from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

Los Angeles general manager Dean Lombardi said via email that he had his initial planning meeting with Kings cap whiz Jeff Solomon on Wednesday to start looking at what's ahead for them.

"We are back at the drawing board now with Kopitar being done," Lombardi said.

If the Kings can't make it work with Lucic, so be it, the winger says he'll go into the free-agent market with an open mind and expect the unexpected.

But he stressed again that he hopes to make it work contract-wise in L.A.

It feels right with the Kings. And maybe that's because he's gone from a Boston team that contended for years and won a Cup in 2011, to another contender. It's all about winning and that's all Lucic knows in his DNA.

"I think it's made it so much easier on myself, coming into a place where the team already is an established winner expected to do well," Lucic said.

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