It’s safe to say that the Los Angeles Kings are well on their way into clinching a playoff berth for the fourth straight season, but what will it take for them to advance past the first round?

Defensive cornerstone and future Hall of Famer Drew Doughty is expected to rejoin the team next week. It’s unknown when he will be ready to play again, though it’s looking likely that the Kings have him again at some point in the regular season once the back-to-back 50-point scorer returns to action.

Doughty has missed the entire 2024-25 season so far because of a broken ankle that he sustained in the preseason.

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Los Angeles is in a groove to begin the 2025 calendar year, having won five of its last seven tilts and shutting down opposing teams to a 2.41 goals against average per game, which ranks No. 1 overall in the NHL.

So Doughty’s return may not be an imminent need for defensive lapses, but his scoring touch as one of the game’s best offensive defenseman of the century will help boost some soft output.

Despite the Kings holding the second-best expected goals rate at 5-on-5 per Moneypuck.com, they have scored the 25th-most goals on the year.

The first major impact that Doughty will add is that once he is back in the mix, his presence should reshape the defensive lineup, potentially pushing players with strong seasons into reduced roles. The Kings’ goaltending is much to thank for why it’s been difficult to score on them; the team allows the single-most shots on goal per game.

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Secondly, Doughty’s fierce shot as the quarterback of the power play can aid a Kings unit that is converting at a measly 14.9% rate, which ranks them at No. 29.

As mentioned above, Doughty is still good for 50 points even well into his thirties, and a lot of that is via his prowess on the power play. Doughty brings a more significant shooting threat than young defenseman Brandt Clarke. However, the Mikey Anderson-Doughty pairing might not offer much of an upgrade over the current duo of Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov.

While Doughty’s return should soothe some of these power-play issues and bolster the Kings as a 5-on-5 threat, it won’t account for fixing all of the ongoing offensive inconsistencies.

With Doughty’s substantial salary coming off the LTIR pool, general manager Rob Blake will need to get creative ahead of the trade deadline to really rectify the production shortage.

“The magnitude of Dewy going down, I don’t think it can be just one guy that can shoulder the burden,” captain Anze Kopitar said back in September. “It’ll be a lot of us to step up and pull a little extra weight.”

The Kings certainly have done that in Doughty’s stead. Can they keep the efforts alive until his return?

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