Before the Los Angeles Kings even started the 2024-25 season, they were faced with one of the biggest challenges they might face all season. Drew Doughty, arguably their second-most important player behind Anze Kopitar, would suffer a lower-leg injury during a preseason game that would force him to miss months.
For everything considered, the Kings have done a good job to this point of the season without Doughty. The good news for the Kings is that the former Norris Trophy winner could be returning sooner rather than later.
Drew Doughty to travel with Los Angeles Kings on upcoming road trip
Drew Doughty is already back and practicing with the Los Angeles Kings and according to Dennis Bernstein with The Fourth Period, Doughty is expected to play at some point during the upcoming road trip.
Based on post game conversations, expect Drew Doughty to play at some point on Kings 5 game road trip starting Saturday.
— Dennis Bernstein (@DennisTFP) January 23, 2025
Coach Jim Hiller is optimistic that 8 will play before Kings return home Feb 5 v Montreal.
After their win over the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night, the Kings are set to play in a five-game road trip that starts on Saturday in Columbus against the Blue Jackets. They will then have a game on Monday night against Detroit, and former Los Angeles Kings head coach Todd McLellan, before back-to-back games against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning. The Kings end their road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes two nights later on Saturday, February 1st.
At this point, with Doughty no longer in a non-contact jersey at practice, the focus will be getting his conditioning up and ready to play. It is hard to imagine that the Kings would want him to play a back-to-back so early in his return so Thursday against the Lightning would be a realistic return date for Doughty.
This would help spread the games out and he would have at least one day rest over the next four games before his first back-to-back occurring after they return home for games against the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks on February 7th and 8th.
The return of Drew Doughty is going to be a huge boost for this Los Angeles Kings, both on defense but also on their power play, as they hope to build momentum going into the second half of the season.