We’ve finally reached the end of the Seasons in Review series, with a look at defenseman Drew Doughty’s season. Doughty has certainly been a point of conversation as he approaches the final season of his eight-year contract. Doughty continues to play a leading role with the Kings as he enters his final summer before a potential free agency.
Drew Doughty
LAK Statline – 82 games played, 5 goals 18 assists, +4 rating, 40 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 4 games played, 0 goals, 0 assists, -3 rating, 0 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 54.0% (+2.4%), SCF% – 54.5% (+3.1%), HDCF% – 54.7% (+2.6%)
Trending Up – Contrary to the narrative in many circles, a lot of good things happened when Drew Doughty was on the ice this season. Looking at that number in parenthesis above, the relative ratings, Doughty was the only regular on the blueline at a +2.0 percent or better in all three metrics. That figure means that the Kings performed better in shot attempts, scoring chances and high-danger chances with Doughty on the ice relative to without Doughty on the ice. Doughty led all Kings defensemen in percentage of HDCF and SCF controlled, finishing second in shot attempts. That’s a good thing to see from your highest-minute blueliner, especially when that player logs the bulk of the matchups against top-caliber opposition.
Here’s a stat that I found very impressive with Doughty, that makes the above look even better. Only three players in the NHL had the following collection of statistics –
Above 54 percent of shot attempts controlled at 5-on-5
Above 54 of high-danger chances controlled at 5-on-5
Below 45 percent of shifts started in the offensive zone at 5-on-5.
Doughty is one of three players in the NHL to check all three of those boxes. The long and short of it is that the Kings tasked Doughty with the second lowest offensive-zone start percentage of his NHL career. Despite it, the Kings controlled nearly 55 percent of shot attempts and high-danger chances with Doughty on the ice. Put it all together it paints a pretty clear picture of not just controlling the puck, but overturning starts in the process. Pretty impressive.
A big reason for those numbers being as good as they turned out to be is Doughty’s passing ability. In looking at advancing the puck from the defensive zone, Doughty rated as one of the NHL’s best defensemen, both in terms of quantity and quality of passing. Looking at all NHL defensemen with at least 500 minutes played last season, per SportLOGIQ, Doughty ranked inside the Top-20 both in terms of completed passes from the defensive zone and success rate on those passes. Only seven blueliners around the league had both, with Doughty joined by Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber, Miro Heiskanen, Lane Hutson, Josh Morrissey and Matthew Schaefer. That is solid company. The Kings struggled as a group with moving the puck up from their defensemen but Doughty’s metrics remained quite strong in that area.
Trending Down – I think that the first bullet here is similar to what Mikey Anderson’s review contained. By the standards of several defensemen, Doughty put together a very effective season. It just wasn’t up to the standards that he and that pair have set over the past several seasons. His goals against per/60 was still quite good in the grand scheme of things but it was just a step back from the past two seasons. The same goes with some of his possession metrics. They were good, just not as good as he’s posted in the past. If you put that season on a player who is capable of less, you walk away extremely impressed. For Doughty, though, the standard he has set is higher than his 2025-26 campaign produced, so it’s a step back.
The easiest trending down here is with regards to Doughty’s individual offensive production, which really fell off this past season. Doughty has always been defense-first but he’s been a reliable offensive option, posting at least a half-point per-game in every season since 2013-14, until now. Just once in his career did Doughty score fewer than his five goals in 2025-26 and just twice did he have fewer than his 18 assists. Those two seasons were the 2024-25 campaign, when he missed 52 games due to injury and the 2012-13 season, which was only 48 games long due to the NHL Lockout. On a per/60 basis, Doughty posted the lowest rates of his career in goals, assists and points. On a group of defenseman that already trended defensive, Doughty was a guy the Kings expected more from offensively coming into the season and his drop off from a points standpoint was definitely lacking in that group.
Lastly, Doughty is one of several who has the penalty kill included on his list here. Of the 161 defensemen around the NHL last season to play at least 50 shorthanded minutes, Doughty ranked third from the bottom in on-ice goals against per/60. It’s a similar disclaimer. The Kings were poor as a whole and the blame there goes a number of different directions, Doughty’s included. It’s not on one guy, but it’s an area that needs to improve and Doughty is included in that, having been out for a larger share of goals against than most.
2026-27 Status – For the first time in a long time, Drew Doughty has one season remaining on his contract. The last time he hit this position, he signed an eight-year extension on July 1, exactly 12 months out from his free agency. This time around, Doughty’s future feels less certain, especially when you consider the comments both he and General Manager Ken Holland made after the season. You could see so many avenues here for Doughty’s future, depending on what both he and the organization want to do going forward. It’s one to watch very closely. Doughty is under contract for next season and assuming he is here, he will likely play a Top-4 role on the blueline. However, there are decisions to be made on both sides and we’ll have to see how they play out over the next couple of months.
