Duncan Keith

Blackhawks’ Brent Seabrook Will Try To Play In Qualifying Round, Postseason

July 5, 2020 at 11:21 am CDT | by Zach Leach 4 Comments

No one thought much about it when veteran Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook was declared out for the season in late December. The Blackhawks were not looking like a playoff team at the time and the aged and battered Seabrook was not going to be the difference between a postseason spot or not. Seabrook proceeded to have three separate surgeries – his right shoulder and each hip – and was expected to be ready to begin the 2020-21 season.

However, the extended pause in the league season due to COVID-19 has changed everything for the Blackhawks and Seabrook. Chicago was the final team in the Western Conference to qualify for the league’s expanded postseason and will have a chance to win a playoff spot in a “knockout round” match-up with the Edmonton Oilers later this summer. Meanwhile, Seabrook has had ample down time to rehab his injuries and has now resumed skating, reports Scott Powers of The Athletic. Powers rights that the next step would be for Seabrook to be cleared for contact, after which he could potentially join the Blackhawks for training camp, set to begin later this month.

Of course, actually being selected as one of the defensemen to play for Chicago in the qualifying round and beyond is a whole other issue entirely for the 35-year-old Seabrook. The veteran has not looked like himself for several years now and his four points in 32 games and career-low ice time this season implies that cracking the starting lineup may be an uphill battle even if Seabrook is completely healthy. With Calvin de Haan, similarly ruled out for the season but recently cleared to return, joining top-six regulars Duncan Keith, Connor Murphy, Adam Boqvist, Olli Maatta and Slater Koekkoek, Chicago’s starting defense may already be set. This also doesn’t include AHL depth options and the possibility that top defense prospect Ian Mitchell could also be in the mix.

Nevertheless, Seabrook will still work toward being cleared for action and could play an important locker room role and serve as valued depth at the very least for Chicago. The team will need all the help they can get to upset Edmonton and a tuned-up and refreshed Seabrook is just as likely as anyone to be that potential surprise x-factor in the qualifying round series, made even more surprising by the previous expectation that his season was over.

Blackhawks Notes: Keith, Gustafsson, Smith

February 15, 2020 at 9:19 am CDT | by Brian La Rose 3 Comments

With the Blackhawks once again being a playoff bubble team, some have wondered if veteran defenseman Duncan Keith would be willing to waive his no-move clause to go to a contender. Speaking with Mark Lazerus of The Athletic (subscription required), the 36-year-old indicated that his preference is to remain with Chicago and is particularly holding out hope that the team will soon be back in contention. Keith has spent the entirety of his 15-year NHL career in the Windy City and it’s evident that he’d prefer to finish his career with the team that drafted him in the second round back in 2002. He has three years remaining on his contract after this one with a $5.538MM AAV, a price tag that would be tricky for a lot of contenders to take on anyway even if Keith was more open to the idea of moving.

NHL Announces All-Decade Teams

January 24, 2020 at 6:53 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 12 Comments

The 2010’s are in the books and the NHL has used this weekend’s All-Star festivities to announce the selections to the All-Decade First and Second Teams. The games best players of the past ten years, as decided by a panel of general managers, hockey operations executives, NHL.com writers, and on-air talent from NBC, Sportsnet, and TVA Sports, are listed below:

All-Decade First Team

F Sidney Crosby
F Patrick Kane
F Alex Ovechkin
D Drew Doughty
D Duncan Keith
G Marc-Andre Fleury

All-Decade Second Team

F Patrice Bergeron
F Evgeni Malkin
F Steven Stamkos
D Zdeno Chara
D Erik Karlsson
G Henrik Lundqvist

The one obvious thing that many of these players have in common are Stanley Cups. The Chicago Blackhawks won three titles this decade, more than any other team, and first-team stars Kane and Keith played key roles in each. The Pittsburgh Penguins took home two Stanley Cups while making the playoffs every year in the 2010’s and franchise icons Crosby and Malkin continue to lead their team. Meanwhile, Fleury appeared in three straight championships, leaving the Penguins to carry the Vegas Golden Knights to the Cup final in their inaugural season. The Los Angeles Kings also won a pair of titles in the decade, just one year apart, with dominant defenseman Doughty leading the way. In fact, much of the 2010’s were taken up by a six-year span from 2012 to 2017 wherein only Chicago, Pittsburgh, and L.A. took home the Cup. Yet, few would discount Boston’s prevalence during these past ten years as well, as they won a Stanley Cup title and made three final appearances overall, with the ageless Chara and Bergeron playing key roles in runs on either end of the decade. Ovechkin finally got his Cup in 2018 after a decade of consistency unlike any other player in the league.

