Kopitar’s just about a 40/year guy right now (I think he’s almost exactly at 1 goal/every other game at the moment), and he’s still young. Given that he’s still working on his conditioning, I don’t think we’ve seen his ceiling yet.

I understand where you’re coming from, though. I think the odds are against the Kings making it to the Finals this year, but given an absence of real misfortune, I think their odds next season are much better just based on a natural rate of improvement for the young guys. We haven’t seen Johnson’s ceiling, or Simmonds’, or Moller’s or even Doughty’s. But at the same time, I agree that Lombardi would be remiss if he didn’t at least look into bringing a top-tier UFA this summer.

btw, I think we should start using Dinglebarn as Lombardi’s standard nickname instead of DL. :-D

well, as it sounds like you know, i did that last year ad nauseum. I’ve been thinking about it again these last few weeks, and am waiting until the trade deadline passes. last year the main point of obsession around the league was Hossa, and i am quite happy to note that I called that one a mile away (I said that the wings simply could not sign hossa and even with letting him walk would have to lose a couple of roster players — ended up being Samuelsson and Hudler — and that the Kings had a much better shot than people thought, as there were in fact very few teams who could sign him, Chicago being the one team I said could but shouldn’t unless they’re insane. They have of course proven themselves to be insane.). This year we’ve got Kovalchuk, Marleau, Frolov and it’s pretty downhill from there in terms of big young expensive forwards. There are plenty of old ones.

the bottom line is that the Kings are in an excellent cap position relative to other teams and have in the year since we all thought about these things the Kings have graduated into one of the genuinely attractive destinations for UFAs. without actually looking at the numbers of everyone around the league, who they have to re-sign etc., my guess is the Kings have just about the best combination of “attractive destination” and cap room. Chicago, for sure, Detroit, Philly, Washington (the usual suspects) all are pretty pressed for cap space. San jose will be right up there, though, especially after their Post-Choke 10.0 Purge 2.0.