Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
Since a hot topic surrounding the team will be Drew Doughty, why not dedicate a thread specifically regarding Doughty and the potential contract (and trade?) talks, with the Kings officially being able to sit down and negotiate an extension with Drew Doughty starting on July 1, 2018 at 9:00 A.M. PST.
To kick things off, here's an article from Sportsnet discussing the Kings' top priority this summer:
Drew Doughty at heart of Kings' challenging off-season - Sportsnet.ca
It’s hard to imagine general manager Rob Blake maintaining this same core of players when the game has changed so dramatically since they were last successful.
But any transformation in Los Angeles is greatly complicated by a payroll that has many of these players locked into long-term deals.
Kopitar, 30, is due another $60 million over the next six years. Thirty-three-year-olds Brown and Carter have four more seasons at $5.9 and $5.3 million, respectively. Defenceman Dion Phaneuf, 33, is owed three years at $7 million.
Superstar defenceman Drew Doughty, however, is an unrestricted free agent after next season, when he will be 29.
Pointless in his three games against Vegas, Doughty got a lot of attention the last 10 days for something he said back in December when he promised after a loss to the Knights that there’s no way the Kings would finish behind them in the standings. They did, and were second-best again in the playoffs.
But what people will repeatedly bring up between now and July 1, 2019 is what Doughty told The Athletic in November. He said he was already thinking about his next contract and figured he and Ottawa Senator Erik Karlsson "deserve quite a bit more" than the $9 million per year Nashville Predator P.K. Subban makes as the NHL’s top-paid defenceman.
If you’re the Kings and in transition, are you going to pay Doughty, say, $100 million for eight more seasons? Or are you going to speed the transformation of your roster by getting a bundle of assets in return for the best defenceman in the game?
Doughty is a dynamic, world-class player. He is not the problem in Los Angeles. But there don’t appear to be many solutions available to Blake.
In his final game this season for Ottawa – a year before he becomes a UFA – Karlsson quietly collected a puck to keep. You know, in case the Senators trade him this summer to address their own myriad of problems.
Doughty couldn’t get the game puck here Tuesday. The winning team, the better, faster team, collected it and took it home to Las Vegas.
To kick things off, here's an article from Sportsnet discussing the Kings' top priority this summer:
Drew Doughty at heart of Kings' challenging off-season - Sportsnet.ca
It’s hard to imagine general manager Rob Blake maintaining this same core of players when the game has changed so dramatically since they were last successful.
But any transformation in Los Angeles is greatly complicated by a payroll that has many of these players locked into long-term deals.
Kopitar, 30, is due another $60 million over the next six years. Thirty-three-year-olds Brown and Carter have four more seasons at $5.9 and $5.3 million, respectively. Defenceman Dion Phaneuf, 33, is owed three years at $7 million.
Superstar defenceman Drew Doughty, however, is an unrestricted free agent after next season, when he will be 29.
Pointless in his three games against Vegas, Doughty got a lot of attention the last 10 days for something he said back in December when he promised after a loss to the Knights that there’s no way the Kings would finish behind them in the standings. They did, and were second-best again in the playoffs.
But what people will repeatedly bring up between now and July 1, 2019 is what Doughty told The Athletic in November. He said he was already thinking about his next contract and figured he and Ottawa Senator Erik Karlsson "deserve quite a bit more" than the $9 million per year Nashville Predator P.K. Subban makes as the NHL’s top-paid defenceman.
If you’re the Kings and in transition, are you going to pay Doughty, say, $100 million for eight more seasons? Or are you going to speed the transformation of your roster by getting a bundle of assets in return for the best defenceman in the game?
Doughty is a dynamic, world-class player. He is not the problem in Los Angeles. But there don’t appear to be many solutions available to Blake.
In his final game this season for Ottawa – a year before he becomes a UFA – Karlsson quietly collected a puck to keep. You know, in case the Senators trade him this summer to address their own myriad of problems.
Doughty couldn’t get the game puck here Tuesday. The winning team, the better, faster team, collected it and took it home to Las Vegas.