While few would argue that the likes of Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, and Bergeron are some of the best NHLers of all time, it speaks measures that Stamkos, Karlsson, and Lundqvist were elected to the all-decade team with just two Stanley Cup Final appearances between them and no Cup wins. All three have played on teams that were both true contenders and bottom dwellers at times during the decade, but have continued to maintain a constant level of elite play.

Each of these dozen players have plenty of accolades to warrant their selection as an All-Decade team member. That’s not to say that many other players don’t also have strong cases. Who were the biggest snubs from the All-Decade roster? Let your opinion be known in the comments below.

Brent Seabrook, Calvin De Haan Out For The Season

December 27, 2019 at 4:50 pm CDT | by Zach Leach 7 Comments

Friday: In an update, the Blackhawks announced that both Seabrook and de Haan have undergone successful surgery. The recovery timeline for de Haan will be four to five months, while Seabrook’s will be revealed after he undergoes additional surgeries on his hips.

Thursday: The status quo in Chicago will shift dramatically when the team returns to action. The Blackhawks have announced that two of their starting defensemen will miss the remainder of the season due to injury. Both Brent Seabrook and Calvin de Haan will undergo season-ending shoulder surgery. Seabrook will also have surgery on both hips. The duo have been placed on Long-Term Injured Reserve.

This singular announcement means that one-third of the Blackhawks’ starting blue line is now out of action for the rest of the year. Seabrook and de Haan are not exactly offensive dynamos, combining for just ten points so far this year. However, their defensive presence will be missed. De Haan leads the team in both hits and blocked shots, and Seabrook is among the the best on the team in both categories as well. The pair also chew up considerable minutes, with each averaging nearly 20 minutes per game this season. While Chicago is not without hope on the back end, with Duncan Keith, Connor Murphy, Olli Maatta, sand Erik Gustafsson still present on a deep unit, but these losses will nevertheless still be felt.

Also on the sidelines for Chicago is Brandon Saad, announced as missing the next three weeks with a right ankle injury. Saad, while underwhelming so far this season, is still the Blackhawks’ second-leading goal-scorer and fifth in points on the team. With the Blackhawks already in the basement of the Central Division and now missing Saad for several weeks and Seabrook and de Haan for the rest of the year, today’s announcement will more or less mark the end of Chicago’s season, barring an unexpected boost in the absence of their established veterans.

Snapshots: Copp, Seabrook, Mikheyev

December 18, 2019 at 2:13 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee Leave a Comment

The Winnipeg Jets have announced that Andrew Copp is out on a week-to-week basis with an upper-body injury, ruling him out until after Christmas at the earliest. The 25-year old Copp left last night’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes after a collision with Jordan Staal. Jets head coach Paul Maurice told reporters today including Ken Wiebe of The Athletic that the injury is not a concussion, but that more tests needed to be completed to understand the severity.

Copp has 14 points in 34 games this season and once again has been an integral part of the Jets’ penalty killing efforts, averaging more short-handed ice time than any forward other than Adam Lowry. Winnipeg has been struck by the injury bug several times this season, but right now are stretching their depth up front very thin.

Good news for Chicago Blackhawks fans is bad news for Brent Seabrook. Duncan Keith will return tonight for the Blackhawks, meaning someone else had to come out of the lineup. That’s going to be Seabrook, who will be healthy scratched for the third time this season. The 34-year old Seabrook still has four more years on his current contract with the Blackhawks after 2019-20 and carries a $6.875MM cap hit.
Ilya Mikheyev has scored in consecutive games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and now has six goals and 19 points through 35 games. That’s more than anyone could have expected from him in his first year in North America, but the Maple Leafs weren’t the only team that saw a future for the speedy winger when he was playing in the KHL. In fact, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that about 20 teams showed interest in Mikheyev before he chose Toronto, suggesting that Chicago and the Vegas Golden Knights were among those who pursued him the hardest. Mikheyev is on just a one-year entry-level contract with Toronto and will be a restricted free agent at the end of the season.

