Drew Doughty nominated for Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

A little bit of early morning news, Insiders!

The Los Angeles chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) announced today that defenseman Drew Doughty is the LA Kings’ nominee for the 2025 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

For those unaware, “the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is an annual award under the trusteeship of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and is given “to the National Hockey League player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey.”

Doughty was one of 32 players around the NHL today to receive the nomination, with each team in the NHL having one nomination.

I’m not sure that his nomination is particularly surprising, right? Not that I have a say in the matter, but hard to think of another direction the vote would have gone if I did.

In training camp, during his first exhibition game of the fall, Doughty broke his ankle in Las Vegas, leaving his season and the fortunes of the LA Kings fairly unknown. For all of the changed entering the season, Doughty was expected to be the consistent presence as RD1 that would help the team through that those changes in the early stages of the season. With that constant wiped out, it was certainly a massive unknown.

For Doughty, his season objectives changed just like that. The veteran defenseman spent nearly four months working away from the team. In the gym each day, slowly rehabbing an injury that would take time to recover from. Some really challenging days in there. As the Kings hit the road for weeks at a time, Doughty was in Los Angeles, rehabbing, working alone, trying to work his way back. It was not a quick process in doing so, with the road ahead feeling even slower than it actually was.

Finally, in late-January, he made his return in Florida against the Panthers. He played in that game and the team’s next five, showing an ability to play at least at a good portion of his usual level. With that secured, he was selected as an injury replacement for Team Canada at the 4 Nations Faceoff, winning yet another gold medal in a career of gold medals. From there, Doughty has played in all but two games for the Kings, collecting 17 points (4-13-17) from 28 games played in that span. If you project those numbers over 82 games, it’s another 50-point season for Doughty, matching last season’s total point-for-point. When you factor in that Doughty has been playing at less than 100 percent for his entire time back, acknowledging that himself……if a 50-point pace is not 100 percent, what does that say about the player to be able to post totals that would lead his team, by a lot, while not playing at full strength? Says a lot, in my opinion.

Doughty said himself that he doesn’t expect to win the Masterton. He actually pointed to the fact that he doesn’t feel that he played at a high enough level when he came back from the injury. Perhaps, though, the process of coming back is what is most important, not necessarily the performance. He called it a “tough year” and that doesn’t even tell the full story. And again, if a 50-point pace with a +9 rating isn’t up to par, playing on a team that is 18-9-1 in the games that he has played, then imagine what up to par is. The Kings have a points percentage of .661 in games Doughty has played, compared to .612 with Doughty out. Sounds pretty worthy to me.

Jim Hiller on Drew Doughty’s accomplishments this season
For me, he’s had a lot of career highlights on his resume. This, getting back and playing in the 4 Nations tournament, to me, ranks up there with as good as any of them, because of what he went through. People know he’s hurt and he’s rehabbing, but what he had to go through, that commitment, I didn’t expect him to be able to play in that tournament, on that short nice. He’s truly a unique player, one of the best of his generation and this year, he showed us the commitment off the ice and how much it means to him. I know he wanted to play, how much it means to him and how a guy, especially a defenseman, when everybody has said it’s some of the fastest hockey they’ve ever played, with 10 days on the ice, to play at that level? I don’t know that there’s much to say, just an incredible personal achievement. If you know Drew, there’s nobody who loves the game or enjoys his teammates more and everything that goes with it. So, there was a physical component and there was a mental component, which he really changed.

From the team’s official release –

Doughty, 35, was sidelined just before the start of his 17th NHL season after suffering a fractured ankle and ligament damage on his opening shift of the Kings’ first preseason game in Vegas last September. Doughty missed the first 48 games of the regular-season before making his debut on Jan. 29 in Florida where he led all Kings skaters with 23:51 minutes of time-on-ice (TOI).

Six games after returning to the lineup, Doughty was selected by Team Canada to represent his home country at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off where he was victorious while recording one assist in four games. Of his 28 games played this season, Doughty has averaged 24 minutes or more in TOI as part of a team-high 24:18 minutes of TOI/GP average, including a season-high 31:09 minutes on April 8 vs. Anaheim.

On March 27, Doughty skated in his 1,200th career NHL game, becoming the first defenseman in team history, and the 39th blueliner in league history, to reach that mark. In 1,205 career regular-season games, Doughty has recorded 160 goals and 686 points (160-526=686) with a cumulative plus-69 rating. His assists, points, even-strength goals (77), overtime goals (8) and game-winning goals (34) pace all defensemen in Kings history while his 160 goals sit one shy of tying Rob Blake for most all-time. The veteran blueliner’s 1,205 games are the fifth-most games played by a defensemen for a single franchise.

A two-time Stanley Cup Champion with the Kings in 2012 and 2014, Doughty has earned numerous accolades over his career, including two Olympic gold medals, (2010, 14), one 4 Nations Face-Off Championship (2025), one Norris Trophy (2016; 3x finalist) and five NHL All Star nods (2014-19).