INSIDER: A healthy and motivated Drew Doughty? Exactly what the LA Kings need

Jim Hiller was asked after Day 2 of training camp how he evaluates things internally when a veteran stands out during a training-camp scrimmage.

His answer was very diplomatic, speaking about having a better understanding about who veteran players are, with these types of pops not being quite as important. After answering the question, he got up to leave the press conference but paused and returned to the table.

“Let me make an exception – Drew has jumped out at us that way, because of what he went through, he’s certainly moving a lot better. That’s an easy one.”

If you just look at a box score from the latter half of the 2024-25 season, or even the Kings/Oilers series in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, you might not see anything that looked off with defenseman Drew Doughty. In Game 6, for example, Doughty led the Kings at 28:03 time on ice.

And that was not atypical. You’d see Doughty present, logging maybe not his career-peak minutes, but certainly playing a large role for the Kings. In a boxscore, it looked normal. Nothing out of the ordinary. On the ice, though, it was anything but.

While we saw Doughty on the ice, physically, we didn’t really see Doughty on the ice. Or perhaps better worded, it wasn’t the real Drew Doughty playing those games. What that means is that while there was a player wearing a Kings jersey, number eight on the back, it wasn’t the Drew Doughty we’re accustomed to seeing, nor the player that Doughty himself is accustomed to being.

“At the end of the playoffs, that was one of the lowest moments as a hockey player in my life,” Doughty said candidly, following the first day of training camp.

Doughty fought valiantly to get back into the lineup last year after he fractured his ankle during his preseason debut last preseason. The process was lengthy and challenging and the return, while nice, wasn’t what Doughty hoped it would be. For a player used to playing at an elite level, it was frustrating to not be able to do that.

So what did he do about it?

Immediately after the season, Doughty had a second procedure on his ankle to get it right. For the following eight weeks, he did nothing. He didn’t golf. He didn’t have a drink. He simply let his ankle heal the way that he knew it needed to. It was an important reset for Doughty to get the ankle right and after giving it the needed recovery time, that part of his injury was behind him.

“I took a hard eight weeks [off] after I got my second procedure on it, just to get it right,” Doughty said. “I did everything I could to be perfectly healthy, I didn’t drink, I wasn’t golfing, just totally focusing on my ankle and getting it better. Those eight weeks, at times I got lonely, because I wasn’t going out with guys and I wasn’t golfing, which are my some of my favorite things to do, but it was well worth it. I feel way better and starting to feel more like myself from a couple years ago.”

From there, it was about having a strong summer of building back up.

The commitment to rehab the injury was important. But without the second step, it really would not have been worth much. Doughty spent just about his entire summer in Los Angeles. He was one of the first players back in the gym and back on the ice at Toyota Sports Performance Center. He feels that effort and commitment was the first step towards becoming the player he’s been.

“This summer, I just worked my bag off and I want to get back to the player I was and I’m actually very confident I will be that player again,” he said. “I feel so much better on the ice. I’ll be back.”

That work was not lost on those around him.

As Hiller said, Doughty “dedicated himself probably more than he ever has in his entire life this summer.”

Doughty knew that he needed to do that to get back to where he wants to be. To get to this point, he put in the work that was necessary and for being at this point in the process, a couple days into training camp.

Now, it’s obviously easy to talk on Day 1 of camp.

It’s almost a day of eternal optimism. It’s sort of similar to the way we talk about prospects. You only focus on the positives here because the team is 0-0. Haven’t lost a single game. What’s there to dwell on when nothing has happened?

In terms of Day 1 talk, the way Doughty looked on the ice stood out to his teammates as well as his coaches.

Take Joel Edmundson for example.

Edmundson saw Doughty during training camp last year but in terms of his impact in games, Edmundson never really saw the real Doughty in action. Training camp is early days yet but for Edmundson, he saw a completely different Drew Doughty in the gym as well as during summer skates and the first practice of training camp.

“He definitely bought in this offseason, he put in the work, you could tell by his numbers in the gym and just seeing him on the ice, he just looks a lot faster than he did last year and he would be the first one to admit that,” Edmundson said. “A healthy Dewey is a hell of a player, so it’s definitely nice to see him feeling good.”

For his regular defensive partner, Mikey Anderson, he expressed similar thoughts.

Anderson noted that while the two have chemistry that goes back as far as 2021, it was difficult at times to be at full speed together as a pair last year because Doughty rarely practiced as he managed his injury. There were times when he was on the ice but in managing his ankle, Doughty was mostly a game-only player for large stretches of last season. That made it difficult and Anderson noted that having these full-speed practices together make things easier for them as a pair.

That all starts with Doughty being able to go individually at a high level, which Anderson believes is a testament to the work he put in over the summer.

“It was a tough one for him, battling back and then again all summer, he’s trying to get everything feeling good, but then get his body back up to speed to where he was at coming into last year,” Anderson said. “He’s done a lot of work, so it’s good for him to be feeling good. He looks good.”

There will be bigger tests and challenges for Doughty than looking good in training camp. He knows that. He’s got exhibition games to get through unscathed from an injury perspective, with tune-up opportunities certainly there for him as he gets back into his peak game shape. He can’t answer those questions today.

But, when you look down the road a bit, a healthy, motivated and challenged Drew Doughty being the guy to answer those questions? Has to instill just a bit of fire and faith in what’s to come.