My Take on Drew Doughty Situation

by The Ram on Jul 10, 2011 5:48 PM PDT

So here we are at another off-season where the Kings are waiting on someones decision. This time, it's not a free agent but one of their restricted free agents that is holding out. Why is this team has to go through SOME KIND of drama? This is beginning to be a drag, and in some way, can effect the chemistry of the team.

Now there is no denying the fact that Drew Doughty is an integral part of this franchise, but for this contract dispute to go any longer than it should is quite unfair for not only the Kings, but the fans as well. He hasn't come a long way, really, to be were he's at right now. In his 3 years with the organization, he has accomplish alot for a defenseman.

Here are his numbers with the Kings

GP G A PTS +/- PIM PPG PPA SHG SHA GW SOG PCT

2008-09: 81 6 21 27 -17 56 3 13 0 0 1 126 .048

2009-10: 82 16 43 59 20 54 9 22 0 0 5 142 .113

2010-11: 76 11 29 40 13 68 5 10 0 0 3 139 .079

TOTAL: 239 33 93 126 16 178 17 45 0 0 9 407 .081

These are impressive numbers. The trouble is, his second year he posted career high numbers then the numbers went down the following year. I'm not say he DOESN'T deserve a big contract, but wanting to be the highest paid player for the Kings is absurd. My opinion for this, and it's just my observation, being nominated for the Norris Trophy and not winning it bummed him out and put him into a funk that affected his game play. This past season he wasn't nominated so this is one of the reasons he shouldn't be the highest paid King. In my opinion, His worth is 5 years for 30 to 32.5 million. This kind of offer I believe is very reasonable for both sides and if he keeps producing high numbers which gets him more nominations and even winning 1 or 2 Trophies, then they can talk about a contract extension to keep him a King for life. This is my take on the situation, thank you

This item was written by a member of this community and not by an author of JFTC.

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I continue to take with a grain of salt this business about wanting to be the highest-paid King; AFAIK, it hasn’t been firmly sourced or widely enough reported to be really reliable. That being said, I certainly agree that it doesn’t help either Drew or the team to drag this out. That’s why I would bet that Don Meehan is playing the dominant role in driving this process, and that he’s playing chicken with Lombardi to squeeze out every last dollar he can, so he can take his 10% and light a cigar with a hundred-dollar bill, or whatever.

"I think you just outed yourself as Dean Lombardi. I knew it all along." — Rudy Kelly

by DougX on Jul 11, 2011 12:39 AM PDT reply actions

Drew is not an unrestricted free agent, he a restricted free agent.

by Kingsfan99 on Jul 11, 2011 4:04 PM PDT reply actions

There i changed it

Sorry:[

"Soo many games, soo little time"

by The Ram on Jul 11, 2011 7:34 PM PDT up reply actions

Although I agree I would like to see this situation resolved sooner rather than later, I don’t think I would go as far as to say it’s unfair to the Kings or the fans that this is dragging on. The sad truth is that the new reality of the NHL in regards to RFAs is that it often drags on. Bobby Ryan, James Neal, Carey Price last year didn’t sign until August. This year, Stamkos, Doughty along with Parise and Weber (although they are going to arbitration) and Bogosian and Luke Schenn are other higher profile RFA’s that still haven’t signed. This becomes a distraction to the team only if it threatens to go into training camp. But right now, it’s business as usual. I didn’t expect anything less of this situation – it’s how the RFA game is now played. I have no worries about him resigning in LA – and like DougX above, I’m not sold on the fact that Doughty is insisting on being the highest paid King, as I only saw one article that said that – and every other time it’s mentioned, it references that article.

by Hoolie on Jul 12, 2011 10:01 AM PDT reply actions