Thursday, July 29, 2010

Caps Add Some Sandpaper with Signing of D.J. King

In what has been a super slow summer for trades, the Caps made a necessary step adding some grit to their roster with yesterday's signing of enforcer D.J. King from the St. Louis Blues. The team acquired the 6’3”, 230-pound, left winger from the Blues in exchange for prospect Stefan Della Rovere. Since the departure of big, bad Donald Brashear, the Caps have been lacking a tried and true veteran enforcer, despite the best of efforts of various players to take the task of on-ice law enforcement upon themselves. HM for one will welcome a replacement for Matt Bradley, who gladly accepted the call to defend his team mates one too many times last season, often leaving the ice looking like a horrid scene from "Saw II". On Frozen Blog has laid out the welcome mat for the newest member of the Capitals - check it out here.

King has had a full dance card throughout his 101-game NHL career, dropping the mitts with such tough guys as Colton Orr and Derek Boogard. He posted nine points (four goals, five assists) and 185 penalty minutes in his time with the Blues. King played 12 games in St. Louis and 10 games for Peoria of the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2009-10, seeing limited time due to a broken finger. He is under contract through the 2011-12 season.

Originally selected in the sixth round, 191st overall, by the Blues in the 2002 Entry Draft, King played junior hockey for Lethbridge and Kelowna in the Western Hockey League, topping 100 penalty minutes in each of his three seasons. He won the Memorial Cup with Kelowna in 2004.

Here's a glimpse of D.J.'s handiwork from back in his days playing junior hockey:



Welcome to Washington Mister King! HM is hoping that Penguinette Max Talbot may have a few regrets about his recent Ovechkin comments (stick tap to the head honcho, Ted Leonsis for the video link) with a new bad boy rocking the red on the other side of the ice...the Winter Classic just got a hell of a lot more interesting, if that's even possible!

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