There will continue to be speculation surrounding Los Angeles Kings superstar Drew Doughty until an extension is signed and filed, but it doesn’t sound like he expects to go anywhere in free agency when it rolls around in 2019. Doughty spoke today with the media and made it clear that he wants to stick around. Doughty’s comments via Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider:
It’s not that they have to show me or prove to me anything for me to sign here. I’ve always wanted to be an LA King and stay an LA King.
Doughty has been clear all along with the fact that he loves playing in Los Angeles, but like with Erik Karlsson and John Tavares, contract extensions for superstar players are tricky. Doughty will be just 29 when he hits the open market and is likely looking to become the highest paid defenseman in the league. A deal like that isn’t one you hand out easily, even to a player of his caliber. He can officially sign an extension on July 1st.
- Robin Lehner’s time with the Buffalo Sabres is coming to an end, at least that’s what John Vogl of the Buffalo News examines in his latest piece. After Jason Botterill listed just Linus Ullmark as one of the goaltenders for next season, Lehner’s future is unclear in Buffalo. He’s a restricted free agent this summer and could be moved to another team looking to take a chance on the 26-year old. Vogl looks at other options for the Sabres as a partner to Ullmark, including goaltenders like Carter Hutton, Anton Khudobin and Jonathan Bernier.
- Tyler Myers is expected to play tonight for the Winnipeg Jets, after taking morning skate and feeling good enough to go. That means Sami Niku likely won’t get his playoff debut, but gives the Jets an even better chance to eliminate the Minnesota Wild. Steve Mason left practice with an apparent injury, but Connor Hellebuyck is expected to start anyway.
There is no way that Doughty ends up anywhere but LA at the end of the day
Would love for Ottawa to try picking Lehner back up, you can probably get him back for less than the 1st rounder you got for him, and you have to think Anderson will start to decline very soon given his age.
I always thought the choice to let go of him odd considering he matches the mean age of the core of the team, rather than the older Anderson.
Sabers traded a first round pick for Lehner at the exact same time Martin Jones was available for a 1st. Jeez
There’s always cases like this
Barzal was picked 16th, Boeser 23rd…I’m sure all teams are kicking themselves at some point in time
Doughty will be looking to be the highest paid defenseman in the league, and it is probably warranted, at least to be amongst the top 2-3 paid defensemen. The kings simply CAN’T afford to do that. If doughty wants to get paid anywhere near what the kings already have invested in Kopitar, the kings will essentially have about 42 million tied up in just SIX PLAYERS (Kopitar, quick, Carter, brown, phaneuf, Doughty). They simply can’t afford to do that if they want to address the absolute NEED of transitioning to younger, faster talent. The kings unfortunately gave out terrible contracts and its biting them now. They can’t afford to give doughty what he will ask for (deservedly so), while still addressing more glaring needs. Doughty is our best defenseman, yes. But defense is also our deepest position. We can survive the loss of doughty with muzzin, martinez, Forbort, folin, phanuef, Brinkley, Ladue, Gravel… etc. none have he upside of doughty, but the overall depth is there. What we can NOT do, is sign doughty to a huge contract, and address our offensive needs by trading for/singing players like Nate Thompson…. Mitchell…. Tobias Rieter…. etc.
I already know you’ll complain about this Kenleyfornia74
all it takes is simple logic. What else is rob Blake going to say right now? “Yes we can’t afford him, we will trade him”… no, that just hurts his trade value if other teams KNOW we have to give him up. We simply can’t afford to be constricted financially anymore than we already are, UNLESS IT ADDRESSES A KEY TEAM NEED. It’s pretty obvious that defense is not a glaring need on this team.
I was going to stay out of this but you felt the need to say my name so here i am. Doughty production is irreplaceable. Ice time, defense and even what he does on offense. Theres a reason the rumors are hot that Blake and Luc are going to extend him as soon as July 1st comes. Unless your talking Doughty for Patrick Kane or something like that you cant help the offense with unproven prospects or draft picks. Muzzin and Martinez both have enough value to get traded for a forward. Also you keep calling out Rieder. Do you even realize he is a speed guy?? For a team lacking speed taking a chance on Rider is fine.
Let’s see… guess I’ll just start at the beginning here. Doughtys icetime is irreplaceable? Well that’s just flat out factually untrue. Want the evidence? How about game two of the series against the knights. You know, the one Doughty was suspended for? Weird because our entire defensive unit, WITHOUT MUZZIN, FORBORT, AND DOUGHTY, had to increase ice time…. and what was the score of that game?? 2-1 knights in DOUBLE OVERTIME. You keep thinking ONE player has to replace doughtys minutes/production. Unfortunately, you forgot that this is a TEAM sport, and our TEAMS DECENSIVE UNIT makes up for the loss of doughty. So let me ask a pretty simple question…. was missing Doughty the problem in that game 2? Or was it that we couldn’t score more than 1 goal in a double overtime game? Call me crazy… but I’m pretty sure our defense did their job that game.
Now….. PLEASE tell me you didn’t just say “Rieter is a speed guy..” what the hell difference does that make?!?! Did he produce? Can he create offense on a team that can’t create offense? NO!! Good god man…. the kings lack speed, yes… but the answer isn’t “get a speed guy”. Rieters speed is utterly useless if he can’t carry the puck up ice, or he isn’t surrounded by players around him who can control and handle the puck while he utilizes his speed. Congrats Tobias Rieter…. you skate at a decent speed. Kings new secret weapon.
And where are you getting this idea that I said Doughty should be traded for draft picks? Nobody said that, so at this point you’re just making things up.
Also, you didn’t address the key issue…. the money. I don’t know if you understand the salary cap… or math…. but the kings, as I said, are already cap pressed…. they simply don’t have the space to pay Doughty what he with rightfully ask for. Know why the kings haven’t been able to make any big splashes in free agency to help their offense that they know is a problem? THEY DONT HAVE THE MONEY! They gave bad contracts away and now are stuck with underperforming/overplayed players.
There’s a reason the kings are always at/near the top of the league in defensive statistics. There’s a reason Jonathan quick, Martin jones, Bernier, Keumper, and so on and so on… have been successful for the kings. They employ a good DEFENSIVE UNIT/DEFENSIVE SYSTEM. Our numbers have been HELPED with Doughty, not DEPENDED on Doughty. The remaining defensemen and our defensive system (including forwards helping in the defensive zone) make up for the loss of ONE player in Doughty.
Every year, the league gets more skilled, faster, better puck handling, better passing…. and every year, the kings get slower, passing gets more sloppy, time of possession in the offensive zone goes down…
Oh and “there’s a reason the rumors are hot” about resigning Doughty?? Ummm yes… because when the media asks… what are they going to say?!?! “No, we aren’t interested in resigning him”. Come on! That’s about as common sense as it gets
Aren’t you exciting to be around? You basically want the Kings to enter a Coyotes, Sabers, Oilers, Canucks ect like rebuild. My whole point in this enite time is not to do that. I really dont care what you think about salary cap or speed or anything. The Kings are not at a point to where they need to blow it all up. Rebuilding gets you no where and the only ones that have been successful recently are the Leafs who had a #1 pick and the Oilers who got a 2nd coming of Gretzky. Rebuilding doesn’t work. All the Kings have to show from their rebuild under Dean Lombardi is Doughty himself. They missed on 2/3 of their really high picks