National Hockey League: Ducks sign Fowler, Capitals trade with Blues
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals have beefed up their offense by acquiring the formidable St. Luis Blues right winger D.J King in a trade that sends prospect Stefan Della Rovere to the St. Luis Blues. The 5 foot11 inch, 198 pounds Stefan Della Rovere was a seventh round 204th overall draft pick in 2008.
On the day of the trade, King was signed to a two-year deal worth $1.275 million. Out of the contract, King would receive $625,000 in the first year and the remaining amount in the second. The capitals are hoping to replace enforcer Donald Brashear with King.
King is big for a right winger but the bigger they are the harder they fall and King has been falling throughout his career. The 6 foot 3 inch, 230 lb forward has been plagued by a string of injuries that limited him to just 13 games in two NHL seasons. In the wake of the 2008/2009 season’s opening game, King required surgery after sustaining an injury to his shoulder. The surgery cost him the remainder of the season. King was injured once again in the next season’s opening game as well. This time, while exchanging blow’s with Dallas Star’s Krys Barch, King injured his hand which also required a minor surgery. He did not return to ice until the season was coming to a close again after playing just 11 more games.
When King made his return after recovering from his injury, King was initially “a little worried,” but as time went by it became clear that the injury had healed completely. King has been off to a slow start in the NHL. In the last season, King played his 100th NHL game but had so far only been able to score 4 goals and 5 assists. The towering forward did however register 185 penalty minutes.
The re-signing of enforcer Cam Janssen by the Blues early in July gave way to speculations that D.J King was liable to be traded and now that trade has finally taken place.
On the other side of the trade, the Young Stefan has already made a name for himself after representing Canada on the international level. He played for the 2009 gold medal winning Canadian Junior ice hockey team. His consecutive back-to-back over 40 point seasons in the Ontario Hockey League led him to become a valuable prospect for the Capitals.
The Capitals, in the shape of D.J. King are getting a warrior more than a professional ice hockey player. Kings has exchanged blows on five occasions in just 13 games even though he averaged less than five minutes per game. King played 61 games in the 2007/2008 season in his career and ended up dropping the gloves on a whopping 22 times.
Be sure to expect more of that, particularly when the Caps go head-to-head with the Pittsburgh Penguins because King has marked their winger Max Talbot. Let’s just face it; fans are looking forwards to that showdown more impatiently than the actual game.
Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks have added defenseman Cam Fowler to their roster on a 3-year contract. No details of the contract were revealed to the press in accordance with the club policy.
The 12th overall pick in this year’s draft for the Anaheim Ducks, defenseman Fowler managed to score only 8 goals but managed a very impressive 47 assists in the 55 point 2009/2010 season. The 18-year old, Ontario native, supports the build to play a physically intense game, yet in 55 games in the previous season with the Ontario Hockey league, he was marked for only 14 penalty minutes.
Fowler was the seventh highest scorer among Windsor Spitfire’s defensemen in a year in which the Spitfires finished at the first spot in their conference. Following up on his impressive regular season run, Fowler finished the 19 OHL playoff games he played with 3 goals and 11 assists, leading the team to another OHL championship.
Fowler won the gold medal on two occasions with the International Ice Hockey Federation. His first medal came in 2009 with the United States national team in the IIHF under-18 Championships followed by the World Junior Championship gold in the very next year.
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