37 Comments

1. FiG17 says:

   September 14, 2012 at 9:23 am

   Hey Rich, just a question… how will the lockout affect employees like you? If it’s just a player lockout, I’m assuming you guys aren’t necessarily locked out… just maybe less work to do?

   Will you keep us updated (as much as you can, obviously) on the whereabouts and goings on of the players?

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   BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 9:31 am

   @FiG17,

   Betcha the Kings–innovators as they are–will understand the critical psychological function someone such as Rich Hammond performs for us hockey junkies. They will understand he will keep us focused, in the hockey fold as it were, ready for NHL L.A. Kings hockey when it returns…

   –Such an integral personality will be paid 100% of his salary during a lockout, perhaps more.

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   Rich Hammond Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 9:48 am

   Perhaps more? I think I just found my agent!

   Honestly, I have no idea how this will work. Uncharted waters. I’ll be here, just kind of riding the wave to see what happens. Of course, I’ll be keeping close tabs on all the Kings players who are on the ice somewhere, whether it be in the AHL, junior or Europe, and we’ll all just keep our fingers crossed on the NHL front. I think every team handles its employees differently. In the NBA, some people did get laid off (at least temporarily), so I hope that doesn’t happen to anyone. I also feel for the workers at Staples Center, whose livelihood (at least that part of it) depends on events taking place at the arena.

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   BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:04 am

   @Rich Hammond,

   I would gladly represent you in such negotiations…
   Regrettably, I fear that this might limit the fulfillment of your dreams somewhat, so I must decline.

   It is so horrible that people will be hurt here, unnecessarily…

   

   Kingsfanone Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 1:40 pm

   @Rich Hammond,

   At least you know we’ll be here, eh Rich?
   (Loyal servants that we are to our Fearless Leader!)
2. Gail Web says:

   September 14, 2012 at 9:39 am

   Lock out here we come!

   At least this month we do not have to pay any more into our accounts as our money we gave so far is already locked in, for maybe half a season if we are lucky?

   Go Kings Go!

   ;-(

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3. BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy says:

   September 14, 2012 at 9:50 am

   Rich…

   In the case of the lockout becoming reality, could you start a retrospective of posts years past, bringing back the most popular themes (& perhaps your favorite themes)?

   –I nominate Juraj Mikus…

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   BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 9:54 am

   …

   NHL:
   “We don’t always play hockey, but when we do we always pick Juraj Mikus to be in the ceremonial puck drop… As both players!”

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   Rich Hammond Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:01 am

   I’ll have to look and see if I can search the archives at the old blog. At one point the search function was broken, which makes it tough to find old stuff.

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   Eric K Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:49 am

   @BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy, Mind if I throw one out there? Here is the thread where the trade of Patrick O’Sullivan for Justin Williams is revealed…
   http://www.insidesocal.com/kings/2009/03/no-osullivan-on-ice.html
   … and the confirmation post from Rich.
   http://www.insidesocal.com/kings/2009/03/trade-details-1.html

   The reactions are pretty great.

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   BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 7:39 pm

   @Eric K,

   That was a great one…

   Still waiting for Anthony… Or, Anthonyy (Bet him a signed jersey that POS would be outscored by Williams… Points, not goals… Wasn’t close!)

   What a great turning point for the franchise.
   That trade established the core (without POS), got Williams (who did get hurt, twice), & broke a lot of hearts.

   Looking back, I see a lot of hemming and hawing, too. Quispie & Variable were not completly sold at the time.

   Great choice!

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4. Tony in Denver says:

   September 14, 2012 at 9:50 am

   I’m very disappointed about the impending lockout, but I really don’t know who’s in the right. Does anyone know what the critical points of disagreement are?

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   Steven H Brown Reply:
   September 15th, 2012 at 2:07 am

   @Tony in Denver, the big stumbling block seems to be percentage of Hockey related Revenue that belongs to the players, from which the salary cap, and the salary floor are computed. with the NFL and the NBA lockouts last year, the owners were able to rool back the players % of the pie to about 50% in both leagues, the expiring CBA in the NHL called for 57%, which the owners contend is too high, for most of the teams to make money, and they made a 2nd offer up from the original offer of 46% to 49%. The players took an across the board 25% reduction, in all contracts just 7 years ago, to get the previous CBA in place after missing an NHL season for both players and owners. The players feel, they don’t need to make concessions this time around, as up until this summer all they were hearing and seeing from the various clubs and the Commissioner’s office, was that things are going great, revenue rose faster than salaries over the last 7 years although salaries grew at a nice pace from an avg of $1.8 million US per season to $2.8 million US per season. It is pretty hard to side with the owners, when a non playoff team in a not very large although rabid market, like Minnesota signed 2 free agents to $100 million US contracts this offseason, while also claiming that they cannot continue to operate the league, under the current CBA, and therefore MUST lock the players out. The 1st proposal from the owners to the players set the salary cap for 2012-2013 below the floor from the 2011-2012 season. The steady stream of contract extensions to young players on almost every team, also in my mind undercuts the owners argument, that they need a current year reduction in salaries to make things work. In essence the owners are negotiating raises with current players while simultaneously asking for a 10-15 percent cut in existing and future contracts. in the case of Parise and Suter, thats like negotiating a $100 Million US deal, and once the contract is signed saying we can only pay $85 to $90 Million and we have not breached the contracts, and you are not free to negotiate with someone else since you are under contract to us. Furthermore if the players accept the current proposal from the owners, guys on existing contracts like Brown, Richardson Nolan… would get a paycut, even though they are working on preexisting contracts. Tony I don’t know if you work in a unionized industry or not, but how would you feel, if your employer came to you and said, even though the business is in no immediate threat of folding i need you to take a cut in the salary we negotiated, or I am going to have to furlough you until we can reach an agreement on how big a pay cut you will accept. Owners have the upper hand hear, because players can only stay physically equipped to play for x number of years, so they have to eventually do what the NFL and NBA players did and sign a deal that is less lucrative, than the previous deal, from a % of revenue POV, which of course means the owners get to keep a bigger piece of an expanding pie.