Injury Notes: Chicago, Minnesota, Columbus, Montreal

December 6, 2019 at 2:16 pm CDT | by Gavin Lee 2 Comments

The Chicago Blackhawks have placed both Duncan Keith and Andrew Shaw on injured reserve, though both of their designations are retroactive and allow the team to activate them at any point. Without them, the team is down to just 21 players on the active roster meaning they could potentially bring up some more bodies to help out.

More injury placements from around the league:

The Minnesota Wild have sent Mikko Koivu back home to see the team doctor, placing him on injured reserve in the process. Greg Pateryn has been recalled from his conditioning stint and placed back on injured reserve, while Nico Sturm has come up from the AHL.
The Columbus Blue Jackets meanwhile have moved Zach Werenski to injured reserve, retroactive to November 30th. The young defenseman is expected to miss four weeks thanks to a shoulder injury, which opened the door for Andrew Peeke to get his first NHL chance.
For the Montreal Canadiens, Jesperi Kotkaniemi has suffered a concussion from the big check he took last night. Kotkaniemi was leveled by Nikita Zadorov in the corner and is out indefinitely, though avoided any other significant damage.

Injury Notes: Kulikov, Keith, Granlund

December 3, 2019 at 7:45 pm CDT | by Zach Leach Leave a Comment

As if the Winnipeg Jets needed any more concerns on the blue line, yet the team’s short-handed defense corps was dealt another blow on Tuesday. Head coach Paul Maurice announced that Dmitry Kulikov has suffered an upper-body injury that is expected to leave him sidelined for upwards of two months. Maurice expects the veteran defender to return after the All-Star break in late January. Kulikov suffered the injury, speculated to be related to his left arm, on Friday night and did not play Saturday. However, there was hope that he would return to the lineup shortly, but that will not be the case. Kulikov, 29, had been enjoying a bit of a career resurgence early this year after dealing with injuries in each of this past three seasons. The former Panthers standout is third among Jets starting defensemen in time on ice and first in Corsi For, while leading the entire team in blocked shots. Personally, Kulikov was also on pace for the highest point total of his stint in Winnipeg. However, it now appears that it could be more of the same for the physical, but fragile rearguard. With Nathan Beaulieu already injured and the team still coping with the absences of Dustin Byfuglien, Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, and Ben Chiarot, Kulikov’s loss is a major blow for the Jets. Winnipeg has held their own to this point in the season, but one has to wonder when their luck will run out considering their depleted blue line.

The Chicago Blackhawks are another team dealing with a slew of injuries. So much so in fact that they were forced to ice only eleven forwards and six defensemen on Monday night after a roster full of short-term injuries and a sick goalie necessitated the call-up of AHL keeper Kevin Lankinen without enough room to make any other additions. While Robin Lehner is back on his feet, one of those other injured players is going to be out for a while longer. Blackhawks beat writer Carter Baum reports that top pair defenseman Duncan Keith is expected to miss at least another two games with a lingering groin injury. Keith will not travel with the team on their two-game road trip, extending what has already been a two-game absence. Groin injuries tend to stick around, so Keith could remain sidelined beyond the next two games and could also deal with the issue throughout the season. It’s a difficult situation for Chicago, who desperately needs their ice time leader and defensive mainstay to be active as much as possible if they wish to push for a playoff spot this season.
Kyle Turris is back in the lineup for the Nashville Predators, but not because head coach Peter Laviolette has changed his mind about the under-performing veteran. Instead, Turris has drawn in to replace Mikael Granlund. The Predators announced just prior to their game on Tuesday night that Granlund would not be in the lineup and is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed lower-body injury. Not much is known about Granlund’s status as of yet, but an extended absence could very well cost him his spot as a top-six forward for the team. Granlund has just 11 points in 26 games, only two more points than Turris has in 19 games. Granlund has been a disappointment since coming over from Minnesota last season, but even if Nashville has no intention of re-signing him, the impending free agent has ample incentive to get healthy and try to find his way back to an elite level of play.

