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Kings lock up Kopitar for 7 more years

By Helene Elliott
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

SAN JOSE -- No matter what happens in the Kings’ season opener tonight against the Sharks, they have already recorded a huge gain.

General Manager Dean Lombardi announced this morning that he has signed center Anze Kopitar (pictured above) to a seven-year, $47.6-million* contract extension.

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Including the season that’s left on Kopitar’s current contract, he is bound to the Kings for eight seasons, through the 2015-16 season. The Kings take a cap hit of $6.8 million with the deal.

The signing continues Lombardi’s strategy of securing franchise-caliber players to long-term deals. He signed Dustin Brown to a six-year contract last season and would like to add young defenseman Jack Johnson to that list.

More from Lombardi and Kopitar after the morning skate, but for now, you can read the Kings’ press release here.

-- Helene Elliott

* Updated at 11 a.m. to include financial terms of the deal.

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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