BREAKING: Drew Doughty And Kings Have Agreed To New Contract
With the season just over a week away, you had the feeling that the Kings and Drew Doughty wouldn’t be separated for too much longer.
Finally, Kings fans can rest easy on Thursday night, after the Kings reached out to the Doughty camp and agreed to a new contract.
Originally, the problem that blocked the two from agreeing to a deal was reported to be the term. The sides just couldn’t agree on years. But as it would turn out, the Kings increasing the dollars in the contract was pretty enticing for Doughty.
The reported salary as of right now for Doughty is a cap hit just a touch over $7 million, showing an increase in the contract Doughty had turned down earlier in the summer. His new contract is good for the next eight years.
Given the fact that Doughty is widely considered one of the top young defensemen in the National Hockey League, and in this inflated market, $7 million per doesn’t seem like the worst deal the Kings could have made to sign a defenseman of Doughty’s caliber. Still, with Anze Kopitar carrying a cap hit near $7 million already, it will be interesting to see how the Kings make the dollars work in the future.
After piecing together a Norris Trophy-type season in 2009-10, Doughty experienced a bit of a fall off. He tallied just 40 points in 76 games last year, but was slowed by injury for much of the year. He didn’t rank near the top of the league in any stats among defensemen, with the exception of ice time. The Kings are certainly hoping that it can just be chalked up to a down year.
There’s little doubt that, if healthy and playing back up to his ’09-’10 level, Doughty could help propel the Kings to being one of the top few clubs in the Western Conference, perhaps even surpassing the San Jose Sharks in the Pacific Division.
With the team set to kick off their season in Europe at the end of next week, reaching a deal at some point this weekend was crucial. It might be a touch high, but the Kings and their fans are surely happy to have Doughty finally locked up. Better late than never.
Leave a Rant
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!