Kings Sign Doughty

Big news in Kings camp as the team has now signed their first round pick (2nd overall) in June's draft, Drew Doughty, to a brand new 3-year, entry-level deal. This deal will likely have the same framework as his counterpart in the draft, Steven Stamkos, with Doughty receiving the rookie maximum in a base salary ($875,000) and will have a pile of bonuses that could have him earn upwards of $3 million.

Doughty, 18, is expected to make the jump from the junior ranks to the big club and be a part of a rebuilding team in Los Angeles and he does have the frame (6'1", 219 lbs.) to compete with the big men of the league. His days in Guelph in the OHL, was also very productive offensively, scoring 13 goals and 50 points in 58 games for the Storm.

The Kings still have a bare-bones roster at the minute, which has kept them well below the salary cap floor of $40.7 million, but the inclusion of Doughty at an estimated $3 million (figure not confirmed, just speculated for salary cap figures) will bring the team up to 15 players at a bargain rate of $29.6 million. The team still needs to spend $11.1 million to get themselves up and over the cap floor, but they do have major restricted free agents in Patrick O'Sullivan, Jarret Stoll and Brad Richardson.

Forwards	Defense	Goaltenders
Anze Kopitar	Tom Preissing	Jason Labarbera
Alexander Frolov	Jack Johnson	Erik Ersberg
Dustin Brown	Matt Greene
Derek Armstrong	Denis Gauthier
Michal Handzus	Drew Doughty
Kyle Calder
Matt Moulson
Ratis Ivanans
Matt Ellis

As of right now, the team is not very competitive. The names and numbers are very sparse at the moment and there looks to be a gung-ho youth movement going in Los Angeles, which the fans will have to be patient about. Hopefully the signing of Doughty and the emergence of goalie, Jonathan Bernier, can give those fans something to look forward to in the coming seasons. Fortunately, they do have some talent already making waves in Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson, not to mention some quality netminding potential in Erik Ersberg.

For pool purposes, the Kings will likely be a stop-gap for point production. Of course Kopitar, O'Sullivan, Brown, Stoll, Frolov, Preissing and their starting goaltender will be the main contributors of the team, so prioritize these guys accordingly, but it may not be the season to bet on guys like Moulson, J. Johnson and Doughty just yet.