FanHouse Drew Doughty

The Los Angeles Kings entered the offseason with a fair amount of cap space and plethora of young assets that could have been used to bring in a big-name player to help boost a young team from Western Conference bottom-feeder to legitimate playoff contender. Personally, I was pushing for disgruntled Senators forward Dany Heatley, who seemed like he would have been a nice fit. The Kings, however, may have found an even better fit, when you consider Heatley is, apparently, out of his mind and doesn't quite know what he wants or where he wants to go.

Late Friday night, the Kings acquired veteran forward Ryan Smyth from the Colorado Avalanche for defensemen Kyle Quincey and Tom Preissing, and a fifth-round draft pick. For the Kings? They get a gritty, veteran leader still capable of scoring 25-30 goals. For the Avs? It's a salary dump, and a head start in the season-long quest for Taylor Hall.

The nominees for this year's NHL awards are starting to be announced, and on Wednesday we learned that Columbus' Steve Mason, Anaheim's Bobby Ryan and Chicago's Kris Versteeg were the top vote-getters for the Calder Trophy as the league's rookie of the year.

There's no surprises here, as it's been assumed for much of the season that Mason, Columbus' 20-year-old goalie, is a slam dunk winner. Despite his struggles in the playoffs (awards are voted on before the postseason begins, by the way) no goalie recorded more shutouts during the season (10) while he also finished second in the league with a 2.29 goals average and 12th with a .916 save percentage. He is, perhaps, the biggest reason Columbus made its first trip to the postseason in franchise history.

In our final installment of this season's power rankings, we take a look at how the teams might finish in the NHL standings. The San Jose Sharks have yet to claim the President's Trophy, but a win in their regular season finale, or one loss by the Boston Bruins, will give the Sharks the best record in the NHL for the first time in franchise history.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the standings, the New York Islanders are hoping that all of this losing will mean a big win in June.

For the third time in three weeks we have a new team on top of our power rankings, as the NHL-leading San Jose Sharks take over the top spot.

The Devils take a fall thanks to their recent six-game losing streak, while Anaheim continues to climb the rankings.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs are ever going to return to relevance in the NHL, it's going to be because of guys like No. 5 overall pick Luke Schenn. The 18-year old defenseman is currently logging over 20 minutes of ice time per game, and was recently pointed out by coach Ron Wilson as an example veterans Tomas Kaberle and Pavel Kubina could learn a thing or two from. High praise for a rookie after just a handful of games.

So, it's no surprise that the first-year Leafs coach came out today and announced that Schenn will be staying in Toronto for the foreseeable future, as reported by TSN.

After making the announcement, Wilson was apparently asked if the Leafs would allow Schenn to play for team Canada in the World Hockey Championships, a suggestion that Wilson quickly dismissed.

When asked if Schenn would be released to play for Team Canada at the World Hockey Championship in Ottawa, Leafs head coach Ron Wilson gave a quick and concise answer. "If he's playing in the best league in the world, why would we have him go play in a teenage tournament?" Wilson said after practice on Monday.

Schenn is currently second among all rookies in terms of ice time, behind only Kings defenseman Drew Doughty. Only Kubina and Kaberle are averaging more ice time for the Leafs.

The best hockey blog you're probably not reading these days is Inside the Kings, where Rich Hammond, deputy sports editor at the Los Angeles Daily News, is the man in charge. About 30 minutes ago, he got the skinny on the Evgeni Malkin to LA rumor that Bruce Garrioch floated recently. This comes straight from LA GM Dean Lombardi:

``There's absolutely nothing to it,'' Lombardi said of rumors that the Kings might trade for Malkin. ``I talked to (the Penguins) as part of my due diligence to talk to every team. Then I hear all these reports that we're getting him. I had to call Ray (Shero, Penguins GM) this morning and say, `I hear I'm trading for him. What am I giving you?'''

Meanwhile, across town at the LA Times, Lisa Dilman has her own interview with Lombardi where he declares he's keeping the second pick in the draft even though three teams have made him offers. And though it's widely though that Lombardi would select defenseman Drew Doughty of the Guelph Storm, he declined to say anything definite about who he would pick.

Pittsburgh, breathe easy now.