LA Kings GM Dean Lombardi spoke to the media today and indicated he wanted to avoid a Brooks Orpik situation from last off-season, where the Penguins were able to come close to the Kings offer.
This time Lombardi claimed “we had to blow Pittsburgh out of the water.”
Kings GM Dean Lombardi on avoiding a Brooks Orpik situation

“We were trying to avoid what happened last year with Orpik. It was the exact same situation. With Orpik last year, we knew what Pittsburgh offered, and we made our offer but the current team is always going to get the last chance, and they got him.
In this case, we found out what Pittsburgh was offered and we knew we just had to blow them out of the water. When you’re talking about offers, it’s not just the money. It’s cost of living in L.A. and it’s taxes.
If you’re offering $500,000 more, it’s really not that much when you look at everything. So we knew we had to blow Pittsburgh out of the water, but we wanted this guy. He has a ring and there are no questions at all about his character.”
Courtesy of LA Daily News