Courtesy of a late June trade, Anze Kopitar was presented with a new port-side offensive weapon. The reputation of power forward Milan Lucic, who took part in his first official practice with the club Friday morning, had already preceded him.

“The first reaction [to the trade] was that obviously he’s a big, strong man and my first thought was that he’s going to fit really well into our system because we do play that big and physical game,” he said. “If you look at him on the ice, that’s what he stands for.”

The kick: both Kopitar and Lucic are due to become unrestricted free agents come July 1 – something that neither forward appeared to be preoccupied by.

“I think the main thing here is to try to not make it a distraction, just worry about the things you can control. That’s going out there and being the best player you can be for your team,” Lucic said. “In a perfect scenario, this would be a place I could see myself playing out the rest of my career. Again, obviously it’s no secret I’m on the last year of my contract and going into a summer where I could potentially be a UFA, but at the end of the day, I’m not too too worried about that. I’m worried about the team’s success because what I learned over my eight years so far when the teams have success, individuals have success and everything takes care of itself after that.”

Kopitar, who predates Lucic by one year in terms of NHL seniority, also exuded a sage approach to his own negotiations.

“You don’t think about it too much,” he said. “I’ve said it all along, it’d be nice if it was done before the season. But if not, it’s really not that big of a deal. There’s still plenty of time left in that regard, too.”

Kopitar said that while he hadn’t thought about whether he’d be open to continuing contract talks into the season should an agreement not be reached, he wasn’t too concerned about the state of the negotiations at a very early stage. He also is cognizant of the direction of the talks.

“We’ve got discussions, obviously,” he said about his communication with agent Pat Brisson. “He tells me everything that’s going on. There’s my input in there, too. It’s a two-way street.”

Other players whose contracts end on July 1 and would be eligible to become unrestricted free agents are Trevor Lewis, Christian Ehrhoff, Jhonas Enroth, Jamie McBain, Jeff Schultz and Brian O’Neill. Brayden McNabb is due to become a restricted free agent.

Anze Kopitar, on whether he can use the extra time off to his advantage this season:

It’s great. During the summer you just have time where you can prepare slowly and probably more detailed than you would in the short offseason like we had the last few years. So again, rest is a big part of the preparation and the offseason training, too. So that helped us a lot.

Kopitar, on how the roster for the upcoming season feels different:

I don’t think it’s too big of a difference. We lost a few guys, we got a few guys, but the identity is still the same. Our style of play is still going to be the same. So I don’t think you’re going to see a whole lot of difference when we step out on the ice.

Kopitar, on replacing Justin William’s leadership role in the room:

I don’t think it’s just one guy that can come in and pick up where Justin left for us. … Certainly there’s going to be some adjustments, but we’re going to do that as we go along and obviously that’s what training camp is for. We’re going to work on it.

Kopitar, on whether there is a different energy at training camp:

The energy was never bad. Maybe it’s a little bit different because coming into camps the last three years, the roster was pretty much set. So it’s tough maybe on the younger guys knowing that, but I’m sure they’re eager and they want to prove themselves and us older guys still have to show that we’ve got it. So it’s a good mix.

Kopitar, on how the team can integrate the younger players onto the team:

Just make them feel as comfortable as we possibly can. There’s a lot of guys right now, but as we start going down towards the team roster number, then you get to know the guys a little bit better and it certainly helps.

-Stick tap to Joshua Cooper of Puck Daddy for the Lucic quote