If the Kings don’t add a legitimate top-six forward this summer, I will be surprised.

  • 3krazekatze

    Agree with Quisps salary cap analysis However as we improve and our draft positions drop to 11th to 15th or so overall, a first round pick is not anywhere near as valuable as a #2 or #5 pick. If we expect to improve in 2010/12 then we should NOT shy away from trading some of those picks for the “right fit” top 6 that we need especially if we can get a salary dump situation where another team NEEDS to move somebody. We have enough assets and picks where this can be done. Hope DL realizes that while he has done a great job so far this is a dynamic, not a static situation that he must navigate

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