NHL: Dean Lombardi building Kings to last
Negotiates eight-year deal without agent
Dustin Brown looked at the core of the Los Angeles Kings, and his decision was easy. He wanted to stay long-term, and he wanted to get the deal done himself. Brown did just that, signing for eight years and $47 million US, ensuring that this Stanley Cup-champion Kings team of a year ago would have its captain around through the 2021-22 season.
The right-winger joined goaltender Jonathan Quick, defencemen Drew Doughty and Slava Voynov and forwards Mike Richards and Jeff Carter as players signed for at least the next six seasons.
“We weren’t built to win the Cup one year and then disappear,” Brown said. “Now it’s kind of all come into place in the sense that we’re all going to be going through this together.”
That was Dean Lombardi’s goal when he took over as general manager in 2006. He acquired Richards and Carter and their contracts that run through 2020 and 2022, respectively, then tried to build on the first title in franchise history by keeping Quick around through 2023 and Doughty and Voynov through 2019.
Signing Brown to this contract was just “part of the process.”
“It wasn’t only building it, but trying to keep it together and then fit it under the cap,” Lombardi said on Thursday.
“You’re never done. It wasn’t just about becoming a good team. It was doing these type of things so that you could, in the end, build a culture, have an identity.”
Brown is, in many ways, the Kings’ identity. The 28-yearold right-winger’s aggres- sive forecheck led the way during the 2012 Stanley Cup run, when he was a point-agame player.
When Brown dealt with a knee injury and managed just three goals and an assist in 18 playoff games this past spring, the banged-up Kings couldn’t get past the Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference final.
“He freely admits at times during his past season where, as the leader of this team, he’s got to do more,” Lombardi said. “That’s a sign of growth. He’s not there (saying), ‘Well, I’m the captain, I should be getting all this money, I’m great.’ He’s looking at it and saying, ‘I’ve got to be better here if we’re going to do this again.’”
With the hope that the Kings could win it all again, Brown decided to represent himself in contract negotiations, citing a comfort level with the only NHL organization he has ever known. If he had an agent working on it, Brown said, talks probably would still be ongoing. Instead, Lombardi and Brown hammered out a deal that counts $5.875 million against the salary cap.