Fantasy Impact: The Los Angeles Kings have signed defensive defenseman Willie Mitchell to a two-year contract worth $3.5 million per season.

The Kings get: A steady defensive defenseman who can log very tough minutes. Mitchell has no fantasy value but his presence will affect the fantasy value of quite a few Los Angeles players. He is coming off of a severe concussion (the third of his career), and the Kings were the only team willing (or desperate enough) to give him a commitment longer than one year.

Fantasy Players Impacted: Mitchell will probably slide in on the second pairing with Jack Johnson, leaving Rob Scuderi to skate with Drew Doughty. He makes a decent first pass for a shutdown defenseman, and he’ll raise Johnson’s plus-minus quite a bit. A defenseman like Mitchell is also a goaltenders best friend.

With Matt Greene out for the first few months of the season, the Kings were desperate to add a quality top four defenseman. I see their pairings right now as:

Doughty-Scuderi

Mitchell-Johnson

Hickey-Drewiskie

Greene will slide in on the bottom pairing once he is healthy.

Players this helps, in order:

1. Jonathan Quick

2. Jonathan Bernier

3. Jack Johnson

4. Drew Doughty

Players this hurts, in order:

1. None.

Comments (6)

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Isle B. said:

	... The sky's the limit for JJ. For some reason, it took nearly two seasons for Terry Murray to put Doughty and Johnson together on the power play, but when he finally did toward the end of the year and into the playoffs, they were an unstoppable combo. 50-60 points wouldn't shock me for 2010-11, in what could be a classic fourth-season breakout.
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August 27, 2010
Votes: +0

Jerry said:

Happy Johnson owner As a Johnson owner, this off season has been golden. First the rumours had the Kings going for Kovalchuk. That would have killed Johnson's production since Kovalchuk plays the point for the whole 2 minutes and Doughty barely leaves the ice on a PP either. LA was also a front runner for Kaberle. Obviously it would be Kaberle-Doughty on PP1. Now the Kings settle for Willie. Awesome. No PP threat and someone who's able to cover for Johnson's mistakes. Considering Johnson got very inconsistent PP time in the first 3/4 of last season, how he finished the season hot, and how he's got no new competition for PP duty this season, I can see him getting 50.

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August 26, 2010
Votes: -1

Neil Holmes said:

	... in regards to Johnson, I think it's a bit premature to think he hits 50 this year... 35-40 is the range he will fall in this year, with a jump to the mid 40's next year most likely.
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August 26, 2010
Votes: -1

Jonny Cremo said:

	Jack Johnson Does anyone feel that JJohnson has a chance of getting 50 points now because of the increase in a few even strength points? This season?
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August 26, 2010
Votes: -1

Nigel said:

	Re: Torres +1 million
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August 26, 2010
Votes: +0

Marcus Lepkowski said:

	... The best thing about this article is that I don't have to see a bare chested Raffi Torres every time I come on this site!
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August 26, 2010
Votes: +2