Not sure why anyone would give up all those assets for Doughty

Yeah, he had a terrible year

Yah LA would have to pay quite a bit to move his contract

yeah, it wouldnt happen because the leafs dont want anything to do with doughty. His contract is a comedic time bomb even with 2 million retained. It's so bad.

You're right. Never gonna happen.

There's not a single piece in that package (aside from the 1st round pick) that even starts the conversation for returning Drew Doughty. It's a bunch of expendable scraps.

One of the big four has to be going to LA for the Kings to consider trading Doughty. Even if Toronto did make that offer, it's likely Doughty invokes his NMC and opts to stay in Manhattan Beach.

This is so dumb. There would be teams lining up to acquire Doughty if the Kings made him available.

I wouldn't go that far, it's definitely a hefty term and cost attached but he's not a negative value. He had his worst year in recent memory and still put up 0.53PPG. There are teams not named Toronto that could make the money work.

lol "one of the big four" good one, does the trade come with a time device that makes doughty 23 again?

that's the thing though, his offence is declining but still decent, it's his defensive game that's taken the real hit. He is not good at all and is just abysmal on the bad side of the puck. He has been for 2 years now and will only get worse all around

LA would accept that offer for sure. They get an unprotected 1st, a ready made 2nd line, a top 4 defender and a prospect with top 4 potential. Amazing rebuilding package.

That's exactly why he would be paired with Muzzin. The reason Dubas went after Barrie was because the Leafs desperately need a PMD to hit their forwards with a pass in transition. This team will succeed playing off the rush.

No they wouldn't. Blake has made it clear that this rebuild is centered around Kopitar and Doughty and that they aren't going anywhere. This is a fantasy hockey trade. A bunch of quantity but very little quality.

but even if he was paired with Muzzin he'd still be a liability. I mean Barrie had better defensive numbers, and he sucks in his own end. And he isnt signed until he's 37. The leafs dont desperately need PMD, they need defenders that can limit rush chances and push shots to the outside. Doughty cant do that anymore.
Even if the leafs thought Doughty's offence was a good bet, the contract would immediately nix any thought of bringing him in, even at 50% retained. Way too many years.

yeah, doughty has a quantity of bad dollars and term left and there is very little quality to squeeze out of him at his age and stage of decline

LA should jump at the opportunity to offload an overpayed older guy who is only going to decline as years go on. He will be taking up a huge chunk of CAP and pushing close to 40 by the time his contract is over. How long is LA going to rebuild? Offload now.

The draft lottery accelerated the rebuild. I suspect they will be looking to make a splash in the playoffs as early as 2021-22. I'd also put money down that Doughty will be in the top 5 in Norris voting that season.

Toronto fans love to say that Doughty is in decline, but that doesn't stop all the ACGMs that have him going their way in a trade.

Doughty is going nowhere, likely by his own choice. Even if he was open to leaving, Blake has said that Doughty is part of the future, and has no interest in moving him or Kopitar.

2021-22?? You must have a lot of faith in Bjornfoot, Turcotte and Vilardi. None of them look ready to make top of the roster impacts and the current roster aside from Kopitar, Walker and Roy looks abysmal.

i mean, he is in decline. Anyone who has watched him play these past 2 years and looked at his numbers will tell you that. You can put on those kings tinted glasses all you want and pretend he is some sort of key piece to a rebuild and not a heavily declining asset with a horrendous price tag, but you'd still be wrong.

Take vilardi name out, he looked plenty fine in the top 6. FO%50. Which is pretty decent for a 10 game sample.

Coming from a Leafs fan, that's comedy.

I've watched Doughty play in every single game he's ever played in. He's an elite defenseman playing on an awful team right now. The fact that the Kings are still an decent defensive team despite playing with 4 bottom-pairing defensemen for the entire year (Martinez was the only other defenseman that could be considered top four) just goes to show how much impact he has on this team. He doesn't bring it every game since there is nothing on the line, but that's more a knock on his character and leadership (which has always been in question) than ability. However, there were still many games this season in which Doughty was still the best player on the ice for either team. He has the ability, but not the desire right now.

