Anze Kopitar & Kings Far Apart in Contract Talks

Well, this is a terrible follow-up to Anze Kopitar Week.

Kings fans were greeted this morning with some unwelcome news:

Lombardi: Kings, Kopitar "not even in the ballpark" in contract negotiations: http://t.co/kdIS4LefW2

— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) September 1, 2015

All things considered, however, this was not too surprising a development, considering the very uncertain future of the salary cap because of the falling Canadian dollar. Nothing to worry about, right? After all, the Kings have exclusive rights until July 1, 2016 to sign their ace center.

Then more bad tidings rolled in:

To follow up on @lakingsinsider report, gap in Kopitar/Kings negotiations a good couple million per season apart. Pretty significant.

— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) September 1, 2015

My thoughts, transANZElated:

And more bad tidings:

Kopitar also has no interest in negotiating during the season so there's going to have to be some serious progress made in short term.

— Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) September 1, 2015

Kopi, you read my mind:

angry Kopi makes me very sad pic.twitter.com/22Gm76e8IA

— Stephanie (@myregularface) April 8, 2015

There's no way the Kings let their two-way, two-Cup superstar and undisputed heir to the franchise center lineage of Dionne and Gretzky walk...right?

As unlikely as that seems, one thing seems certain now—fasten your seatbelts, Kings fans, it's going to be a bumpy ride.