West Notes: Doughty, Sturm, Fleury, Broberg

The news for Kings defenseman Drew Doughty doesn’t appear to be good as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that the blueliner’s undisclosed injury is more significant than the team believed and that he’ll be out longer than expected as a result.  The veteran suffered the injury back on March 7th against Boston and was placed on injured reserve back on Sunday.  If Doughty winds up having to miss the next six weeks, his $11MM AAV could be shifted to LTIR, giving Los Angeles extra cap room to work with at the trade deadline.  Of course, it must also be said that without their top rearguard, the Kings will face a tougher battle to make it to the postseason.

More from the Western Conference:

• Prior to trading him to Colorado, the Wild offered center Nico Sturm a long-term contract extension, reports Michael Russo of The Athletic (subscription link). Obviously, that offer was rejected and he was instead traded for Tyson Jost.  Speculatively, that offer would have been around the $2MM that Jost is making.
• With the trade deadline just over 48 hours away now, it appears to be all quiet on the Marc-Andre Fleury front, suggests Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic (Twitter link). Fleury has been assured by the Blackhawks that he’ll have the final decision as to whether or not he’ll accept a trade even though he doesn’t have a full no-trade clause.  LeBrun notes that at this point, there have been some general inquiries but none that could be described as serious.
• Oilers defenseman Philip Broberg suffered an injury in Friday’s AHL game and is set to undergo an MRI, notes Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 20-year-old has played in 22 games with Edmonton this season and if he’s going to miss any extended period of time, it could push them to look to add some extra defensive depth by the deadline.