Day 8 Camp Primer – Today’s Alignment, as we wait for a Doughty update

It’s amazing how one play in a preseason game changes the entire approach to a day of content. When it comes to preseason hockey, there isn’t a ton of good amazings to be had.

I had a plan coming in. A plan for some ideas and storylines for today, tomorrow and Saturday, leading into the next preseason game against Anaheim. And then last night happened.

Right now, the only storyline we all need the answer to is that of defenseman Drew Doughty, who left yesterday’s preseason win over Vegas with a lower-body injury. As of this writing, the extent of that injury is not known. We saw the play happen early in the first period and Doughty was ruled out for the night by the end of the first period. After the game, Head Coach Jim Hiller was not able to further the update on the lower-body injury but added that Doughty would be evaluated by Kings medical personnel today, with the team now back on home soil. Nothing out of the ordinary there with the process, but nothing in terms of an update either. External reports had a diagnosis from last night, but the Kings will wait for their own medical staff to run their own procedures today.

We do know now that Doughty will not participate in today’s practice session, with his medical evaluation set for today. We’ll speak with Hiller once again after today’s practice and see what sort of an update there is, if any, on Doughty’s status. We may not get a formal update until Friday, which was the timeline we saw with Arthur Kaliyev’s injury. Kaliyev suffered the fractured clavicle on Friday, was evaluated further on Saturday and we had an official designation on Sunday. Will follow up as more is known.

A play like that, with fate unknown, would suck regardless of who it is. When it’s a team leader and an elite player like Doughty, there’s a collective breath held. Tanner Jeannot put it pretty bluntly after last night’s game – “it sucks”. When I asked Warren Foegele about last night’s game, his answer did not pertain to the game at all. It was empathy and concern for a teammate who suffered an injury.

“I think the first thought is we’re thinking about Drew,” Foegele said “Obviously, he’s a really big part of this team and you know, you don’t like to see anyone get hurt, especially during preseason. So think those are our first thoughts.”

I think a lot of people emphasized with the situation like Foegele did. And a lot of us put it bluntly like Jeannot did. It sucks to see it. While we don’t know the extent of the injury, it sucks for Doughty to go through it at all, especially as he seemed so optimistic coming into the season about a new approach and attitude of the club. Optimistic about leading this group of defensemen and about helping a younger player like Brandt Clarke grow and develop under his tutelage.

It sucks because no matter what plans you make, if Doughty isn’t available, you can’t just replace him. He’s an elite defensemen and if you had a replacement for him, he’d already be in the lineup. Doughty has been remarkable durable throughout his career, so if there’s a guy you’d bet on health wise, he’s at the top of the list. If he’s good, it’s good and we’ll all release that collective breath. If not, as we learn a potential timeline for a return, it’s not just my content plan that changes. The plan that the front office and coaching staff has in place changes as well and it’s back to the drawing board with a new approach. More on that to come, if it is needed, when we get a better sense of where Doughty is at.

For today, as noted above, Doughty is not expected to practice with the Kings today. Below is the expected alignment for the group today on Day 8.

Group A
Forwards (15) – Adrian Kempe, Tanner Jeannot, Anze Kopitar, Trevor Moore, Alex Laferriere, Alex Turcotte, Samuel Fagemo, Kevin Fiala, Phillip Danault, Akil Thomas, Warren Foegele, Andre Lee, Quinton Byfield, Trevor Lewis, Samuel Helenius

Defensemen (8) – Andreas Englund, Joel Edmundson, Kyle Burroughs, Jordan Spence, Joe Hicketts, Mikey Anderson, Vladislav Gavrikov, Brandt Clarke

Goaltenders (2) – David Rittich, Darcy Kuemper

Group B
Forwards (17) – Tyler Madden, Jeff Malott, Martin Chromiak, Jacob Doty, Quinn Olson, Jack Studnicka, Charles Hudon, Glenn Gawdin, Shawn Element, Patrick Moynihan, Jake Wise, Bryce Brodzinski, Francesco Pinelli, Aatu Jamsen, John Parker-Jones, Kaleb Lawrence, Koehn Ziemmer

Defensemen (9) – Jacob Moverare, Luke Rowe, Jack Millar, Jakub Dvorak, Reilly Walsh, Parker Berge, Dru Krebs, Angus Booth, Caleb Jones

Goaltenders (3) – Erik Portillo, Pheonix Copley, Dryden McKay

Forward Arthur Kaliyev (fractured clavicle), defenseman Drew Doughty (lower-body injury) and defenseman Cole Krygier (undisclosed) will not practice today.

The Kings re-assigned four players – Liam Greentree, Carter George, Jared Woolley and Matthew Mania – to their respective OHL teams, while forward Arvid Caderoth was released from his ATO.