Kings' Drew Doughty Makes Surprising Move Entering Final Year Of Contract

LA Kings' veteran defenseman Drew Doughty is wrapping an eight-year, $88 million deal this season ($11M AAV). It's a contract that he himself negotiated back in 2018 with GM Rob Blake.

Now, however, as a pending unrestricted free agent after the season, the 36-year-old Doughty has made a surprising move.  Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast tells us that the defenseman won't be negotiating his own next deal. 

I heard the other day that Drew Doughty, who did his last contract 8 years ago without an agent, now has one. He's hired Pat Brisson. That'll be interesting because this is the last year of his deal, and as (current GM) Ken Holland has said, and Doughty agreed with, they're going to wait until after the season or later to determine his future.

Making this all even more intriguing, Doughty was just recently named the new Kings captain, taking over from the retired Anze Kopitar. Surely, Doughty is not thinking of playing hardball and moving on at what will then be his age-37 summer after being named captain?

Friedman adds, however, that Doughty's special teams play is way down thus far in the first two games of the season. Both his power play and penalty kill time on ice have significantly decreased. In fact, he didn't play on the PK at all, he says, in Saturday in their 5-4 overtime loss to the Sharks.

Doughty used to average, 27, 28, even 29 minutes of ice time back in his later 20s. His TOI has dipped a bit in each of the last four seasons, going from 26:14 average in 2022-23, to 23:05 last season. He recorded a career-low (for a full-season) 23 points last year, in 72 games. 

So far, through two games in this young season, he's at 21:27.