By Peter Harling
Drew Doughty and Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi are
currently locked in a bitter and stalemate contract with no solution in sight.
Negotiations have stalled, and as training camp continues and the regular
season approaches, the threat of Doughty missing regular season games looms.
Either one side needs to bend, or another solution needs to be presented. Doughty
is a restricted free agent, therefore, one possible solution could come in the
form of an offer sheet from another team.
Such an offer to a player of Doughty’s caliber is without precedent and
highly unlikely, since the contract would need to be very significant.
What kind of contract offer would it take to sign Doughty? The
two main problems with the Kings offer, seems to be not enough money, and too
long of term. The rumored offer from the Kings presently, is for seven years at
an average of $6.8 Million. The problem with the seven year term is it takes
two years of potential unrestricted free agency away from Doughty. Therefore,
any offer from another team would need to exceed the insufficient offer and be
for a lesser term. For argument’s sake, say $8 Million per year for five years
for a total of $40 Million.
According to http://www.mynhltraderumors.com/ the compensation
for such an offer would be four first round draft picks. Only a team with
tremendous organizational depth of young star players and quality prospects,
could stomach such steep compensation. In addition, the qualifying team would
also require the appropriate amount of cap space.
So what team could possibly offer Doughty so much money that
the Kings would simply not match the offer? And what team has enough young
talent that they could afford the compensation? One team that stands out is the
Edmonton Oilers.
The Edmonton Oilers have enjoyed several early draft choices
over the past few years including first overall selections Taylor Hall and Ryan
Nugent-Hopkins. Other first round picks currently with Edmonton
are Jordan Eberle, Magnus Paajarvi-Svensson, and Sam Gagner. Edmonton
also has promising prospects in their system such as Linus Omark, Anton Lander,
Tyler Pitlick, Teemu Hartikainen, Jeff Petry, and Martin Marincin. With such
talented youth and prospects all in the system Edmonton
is in a position to be able to absorb losing the four first round picks.
Financially Edmonton
is also in a position to add Doughty. According to http://www.capgeek.com/index.php
the Oilers have just over seven million in cap and it would not be too hard to
make up the difference.
While the Oilers have plenty of depth at forward, the
defense position is about the weakest in the NHL. By adding Doughty a position
of weakness instantly becomes strength as he is one of the best defensemen in
the NHL.
The Los Angeles Kings have also had several years of high
draft choices, and as a result, have a very impressive collection of young
talent. With young stars such as Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards (acquired in trade
with Philadelphia), Dustin Brown, Jack Johnson(also acquired in trade), and
prospects Andrei Loktionov, Tyler Toffoli, Derek Forbort, and Viatcheslav
Voynov, the Kings are well stocked for the present and the future. Truth is
they need Doughty more than the four first round draft pick compensation they
would receive. Furthermore, the Kings also have ample cap space available.
According to cap geek, the Los Angeles Kings have over nine million in
available cap space. If Doughty were to receive an offer, the Kings could
match.
Drew Doughty grew up being a Wayne Gretzky fan and fan of
the Los Angeles Kings. On the day he was drafted he made no secret of the fact
that he has always been a Kings fan. It is highly unlikely that Doughty wants
to leave this team that drafted him. However, if he were to receive a contract
offer from another team (say Edmonton)
it would give him tremendous leverage in his contract negotiations with the
Kings.
Is it possible that a team could be bold enough to step in
and offer Drew Doughty a contract? Is it possible that Kings GM Dean Lombardi
would be stubborn enough to let Doughty walk? Given the current impasse between
Doughty and the Kings in contract negotiations, it is possible however unlikely,
that a team like the Edmonton Oilers could steps in to make a contract offer
towards Doughty. If such a scenario were to occur, it would absolutely resolve
the hold out status of Drew Doughty.
Follow me on twitter: @pharling
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