The Kings have built a quality defensive core through the draft. Bjornfot looks to be an exceptional stay-at-home guy with above average puck-moving skills, and given another year to develop, will look mighty fine on Doughty's pairing. Anderson looks to be a solid 2nd pairing guy, and the Kings have multiple options for the 3rd LHD slot with Clague, Hults, and MacDermid all available as options. They could stand to upgrade at the 2RD spot, as Roy and Walker are decent options for the right side, but neither project to be anything better than 3rd pairing defensmen (If you try and argue that Roy is a top four guy based on analytics, then you clearly haven't watched him play and rely on numbers too much). However, these are gaps that can be filled by trade and free agency, and the Kings have an incredibly deep stable of quality prospects that they can use to go out and acquire players to fill specific needs.

Doughty is still an elite defenseman in the NHL. Give him a halfway decent team to play with (which is coming very soon) and he'll return to Norris contention. I suspect he'll have another very average season in 2020-21, but be back on top in 2021-22.

Pure delusion. Not all of a team's prospects are going to work out.

Look dude, i dont know how else to break it to you. Doughty is basically washed. I dont know what me being a Leaf fan has to do with that, but it's true. It happens when players age, some sooner than others. He just cant hack it defensivly any more. All putting him on a good team would do would cover the ever expanding holes in his game. Being on a bad team has exposed his failings, sure, but he's still failing.
hes old for a hockey player and he's just getting older. You can hold onto your hopes and dreams as much as you want, but no one is buying it.
I'm not arguing LA's future from a prospect standpoint, they have some nice pieces and it could go well for them. However they have some big bad deals that will hamper things unless they can get rid of em. Doughty is the main one, Quick is number 2 and Kopitar is number 3. Kopitar still looks pretty good, but unless he's Jagr 2.0, no one looks that good deep into their 30s and he still has 4 more seasons at 10 mill.
These players fall off cliffs all the time.
Now back to Doughty. Im not questioning his character or leadership, im questioning his ability to actually play hockey, and if he was 'the best player on the ice" for a few games, cool, there are 82 games in a season and he was not good at all defensively for the bulk of them. You're going to have to come to terms with this sooner or later. He's just going to get worse and you'll have a bigger version of the Brent Seabrook mess Chicago is dealing with now

I have seen players "fall off cliffs". It happened to Rob Scuderi. It happened to Dion Phaneuf. It even happened to Derek Forbort. That's not what happened to Doughty. The ability is still there, and he brings it to more than just "a few games." About half the time he looks like Norris version of Doughty. The other half, he just looks indifferent and isn't willing to exert himself. Kings fans get incredibly frustrated because they know the ability is there, he just doesn't seem to want to bring it out. However, when he does bring it out (to the tune of 20ish games this season), he's the best player on the ice. If "the ability to actually play hockey" was no longer there, then we wouldn't see that at all.

My presumption is that you watched no more than two LA Kings games this season, both against Toronto (Doughty was quite good in the 2nd one just before the break). Watch a few more and get back to me.

I realize that not every prospect will work out. If I wanted to include all of the quality defensive prospects in the system, I would have brought up guys like Durzi and Spence, both of whom look to be quality NHL players in the long term, but still several years away from reaching their potential. All of the guys I mentioned are well on their way to working out.

Anderson, made the jump to the NHL this season, and has already cemented his spot in the lineup. He looks really good on Roy's pairing. Bjornfot was easily the best defenseman on the Reign this season at age 18, despite their being several older quality guys down there (Clague, Anderson, Durzi, Brickley, Strand). He's not going to get a call-up because they don't want to burn a year off his ELC when they don't expect to make the postseason, but he is the next guy in line for the Kings defense. Doughty was giddy early in the season when paired with Bjornfot at the beginning of the season, saying that he couldn't wait to have him be a regular on the team.

He's still not worth that package at his contract.