Why the Kings would even consider trading heart and soul player and team captain Dustin Brown is beyond me. Ultimately the Kings made the right move by keeping him and were still able to add Jeff Carter in the process. Some fans may be upset that they weren't able to also deal for Rick Nash, but over time I think they will realize that was one desperate move not worth making.

Brown may only give you 50-60 points a season, but he contributes in many other ways to his team and fantasy wise. So as I'm sure most hockey pool enthusiasts know, the Kings right winger is a physical presence on the ice.

Rank	Name	Pos	Age	Yrs	Team	GR	GP	Hits
1	MARTIN,MATT	L	22	2	NYI	13	67	314
2	BROWN,DUSTIN	L	27	7	L.A	13	69	242
3	CLUTTERBUCK,CAL	R	24	4	MIN	13	61	232
4	NEIL,CHRISTOPHER	R	32	9	OTT	12	61	231
5	CALLAHAN,RYAN	R	26	5	NYR	14	64	228
6	SCHENN,LUKE	D	22	3	TOR	13	66	225
7	OTT,STEVE	C	29	8	DAL	13	62	220
7	ORPIK,BROOKS	D	31	8	PIT	14	59	220
8	GLASS,TANNER	L	28	4	WPG	13	69	215
9	BROUWER,TROY	R	26	5	WSH	13	69	213
10	EMELIN,ALEXEI	D	25	0	MTL	13	57	211

You can see Brown sits second overall in the NHL with 242 hits. Los Angeles needs his rugged play because they only have two other players, Matt Greene and Kyle Clifford, who rank in the top 50 when it comes to hits.

Now you wouldn't necessarily think someone that plays the way Brown does would draw a lot of penalties. Typically, more skilled players come to mind when you think of forcing opponents to head to the sin bin. Brown however leads the league in penalties drawn with 46.

Rank	Player	Pos	Count
1	BROWN, DUSTIN	R	46
2	MALKIN, EVGENI	C	43
3 📢 advertisement:	PERRY, COREY	R	42
4	DORSETT, DEREK	R	40
4	NASH, RICK	R	40
5	CLARKSON, DAVID	R	39
5	SKINNER, JEFF	C	39
6	TAVARES, JOHN	C	37

This stat by itself may not have much impact in most fantasy leagues, but it can have an indirect impact in the power play point's area. If you consider that 13 of Brown's 43 points have come with the man advantage, and he averages 3:20 of power play ice-time per game, drawing penalties now becomes a key point of his production. Not to mention if you take away Jeff Carter, who had the majority of his power play goals with the Blue Jackets this season, Brown leads the Kings with eight tallies in that category.

The Kings scoring difficulties this season have been darn near Gomez-esque, but Brown has still managed to snipe 19 times on the year. In fact over his past four seasons he has managed to average 27 goals. His ability to be a consistent 20 goal man comes from shooting the puck regularly as he ranks third on the team in shots on goal.

Rank	Player	Pos	Team	GP	Total
1	WILLIAMS, JUSTIN	R	L.A	69	197
2	KOPITAR, ANZE	C	L.A	69	195
3	BROWN, DUSTIN	R	L.A	69	179
4	RICHARDS, MIKE	C	L.A	61	141
5	DOUGHTY, DREW	D	L.A	64	132

Los Angeles is getting great value for Brown as well, and depending on if your league is based on a cap system you could be too. Cost effective players are becoming more and more valuable in today's NHL. He ranks second on the team in cap hit per point behind only Slava Voynov.

Rank	Player	Pos	Team	GP	Pts	Caphit	Cost/Pnt
1	VOYNOV, SLAVA	D	L.A	40	14	816666	58333
2	BROWN, DUSTIN	R	L.A	68	43	3175000	73837
3	WILLIAMS, JUSTIN	R	L.A	68	46	3650000	79348
4	KING, DWIGHT	L	L.A	13	7	597667	85381
5	HUNTER, TRENT	R	L.A	38	7	600000	85714
6	CLIFFORD, KYLE	L	L.A	67	10	870000	87000

Brown will make you reconsider how valuable players are based on the categories in your league. In leagues that value hits and shots just as much as points, it might be worth sacrificing some points and moving him up the depth chart. Mr. Brown can do a little bit of everything.

Feel free to follow me on twitter at @amato_mike

UPCOMING GAMES

Dec 29 - 15:12	STL	vs	BUF
Dec 29 - 16:12	ANA	vs	EDM
Dec 29 - 17:12	T.B	vs	MTL
Dec 29 - 17:12	DET	vs	WSH
Dec 29 - 17:12	PIT	vs	NYI
Dec 29 - 20:12	VGK	vs	CGY
Dec 29 - 20:12	MIN	vs	OTT
Dec 29 - 20:12	CHI	vs	DAL
Dec 29 - 21:12	L.A	vs	PHI