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5. NHKingsFan says:

   September 14, 2012 at 9:55 am

   Rich, can they still put guys like Campbell, Cliche, and Clune on waivers later today? Or are waivers a one time thing?

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   Rich Hammond Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:00 am

   Only one waiver period per 24 hours, so no. There’s still a scenario in which some players could be signed to AHL contracts, but frankly I haven’t waded into that yet. This whole thing is a mess (not that we didn’t already know…)

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6. Optomistic says:

   September 14, 2012 at 9:59 am

   Too bad they cant put Fehr and Bettman in a locked room and not let them out until they reach an agreement

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   BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:06 am

   @Optomistic,

   Someone nominated the Red Roof Inn for that meeting…

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   King Alex Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 11:10 am

   @Optomistic, I really like this idea except with a little twist….Bettman & Fehr walk into that room and only 1 of them comes out. Whoever comes out, wins the negotiation! I saw something like this in the TV show “The Shield” a few years ago, except in the show it was 2 rival drug dealers locked into a shipping container to work out their differences.

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7. LBlocal says:

   September 14, 2012 at 10:40 am

   Brett Sutter on waivers… Hmm?

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   Lake Forest Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:52 am

   @LBlocal, How does one see who was put on waivers?

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   Stuart Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 10:59 am

   @Lake Forest, I tried to put a link to TSN but it wouldn’t take… there’s a little blurb on the tsn site listing 63 players on waivers.

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   Lake Forest Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 11:02 am

   @Stuart, you guys have that baby girl yet?

   

   Stuart Reply:
   September 14th, 2012 at 11:08 am

   @LF, we have one more month to go… October 19th! thanks for asking!
8. BringbackButchGoring says:

   September 14, 2012 at 10:49 am

   I guess that pretty much speaks volumes on what the King’s think of the eight players that would have had to pass waivers

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9. Lake Forest says:

   September 14, 2012 at 10:51 am

   Anyone else see this as a good sign? Possibly they don’t believe that a lockout will occur OR if there is it won’t be that long?

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10. Eric K says:

    September 14, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Sensible move. Hickey or Muzzin would get snapped up, for sure.

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    Weasel Reply:
    September 14th, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    @Eric K,

    100%

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11. neil says:

    September 14, 2012 at 10:56 am

    If the kings players that are loaned to manchester…will they be considered scabs?…..can they say no?….will the other players be jealous that they are getting paid?

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    CT King Reply:
    September 14th, 2012 at 11:20 am

    @neil, I doubt the Kings players will care that Nolan, Lokti and Voynov are gettig paid AHL level salaries of less than $1k/game. Also, this is a lockout, not a strike. If the players are smart they would never bring up the “scab” word and put this all on the owners.

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12. DesertKing says:

    September 14, 2012 at 11:44 am

    With those players hitting wiavers, I guess we can kiss our chance to repeat as the champions good bye. What is DL thinking? Why didn’t we go after Parise? Why did we get rid of Kompon? Where are the future players for this team? What will we do without Kovalchuk? See, noKings Cup and no CBA and these are the kinds of posts we will get. GET THE DANG DEAL DONE!!! please, please, plea….

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    BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy Reply:
    September 14th, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    @DesertKing,

    Slow deep, cleansing breath…
    Breathe in… Hold it… Now let it out S – L – O – W – L – Y…

    Better?
    

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    DesertKing Reply:
    September 14th, 2012 at 12:54 pm

    @BakoCAkingsCondorsGuy,

    Thanks! Sorry about that, I had a Will Ferrell moment there

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    Kingsfanone Reply:
    September 14th, 2012 at 1:44 pm

    @DesertKing,

    I think worse moment than that……..

    

    Lake Forest Reply:
    September 14th, 2012 at 2:29 pm

    @DesertKing, REHIRETERRYMURRAY.COM

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13. krash324 says:

    September 14, 2012 at 11:53 am

    Living in Montreal at the time of the baseball strike that cost the rest of the season and playoffs when the Expos were playoff bound and the world Series was just a formality killed baseball for me and many Montreal fans. I went from seeing 20 games every year to not being able to go back until the last year when the team was moved to Washington. As a die hard Kings fan, I do not care if the season never starts, I have the greatest memories of last season, being able to touch the cup in Slave Lake & chat with Colin Fraser. Unfortunately, there will be other fans that do not feel the same, that will not go back to hockey, that might eventually cost some city a franchise. Looking forward to watching the Calgary Hitmen, following the Monarchs and coaching my son’s team.

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14. 408kingsfan says:

    September 14, 2012 at 11:56 am

    the important thing here is to keep our waiver exempt players playing somewhere so their frosty when and if the season is salvaged.

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15. pr0cess says:

    September 14, 2012 at 12:22 pm

    http://deadspin.com/5943335/how-gary-bettman-spent-the-vancouver-riots?utm_source=gizmodo.com&utm_medium=recirculation&utm_campaign=recirculation

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