Just days after a statement from Tim Leiweke, the Kings Governor and President of its parent company AEG, stating that the Los Angelis Kings would not concede to young star defenseman Drew Doughty’s salary demands, the Kings have faltered on their stance and come to terms with him.
The two sides met after a long and tiring off-season as Doughty stood his ground on demands of being paid the highest salary on the team. Doughty allegedly was seeking a base-line of $7 million per year on a seven year contract renewal, with a no-trade clause attached to it. The demands put him at a higher price tag than Kings star forward Anze Kopitar, who makes $6.8 million per-year. General manager Dean Lombardi and the ownership group of Los Angelis has long been refusing to pay out more to Doughty than that of which Kopitar – the best player on the team – currently makes. Though the Kings did get some say in the matter at the end, they did not stick to their guns in the way that they should have. On a positive note from the Kings’ standpoint, the structure of the deal is set so that the actual pay rate increases as Doughty moves forward in the deal rather than decreases. They also tacked on an extra year to the deal than what the Doughty camp wanted, and did not offer him a no-trade clause.
Doughty’s new deal awards him the highest cap hit on the team at an average cap hit of $7 million per-year through eight years. The total deal is worth $56 million, but the Kings got their way with not having a no-trade stipulation placed on the contract. According to CapGeek.com, the deal breaks down to $6 million take-home in his first year, $6.5 million in the second, followed by $6.7 m, $7 m, $7.1 m, $7.45 m, $7.6 m, and finally $7.65 million in his final contracted year.
What this does do for the Kings is allow Doughty to go out and prove himself through the first half of his contract. Doughty obviously views himself as an invaluable asset and supreme player, now he is forced to prove it. If the player does not produce and the Kings are able to find a suiter, Doughty can be moved.
Leiweke, like all Kings’ members, players, and fans was relieved that negotiations finally came to an end.
"He's a special kid and he's a good kid," he told the Kings Insider. "These things are never easy, and sometimes people take them personally, but I think he's going to be fine. I guarantee you we're fine. I'm happy that we got it done."
The Kings have looked very strong in recent years, and made plenty of off-season moves to better the team that hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since entering the league 1967.
"We are sending a very strong message to our fans. We're committed to winning, and we just proved it again." he said.
"When you look at the commitments that we made this summer, when you add this to Mike Richards and his long-term deal, and Jack Johnson and the commitment we tied up there, and then going out and adding Simon Gagne, we spent more money this summer than in the history of this franchise. We always said, if we get close, we will come with our guns blazing, and we just blazed. I'm glad it's done. I want our fans to understand that now, this is all about creating an environment to win the Cup, and that's what Drew is going to help us do. We don't look back. We only look forward now, and eight years is a good forward."
The 2nd overall draft choice in 2008 has posted 33 goals and 93 assists for 126 points with a +16 rating in 239 games, all as a King. Last year Doughty backslid to 11 goals and 40 points, after a season in which he was selected as a finalist for the James Norris Trophy at the conclusion of the 2009-2010 regular season. Doughty led his team and finished fifth in the NHL last season in ice time with an average of 25:38 per game. He led all Kings defensemen with 11 goals and his 29 assists tied for fourth on the team. He also finished fourth on the team in both plus/minus (-13) and blocked shots (101). Doughty finished the 2010-11 season with 11 multi-point games – where the Kings were 9-2-0 in those games -- and he logged 25 minutes or more of ice time in 41 of the 76 regular-season games he played in.
He statistically already ranks among the best defensemen to ever play for the Kings. His 9 career game-winning goals ranks fourth all-time among Kings defensemen and his 17 career powerplay goals rank 9th all-time. He's also 12th on the Kings all-time list in career goals with 33, 13th in career assists with 93, and points at a cool 126. He ties for 15th on the all-time list in career plus/minus rating (-16).
Though he is an undeniable asset and talent at the young age of 21, Drew Doughty has had an inability to humble himself through his first experience as a free agent - restricted or not. His deal comes just in time for the Kings’ season opener in Europe.
"I definitely didn't want to miss that," he said after the deal was announced on Thursday. "This was never in mind, even being out for this long at all, but I knew I had to be there for the start of the season. I missed the boys a lot, and missed being in L.A., and this just felt like time to get it done and I'm really happy and really excited."
Speculation has been circling of a possible trade as things intensified prior to the conclusion of the deal. Doughty remains outspoken that he wanted to be none other than an L.A. King next season, and that playing elsewhere was never an option to him.
"I've been a Kings fan since I was a kid, and I was never thinking about going elsewhere," he said. "I knew it was just a matter of time before it got done. I hope we can win many Stanley Cups in that time, and I'm going to do everything I can to help lead us to that."
Now that the deal is done, the two sides can get down to business. The hope amongst all fans of the sport is that damage hasn’t been done to the relationships between the players and Doughty himself. When they’re working together, they’re an obvious threat at a Cup challenge.
- Kendall Grubbs
photo from Getty Images
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