The Los Angeles Kings just signed an 8 year, $56 million contract with their highly touted defensive player Drew Doughty. The contract negotiations were contentious at best between the two teams which lasted until the last few days before the team was supposed to leave for Europe to start the season. Doughty now becomes the fourth highest paid defenseman in the league and the highest paid Kings player, $200,000 more than Anze Kopitar.
Drew Doughty started his career in the NHL when he was 19 and has played three seasons in the NHL with the Kings. His new contract will take him to the age of 29 when he should cash in on his final major contract of his career. He is the Kings number one defenseman and the team’s blueline is basically built around Doughty. For Myers, the Sabres have added a couple new pieces so that Myers doesn’t have to carry the Sabres blue line on his own.
How exactly does Doughty’s contract signing make a team across the country look smart though? That is because they have a player with pretty much the same pedigree that is signed for $1.5 million cheaper with a contract that expires at exactly the same time, in 2019, with Tyler Myers. If you don’t believe me, here is the comparison of the two players stats:
| Player | Goals/Game | Assists/Game | Points/Game | Career Plus/Minus |
| Drew Doughty | .14 | .39 | .53 | 16 |
| Tyler Myers | .13 | .40 | .52 | 13 |
Using the per game stats allows us to compare the two players on an even level even though Doughty has played one more season than Myers. Both players are comparatively the same type of player and are going to be dominant defensemen during their respective careers. Myers leads in the number of league honors as he has a Calder Trophy for being the league’s best rookie and both players are going to be under consideration for the Norris trophy for the life of their contracts.
The Sabres have been portrayed this season as a team that is throwing money around like a drunken sailor. Even though that may be the case with some of the riskier contracts in Christian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino, the Sabres appear to have hit a home run with the Tyler Myers contract extension.