Nightmare cap situation means there's no easy way to fix the Kings

Good luck, Rob Blake. You're going to need it.

Blake is the new general manager of the Los Angeles Kings, replacing Dean Lombardi, who was fired Monday. And in addition to finding a new head coach, after Darryl Sutter was let go as well, Blake is going to have to work some miracles in order to fix the Kings.

Lombardi and Sutter won two Stanley Cups together, and deserve all the credit in the world for bringing a first NHL championship to Los Angeles. But Lombardi, especially, erred in keeping parts of the aging core of those teams together. And now the Kings are - to put it plainly - screwed.

Check out these long-term contracts:

(Information courtesy: Cap Friendly)

Where do you even begin?

We've got no issue with Drew Doughty's deal, and can even live with Alec Martinez's and Jake Muzzin's, but the fact is none of these guys are getting any younger.

Lombardi gave Jonathan Quick a 10-year, $58-million deal in 2012, fresh off a Cup win. He gave Marian Gaborik a seven-year, $34.125-million contract in the summer of 2014, when he was in his early 30s, and after he scored 14 goals in the playoffs as the Kings won their second Cup. Winning, like love, is blind.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Believe it or not, it actually gets worse. In July 2013, then-captain Dustin Brown inked an eight-year, $47-million extension. Since then, he's put up seasons of 27, 27, 28, and 36 points, and was stripped of his captaincy.

More recently, in January 2016, Lombardi signed Anze Kopitar to an eight-year, $80-million extension. This past season was the worst of Kopitar's career.

Each of the players mentioned played integral roles during the Cup years, in addition to guys like Justin Williams and Mike Richards, who have moved on. But what Lombardi did was pay for his players' past performances, pay for the Cup wins, and now the Kings are paying the price - literally and figuratively.

Toss in the fact Los Angeles has drafted in the first round only once in the past four years, and the situation gets even worse. Sure, that's the price of winning the Stanley Cup, one the Kings would surely pay again, but locking up an aging core for so long was a mistake that will not easily be undone.

Expansion draft

Looking ahead to Las Vegas' entrance into the NHL, here's a projection of who the Kings will protect in the expansion draft, with the club going the eight skaters and one goaltender route:

• Kopitar (must be protected)
• Jeff Carter
• Tyler Toffoli
• Tanner Pearson
• Doughty
• Martinez
• Muzzin
• Derek Forbort
• Quick

Forbort, only 25, averaged 20 minutes a game in ice time, fourth among the club's defensemen. Based on those factors - he's a top-four defenseman - he's got to be protected.

That means Brown and Gaborik will be exposed, but Vegas won't bite, not with those contracts. They're better off taking the likes of Trevor Lewis (30 years old, $2-million cap hit), Kyle Clifford (26, $1.6-million cap hit), or Brayden McNabb (26, $1.7-million cap hit).

There's talk of buying Gaborik out, since it's basically impossible to trade him, and the Kings may have to bite that bullet.

Looking ahead

Complicating matters further: Toffoli, 24, is a restricted free agent this summer, along with Pearson, also 24. The latter finished second on the team in goals and tied for third in points after a career-high 24 and 44. It's these guys who you give long-term, big-money deals to, not the Browns and Gaboriks of the world, when they're in their 30s.

And before Blake and the Kings know it, Doughty's contract will be up in two years. And the truth is, if Doughty's signed to a long-term, big-money extension as he hits 30, Los Angeles will have learned nothing from its past mistakes.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

Now, no one's suggesting the Kings should and will let Doughty walk in unrestricted free agency. They shouldn't. They can't. They won't. But it's time for some tough decisions to be made in the Los Angeles front office, and if the club wants to rebuild, if it truly wants to send itself on the correct path, trading Doughty must be explored, this summer or next. With two years left on his current deal as of July 1, he can be packaged with one of the bad contracts, in order to get a deal done, with prospects coming back the other way. Two birds, one stone.

Yeah, the thought of trading Doughty will not sit well with Kings supporters; it's perhaps a non-starter, but think of the old saying: "It's better to have loved and won two Stanley Cups, than to have never won at all."

It won't be easy

It's too late to correct Lombardi's mistakes. Studies have shown that players peak at 25, give or take a year either way. The information's out there and the data proves it. Guys hit 30 and their decline begins. Winning teams more and more are and will be built through the draft, not through free agency, and big-money deals will be handed out to guys in their early-to-mid 20s (think Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Jonathan Drouin's coming contract). You look for complementary players on July 1, not core players.

To add insult to injury, Lombardi showed over the past couple of years in building the Kings and the U.S. national team that he was putting less and less emphasis on skill, while everyone else was doing the opposite. The banners fly forever, there's no doubting that, but there's also no doubting that Lombardi's time in Los Angeles had run its course.

This is going to take Blake and Co. a while. That's about all that's certain as the new general manager takes his post.