West Notes: Nurse, Keith, Kulikov

November 29, 2019 at 8:57 pm CDT | by Brian La Rose Leave a Comment

Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse is off to a strong start to his season. He’s on pace to approach 40 points for the second straight season while sitting second on the team in ice time per game at a little under 23 minutes per night. Suffice it to say, he’s certainly positioning himself well to land a long-term deal at a considerable raise from his current $3.2MM AAV this summer when he’ll be a restricted free agent with salary arbitration eligibility.

With that in mind, Postmedia’s David Staples argues that Edmonton GM Ken Holland should be looking to get a deal done now over waiting until the offseason where the price tag could potentially jump higher. There is a sizable list of potential comparable players and they all point to an AAV around the $6MM mark, depending on the term of the deal. The Oilers already have over $57.5MM committed to just 10 players for next season already but given how important Nurse is to their back end, Holland should have no qualms about adding another big ticket contract to their books.

Elsewhere out West:

Blackhawks blueliner Duncan Keith will miss Saturday’s game against Colorado due to a groin injury, head coach Jeremy Colliton told reporters, including Charlie Roumeliotis of NBC Sports Chicago. He has been skipping practices lately for maintenance purposes but it appears the team will give him at least one game off to see if that helps. To replace him on the roster, the team announced (via Twitter) the recall of blueliner Ian McCoshen from AHL Rockford while winger Matthew Highmore has been sent back to the IceHogs.
Jets defenseman Dmitry Kulikov sustained an upper-body injury early in today’s game against Anaheim, the team announced (Twitter link). There is no timetable yet for how long he might miss. In the short term, expect Carl Dahlstrom, a waiver claim from Chicago before the season started, to draw back into the lineup.

Salary Cap Deep Dive: Chicago Blackhawks

September 1, 2019 at 4:29 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg 5 Comments

Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avert total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.

PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation heading into the 2019-20 season. This will focus more on those players who are integral parts of the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.

Chicago Blackhawks

Current Cap Hit: $78,163,461 (under the $81.5MM Upper Limit)

Entry-Level Contracts

F Kirby Dach (three years, $925K)
F Dominik Kubalik (one year, $925K)
F Anton Wedin (one year, $925K)
D Adam Boqvist (three years, $894K)
F Dylan Strome (one year, $863K)
F Alexander Nylander (two years, $863K)
F Alex DeBrincat (one year, $778K)

Potential Bonuses

Dach: $2.5MM
Strome: $2.48MM
Nylander: $850K
Kubalik: $850K
Boqvist: $850K
DeBrincat: $33K

The Blackhawks have done quite a bit of work to bring in a number of top players on entry-level contracts over the past few years in hopes of taking a team that was loaded with high-priced, aging talent and getting them back into playoff contention. They have hit the jackpot with DeBrincat, who immediately stepped onto the ice and has been a phenomenal top-six player for the past two years, scoring 69 goals so far, including a key 41-goal season last year. The diminutive winger was passed up by many teams in the 2016 draft and has proven that his size isn’t an issue on the team. The only problem is that his entry-level deal will be up at the end of the season, meaning the Blackhawks will likely have to pay a high price to lock him up. Strome, in the meantime, has been a solid trade acquisition. The top prospect, who couldn’t seem be able to turn the corner in the pros, broke out once arriving in Chicago, putting up 17 goals and 51 points in 58 games. If he can produce at a similar level, the Blackhawks will have to offer pay up again, giving them two potential significant contracts the team will have to pay out one year from now.

Chicago also is banking on a number of their draft picks to make an impact. Dach, the third-overall pick in this year’s draft, could be an option for the team if he can prove he’s ready for NHL action now, but with a number of young forwards pushing for playing time on their roster, he’d have to dominate and prove he might be ready to assume a third-line center position. Boqvist, the team’s eighth-overall pick in 2018, will challenge for playing time as well, but could just as easily spend time in the AHL to get used to playing against adults for part of the season first. Regardless, the team has two core pieces that are close to joining the organization.

