Good morning from Burbank Airport, Insiders. It’s a busy day. The Board of Governors will vote on a recommendation for league expansion to Las Vegas, NHL stars will walk the red carpet at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and we’ll find out whether Anze Kopitar will win the Lady Byng or Selke trophies, Quick will win the Vezina, and whether Drew Doughty will capture his first Norris. I hope you’ve all been saving your best Doughty vs Karlsson arguments for this fine afternoon.
It’s also another big day in the continuation of discussions between Milan Lucic and the Los Angeles Kings. According to a team source with knowledge of the proceedings, Lucic and Dean Lombardi met either yesterday afternoon or are meeting this morning in an attempt to come to an agreement on a new contract. The meeting was scheduled to take place at Toyota Sports Center.
On last week’s conference call, Lombardi noted that “It’s probably safe to say we will be making … our best offer, under the circumstances, probably early next week, is probably when I envision this,” so this recent meeting falls in line with his timeline.
In the event no agreement is reached in the coming days, Lucic will be free to negotiate with other teams at 9:01 p.m. PT on June 24, though he won’t be able to sign with a team other than Los Angeles until July 1.
For more information on the discussions between Lucic and the Kings, and how a $73M salary cap affects the team’s plans, click here.
The team wants Lucic, Lucic wants to stay, I can never understand why these negotiations sometimes get so dramatic. https://t.co/HbFBUiXyBd
— Eric Duhatschek (@eduhatschek) June 22, 2016
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