Dustin Brown Signs 6-Year Extension
I had something else up here about Ilya Kovalchuk that I may post some other time, but this is important. According to Inside the Kings, the extension is worth $19.05 million, or $3.175 mil a season. That's pretty good. I had been worried that both Brown and O'Sullivan were going to be restricted free agents at the end of the season, but I guess half that problem is gone.
This says to me that Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar are going to be on our top line for a very long time. I think Dean Lombardi looks at the two of them and sees the Bertuzzi/Naslund duo. (Hopefully without the attempted murder, though.) If Brown continues his excellent play this year and continues to develop into a dominating power forward, the Kings will have their top forward line (Brown, Kopitar and someone), their top defensive line (Lubo and Jack Johnson) and their goaltenders (LaBarbera, Bernier) all set. What this says for the future of Alex Frolov and Mike Cammalleri is unsettling, but I won't worry about that right now.
One thing that's kind of funny to me: Dustin Brown will make more over the life of his new contract than Mike Cammalleri is making this year. His agent must be pissed.
I just heard about this, so I haven't had time to put on my smoking jacket, light my pipe and think it through, but right now I'm happy. He's Dustin Brown! I guess it just goes to show: you can be stupid and successful in this world.
[Earl Sleek postscript: Blogger tells me that this is BoC's 666th post. Woo hoo! Combined with the news of a 6-year extension, I'm suspecting that Dustin Brown is the antichrist.]
4 comments:
I doubt Frolov's going anywhere unless he's fetching a very big prize, since he has a very cap-friendly contract, locked up through 09-10 at a $2.9 million cap hit per year.
Cammi's the bigger question mark, since I've heard he's supposedly very much a players union guy, which suggests he's likely to test free agency after next season, by which point he may have topped 40 goals in consecutive seasons (I'm hoping for 50). What's especially interesting is that Cammi becomes a UFA after next year, the same time that Kopitar and JMFJ get RFA status.
My strong suspicion is that Kopitar at minimum will be given a very long and lucrative extension before he hits RFA status (just in case Kevin Lowe still has a job). You'd have to think they'll try to get a similar deal done with Jack Johnson, especially if his development goes well over the next two seasons.
Still, even though Cammi will likely command big money, I would think Dean Lombardi makes a serious attempt to resign him, just because those top-level scorers aren't exactly a dime a dozen, and it would be nice to truly have a championship-caliber core consisting entirely of home-grown talent (and I realize Carolina drafted JMFJ, but he never signed with them, so they get no credit for his professional development).
End ramble.
This is a pretty awesome move by DL, I'll say.
And whatever credit you want to give Carolina for winning a ping-pong ball 3rd pick and selecting consensus choice JMFJ, it's more than offset by the dumb trade with L.A.
There's just too many variables to know who will be on the team in 3 years right now. This off-season will do a lot to clarify that, I think. I'm nervous.
[Earl Sleek postscript: Blogger tells me that this is BoC's 666th post. Woo hoo! Combined with the news of a 6-year extension, I'm suspecting that Dustin Brown is the antichrist.]
I could've sworn Miroslav Satan was the NHL's resident antichrist. And yes, living in Slovakia, I know better than most that his surname is not the same as the English name for the prince of darkness.
Still, I have long wished he would end up with New Jersey, because it'd be ever so sweet to have a sweater with Devils on the front, Satan on the back.
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