Elliotte Friedman brushes off doubts around $88,000,000 'future Hall of Famer' as injury replacement for 4 Nations Face-Off

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Kings announced that Drew Doughty had been added to Team Canada’s roster. He replaced Alex Pietrangelo, who withdrew from the 4 Nations Face-off tournament on Jan. 26.

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman spoke about Doughty’s role in the 4 Nations Face-Off. On Monday's episode of the "32 Thoughts" podcast, he said seeing how much Doughty plays will be interesting.

"It'll be interesting to see how much he gets used," Friedman said. (17:30 onwards) ....."Do they put him in right away? Is he the seventh guy? .... People were very interested in what you and I talked about, like, would it be an insult or season insult to him? He's the seventh guy. Should that even matter? He should just deal with it."

The 35-year-old defenseman missed the first 47 games of the season with a broken left ankle. He suffered the injury in a preseason game on Sep. 25. He returned on Jan. 29 and has one assist in six games, averaging 26:57 of ice time.

After returning from injury, Doughty - signed to an eight-year, $88 million contract - averaged 26:57 minutes on ice. He has recently played for over 30 minutes of ice time on average in two consecutive games against the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks. Especially in the recent 1-2 shutout loss to the Ducks, he played 31:09 minutes. This shows his defensive presence in the game.

Friedman said that some people wondered if that (being seventh) would be an insult, but the NHL insider said it should not matter. He joked that if Drew Doughty does not play in the first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off, Canada may need to keep him in his room to stop him from going out in Montreal. He called Doughty a future Hall of Famer and said he was always expected to be on the team before his injury.

"Right from the beginning he was on the team. The only thing that made it a threat was the injury," Friedman said. (18:35 onwards) "I think everybody was sitting here and saying, Is he really going to be ready? But they're, they're taking the plunge. And sometimes I think you got to take the risk to win."

Elliotte Friedman believes that sometimes teams need to take risks to win, and Canada is doing that by picking Doughty.

Drew Doughty is excited about playing for Team Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off

Drew Doughty is excited about representing Team Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off. In his first statement, Daughty talked about the unique opportunity of getting selected for the tournament.

“Got a call today, right before my nap," Doughty said, via NHL.com. "Exciting, exciting day. I had this on my mind ever since I’ve come back, and put a little too much pressure on myself to perform at a very high level. Game was kind of up and down. Ever since I knew I had a really good chance, in the last two games, I think I got back to myself.”

In his 17th NHL season, Doughty has been one of the league’s top defensemen. He won Stanley Cups with the LA Kings in 2012 and 2014 and earned the Norris Trophy in 2016. So, his presence in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament will be exciting for the fans.