Stumpel Is Still the Lone Holdout

On the Kings’ depth chart, Cody Bowtell is a right winger. In his biography, he’s a left winger.

When the Kings opened training camp Friday in El Segundo, he was Jozef Stumpel.

“He’s versatile,” cracked Dave Taylor, the Kings’ senior vice president and general manager.

Bowtell, who is with the Kings on a tryout basis, did his best Stumpel imitation, but it’s plain that the team needs to sign its No. 1 center to develop a line that includes Ziggy Palffy and rookie Tomas Vlasak.

“He needs to understand that he doesn’t always have to pass to Ziggy,” King Coach Andy Murray said about Bowtell, who was at Lowell last season.

Stumpel is the only King holdout, and Taylor said there has been correspondence between the two sides and that a proposal was expected from Stumpel.

But Benji Robins, Stumpel’s agent, said Friday, “We’re at an impasse right now. We’re of two different schools of thought. We have some different numbers, different philosophy.”

No one is willing to talk numbers, but the Kings are believed to be taking a tough stance in the negotiations. Stumpel is coming off a contract that paid him $1.75 million last season, and his last two seasons have been marred by injury.

When not injured, he has been a point-a-game player.

“He’s in the best shape he’s ever been in,” Robins said of Stumpel, who is skating with a team in his hometown of Nitra, Slovakia, according to teammate and countryman Palffy.

The season opens in four weeks, and there is concern about getting Stumpel to training camp as quickly as possible because of his history of injury.

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Stumpel is the lone King holdout, but his contract hardly is the only one the team is negotiating.

For about two weeks, Ron Salcer, who represents Rob Blake, has been quietly negotiating a deal to keep the Kings’ captain with the team beyond this season.

Blake could be an unrestricted free agent after the season, but he has no desire to leave. Still, he wants to be paid in line with the league’s best defensemen.