General manager Stan Bowman has also made an effort in bringing in talent from outside the organization as the team has brought in a pair of prospects over from Europe in Wedin and Kubalik. The 26-year-old Wedin broke out in his rookie season in the SHL with 14 goals, while Kubalik scored 25 goals and 57 points in 50 games in the NLA. The team also surprised a few people earlier this summer when it traded top defensive prospect Henri Jokiharju to Buffalo for Alexander Nylander. The team hopes to get Nylander going as the eighth-overall pick in 2016 has so far struggled with consistency in three AHL seasons.

One Year Remaining, Non-Entry-Level

G Corey Crawford ($6MM, UFA)
G Robin Lehner ($5MM, UFA)
F Drake Caggiula ($1.5MM, RFA)
D Erik Gustafsson ($1.2MM, UFA)
D Slater Koekkoek ($925K, RFA)

The team did a phenomenal job of bringing in some goaltending help by stealing away UFA goaltender Lehner with a one-year, $5MM deal. That’s a steal if Lehner can produce anything close to last year’s numbers of a 2.13 GAA and .930 save percentage in 46 games. The 2018-19 Jennings and Masterton Trophy winner last year, Lehner can stabilize the Blackhawks goaltending situation, which has struggled due to concussion issues that Crawford has sustained over the past two years. Without Crawford, the team has struggled in goal. The hope is that both will be healthy this year and can share the workload, but if Crawford has trouble getting on the ice again, Chicago can now turn to Lehner. With both players down to one year remaining before unrestricted free agency, the Blackhawks can look at how both players fare this year and offer a long-term deal to the player they feel can best help them in the future.

The team may have their most challenging decision to make about Gustafsson next season. The rising defenseman put up impressive numbers in a full season last year after looking sharp in the second-half of 2017-18. The 27-year-old scored 17 goals and 60 points and if he can duplicate a season like that could find himself to be one of the most marketable UFA blueliners next year. With the Blackhawks having to hand out big contracts to DeBrincat and Strome, the team may have to move Gustafsson at the trade deadline or let him go at the end of the season for nothing.

Two Years Remaining

F Brandon Saad ($6MM, UFA)
F Zack Smith ($3.25MM, UFA)
F David Kampf ($1MM, RFA)
D Carl Dahlstrom ($850K, RFA)
F Dylan Sikura ($750K, RFA)
F John Quenneville ($750K, RFA)

The team has two contracts that they might want to see gone soon. The team re-acquired Saad back in 2017 in hopes of bringing back a big-time goal scorer. However, Saad hasn’t been nearly as dominant since returning, although he did rebound with a 23-goal campain last season. However at $6MM AAV, Saad could easily be a candidate to move on from when they need to free up some extra cash next offseason. Smith is in a similar situation. The team acquired Smith this summer in a swap of bad contracts as the team managed to unload Artem Anisimov. Smith, however, scored just nine goals last season in Ottawa and could have a hard time locking down a spot in the bottom-six with so many younger players pushing for playing time.

The team can only hope that some of their younger players like Sikura and the newly acquired Quenneville can contribute immediately, but both would have to take their game up a notch to prove themselves at the NHL level. Sikura, signed out of Northeastern University after the 2018 season, fared well in the AHL, but failed to register a goal in 33 games with the Blackhawks. The team also hopes that Kampf and Dahlstrom can prove themselves in their lineup.

Three Years Remaining

D Calvin de Haan ($4.55MM, UFA)
D Olli Maatta ($4.08MM, UFA)
D Connor Murphy ($3.85MM, UFA)
F Andrew Shaw ($3.9MM, UFA)
F Ryan Carpenter ($1MM, UFA)
G Collin Delia ($1MM, UFA)

In hopes of improving its defense, the team went out and acquired a pair of defenders in de Haan and Maatta over the summers. The Blackhawks picked up de Haan from Carolina and while he’s currently dealing with a shoulder injury and isn’t expected to start the season, he has proven to be a solid defender for years and should upgrade the team’s top-four. The team also moved some of its young forward depth by sending Dominik Kahun to Pittsburgh to get the defensive-minded Maatta. The two veteran blueliners should bolster a defense that had plenty of issues over the past few years. However, both come with significant contracts, especially if either defenseman struggles to succeed in Chicago. The team also has Murphy, who the team acquired two years ago from Arizona, who has three years remaining and has found himself a solid contributor on the team’s blueline.

