Drew Doughty Swatch Card

Drew Doughty is a force to be reckoned with, and probably will be for quite some time. He is the second-youngest ever Norris Trophy nominee (behind only Bobby Orr), and youngest Team Canada men's team medal winner (2010 Olympics) since Eric Lindros (1991 Canada Cup).

Having grown up a Los Angeles Kings fan, getting drafted by them (second overall, 2008) and playing for them is a dream come true. Kind of makes you wonder, though, why he held out on the team for 13 days during training camp to sign a contract ($56M for 8 years) that pretty much ensures the team won't be able to afford a high-priced free agent at the trade deadline to pack the team up for a Cup run in this salary-cap era.

With all due respect for Doughty, at that price, I strongly prefer my Montréal Canadiens' one-two punch of Andrei Markov ($5.75M) and P.K. Subban ($1M, probably 4 next season)...

In any event, while I await a response from Doughty (I sent him 4 cards on March 29th), I did manage to scoop this nice card up, from Panini's 2010-11 Crown Royale set (yet another collection from the mid-90s Panini has revived), the Lords Of The NHL sub-set (card # 9, numbered 55/99) featuring a swatch of the no-longer-in-use Kings' vintage purple jersey.