When Willie Mitchell's family and friends take to their seats at Rogers Arena on the 9th of October for the Canucks' first game of the new NHL season, they'll be perpetuating a familiar routine that has become a firm habit over the past few years. One aspect of their experience in Vancouver will, however, be radically different.
Instead of watching Mitchell turn out for the Canucks in front of a raucous home crowd, they'll be crossing their fingers for a good performance from the defenceman as he makes his first NHL appearance for the Kings in Vancouver's regular season opener against the Los Angeles club.
Mitchell has just agreed a two-year, $7 million contract with the Kings in a deal that has brought to an end a long-running debate as to where the player would be plying his trade when the upcoming season gets underway. He met with a handful of teams in the NHL, including the San Jose Sharks, and also considered sticking around with the Canucks despite their actions earlier this summer involving Dan Hamhuis and Keith Ballard, but it is thought that the manner in which the Kings dealt with the player's well-publicized concussion inflicted by a brutal Evgeni Malkin challenge back in January tempted him to Los Angeles.
Out of all the teams Mitchell visited in an attempt to prove the success of his recovery from that concussion, it was the Kings who offered the player a deal which put faith in his health. The length of the contract, and the salary on offer, allowed the 33-year-old to disprove the scaremongers who had insisted that any deal offered to the player would be both short and financially dominated by bonuses.
Mitchell has stated that he felt the Kings believed in him and would be an ideal fit, whilst the chance to "be part of a young and up and coming team that has a lot of good things going on" was too great an opportunity to ignore at this stage in his career and especially after the season he's just endured.
It's thought that Drew Doughty will be one of the players to benefit the most from the experience that Mitchell will bring to the Kings. One of the brightest young prospects in the NHL, Doughty finished third in the league in scoring amongst defencemen last season and was rewarded for the rapid pace of his game's improvement by being named a finalist for the Norris Trophy. It is thought that Doughty will have a starring role to play this season in leading the Kings to another assault on the playoffs and the influence of Mitchell can surely only aid his quest to achieve that feat.
Meanwhile, the Canucks will have been dealt a blow with the departure of Mitchell but at least the player leaves Vancouver fans with a wealth of happy memories. He played 264 games for the Canucks over four seasons, notching up 10 goals, 48 assists, and evolving into a truly crucial cog in their defense. Those stats could have been even more impressive had the player not been restricted to just 48 games for Vancouver last season after that controversial challenge from Malkin.
It's a major move from the Kings, and one criticized as a naive risk by some, and the player obviously has to put the work in to show he's fully fit and ready to get involved and committed to the physical side of the game that proves so crucial at the highest level of this sport. If he can do that and recapture the consistent side of his game that has proved so attractive to club officials and fans previously in his career, this deal will no doubt be looked upon in retrospect as a decent one for all parties involved.
Mitchell secures deal fit for a King
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