The team also has acquired Shaw this summer to improve their depth in hopes of getting Chicago back in the playoffs. The former Blackhawk should add a significant presence on their bottom-six and add an element of physicality to the team. Carpenter, signed away from Vegas, should also improve the team’s bottom-six.

Four Or More Years Remaining

F Patrick Kane ($10.5MM through 2022-23)
F Jonathan Toews ($10.5MM through 2022-23)
D Brent Seabrook ($6.88MM through 2023-24)
D Duncan Keith ($5.54MM through 2022-23)

Things will likely change next season, but Chicago’s four biggest contracts haven’t changed with all of them, minus Seabrook’s, down to four more years and starting to look more and more manageable. Kane continues to amaze at age 30 as he posted 44 goals and a career-high in points with 110. His contract doesn’t even look like it’s a questionable one. The 31-year-old Toews also had a resurgent season as he tallied a career-high 35 goals and 81 points, showing that as long as he has talented players around him, he is more than capable of justifying his $10.5MM AAV.

Keith is somewhat of a different story. He’s 36 now and will be 40 when his contract ends and while there has been an evident decline, the veteran has still shown that he’s a solid defender, scoring six goals and 40 points last year and is averaging more than 23 minutes of ice time a game still. The question will be how long can Keith keep up those numbers and will his game decline even more over the next couple of years. Seabrook, however, has that extra season on his deal as he is locked up for five more years. At 34-year-old, Seabrook has seen an obvious decline that even saw his minutes drop under 20 minutes a game for the first time in his career, not a good sign when the team has him under contract until 2024. The team can only hope that he can come back and prove that he still has the skills to be a top-four defenseman.

Buyouts

None

Retained Salary Transactions

None

Still To Sign

F Brendan Perlini

Chicago still has one restricted free agent and must find a number that will make the youngster happy, but considering his inconsistent season, the team may have some trouble figuring out how much to pay him. Perlini, also acquired with Strome in the Nick Schmaltz trade during the season last year, struggled at first in Chicago, but finally broke out in March with eight goals and 10 points in 13 games. A one-year or bridge deal would be the most likely course of action to see whether Perlini’s late success can be duplicated. The former first-round pick from 2014 could be a major asset if Chicago can get the most out of the team.

Best Value: Lehner
Worst Value: Seabrook

Looking Ahead

The Blackhawks have done quite a bit in the last year to improve their team with the hopes of getting their veteran core back in the playoffs once again after a two-year absence. Chicago has added a bunch of veteran players and young and cheap roster additions that should be able to turn their team around. The key, of course, is the team needs their veterans to continue to thrive, while their younger players must continue to improve. On top of that, the Blackhawks must hope that a number of their roster additions can take that next step in their development and prove to be valuable to the team’s overall depth.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kings Hire Trent Yawney As Assistant Coach

June 18, 2019 at 7:16 pm CDT | by Zach Leach Leave a Comment

New Los Angeles Kings head coach Todd McLellan has put the finishing touches on his coaching staff. After opting to retain veteran goalie coach Bill Ranford and up-and-coming coach Marco Sturm, McLellan still needed to add a defensive mind and found one in former colleague Trent Yawney. The Kings have announced that Yawney will join McLellan’s staff as the final assistant coach.

Yawney, 53, just wrapped up a stint as an assistant with the Edmonton Oilers, a hire made by McLellan before he was fired. Prior to that, Yawney served as an assistant with the Anaheim Ducks for four years. He also worked as an assistant for the San Jose Sharks from 2008 to 2011, again under McLellan. Yawney has also spent several years as an AHL head coach. However, what many may recognize Yawney for his playing career, spent mostly with the Chicago Blackhawks, and his brief stint as the head coach of the team from 2005 to 2007, when he was replaced mid-season by Denis Savard.

As the Kings’ release points out, Yawney has worked closely with a number of top defenses and elite defensemen, including Norris Trophy winners Chris Chelios, Doug Wilson, Phil Housley, Rob Blake, and Duncan Keith. In L.A., Yawney will have the opportunity to work with another elite talent in Drew Doughty, but also a deep group of young defensemen who are ready to break out with the right system and proper guidance. Yawney could prove to be a key figure in what the Kings’ hope is a return to relevance sooner rather than later.

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