Kings GM Dean Lombardi, who took a considerable amount of heat in the press and from fans this offseason for not bringing in any marquee free agents and for the drawn out contract negotiations with Patrick O’Sullivan, just made a lot of people eat Crow.

Late Friday night, Lombardi signed Kings superstar center Anze Kopitar to a 7 year contract extension. From the official Kings press release:

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings have signed center Anze Kopitar to a seven-year contact extension that will carry into the 2015-16 season, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Saturday. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not announced (Kopitar has one remaining year on his current contract).

And the link to the source article at lakings.com.

Terms of the deal not available anywhere yet but I will add those as soon as they do. This is a real shot in the arm for those who feared Lombardi lacked leverage in extending Kopitar and Jack Johnson after the O’Sullivan negotiations. Big win for Deano today and an even bigger win for the Kings, who open the season tonight in San Jose against the Sharks.

-JS