Drew Doughty nominates for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy

A little news in the early morning, insider!

The Los Angeles Chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) announced today that defender Drew Doughty is the La Kings candidate for Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy 2025.

For those who do not know, “Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is an annual award as part of the trust of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association and is” awarded the National Hockey League player who best illustrates the qualities of endurance, sportiness and commitment to hockey. “

Doughty was one of 32 players in the NHL today to get the nomination, with each team in the NHL being nomination.

I am not sure whether his nomination is particularly surprising, right? Not that I have a say in this matter, but it would be difficult to think in a different direction that would have been the vote if I had done it.

In the training camp, Doughty broke the ankle during his first exhibition game in Las Vegas and left his season and the La Kings’s wealth quite unknown. With all the changes in the season, Doughty was expected to be the consistent presence as a RD1 that would help the team that these changes in the early stages of the season. With this constant extinction, it was certainly a massive unknown.

His season goals have just changed for Doughty. The veteran defender worked away from the team for almost four months. In the gym, rehabilitation every day that took time to recover. Some really challenging days in there. When the kings took to the streets for weeks, Doughhty was in Los Angeles, Rehabbing, worked alone and tried to work back. There was no quick process, although the road at the front felt even slower than it actually was.

At the end of January he finally returned to the Panthers in Florida. He played in this game and the next five of the teams and showed the ability to play at least in a good part of his usual level. With this secured person, he was selected as a injury replacement for Team Canada at the 4 Nations view areas and won another gold medal in a career of gold medals. From there, Doughty played for the Kings in all of the Kings and collected 17 points (4-13-17) from 28 games in this period. If you project these figures over 82 games, it is another 50-point season for Doughhty that corresponds to the overall point of the last season. If you have this Doughty, he played with less than 100 percent and recognized that even a 50-point pace is 100 percent, what does that say about the player to publish a total number that would lead his team a lot without playing the full strength? In my opinion says a lot.

Doughty himself said that he did not expect to win the master tone. He actually pointed out the fact that he did not feel that he played at a high level when he came back from the injury. Perhaps the process of coming back is the most important thing, not necessarily performance. He called it a “hard year” and that doesn’t even tell the whole story. And again, if a 50-point pace with an assessment of +9 is no longer predictable and in a team that he played 18-9-1, then imagine what is for a par. The kings have a point percentage of 0.661 in games that Doughy played, compared to 0.612 with Douthty Out. Sounds pretty worthy for me.

Jim Hiller about Drew Doughty’s achievements this season
For me he had a lot of career highlights in his résumé. This has come back for me and played 4 nations in the tournament because he is just about each of them because they went through. People know that he is injured and he rehabilitates, but what he had to go through, this commitment, I hadn’t expected that he could play in this short Nettel in this tournament. He is really a unique player, one of the best of his generation and this year he showed us the commitment from the ice and how much it means for him. I know that he wanted to play how much it means for him and like a guy, especially a defender, when everyone said it is some of the fastest hockey they have ever played on the ice with 10 days to play at this level? I don’t know that there is a lot to say, just an incredible personal performance. If you know Drew, there is no one who loves the game or more and everything that goes with it. So there was a physical component and a mental component that he really changed.

From the official publication of the team –

The 35 -year -old Doughty was shortly before the beginning of his 17th NHL season after a broken ankle and band damage when he opened the first pre -season of the Kings in Vegas last September. Doughty missed the first 48 games of the regular season before gave his debut in Florida on January 29, where he led all Kings skaters with 23:51 minutes on time (toi).

After Doughty returned to the line-up in six games, Team Canada selected her home country at the Face-Off 2025 4 Nations, where he recorded an assist in four games. Of his 28 games this season, Doughty, as part of a team high of 24:18 minutes toi/GP average, has an average of 24 minutes or more in Toi, including a season high of 31:09 minutes on April 8th.

On March 27, Doughty ran in his 1,200. Career -NHL game and was the first defender in the team history and the 39th BlueLiner in the history of the league. In 1,205 games of the regular season, Doughty achieved 160 goals and 686 points (160-526 = 686) with a cumulative plus-69 rating. His templates, points, even goals (77), overtime goals (8) and game -gaming goals (34) exceed all defenders in the history of Kings, while his 160 goals shy away to bind Rob Blake for most of all time. The 1,205 games of the veteran Blueliner are the fifth highest games that a defender played for a single franchise.

Doughty, a two-time Stanley Cup champion at the Kings in 2012 and 2014, received numerous awards about his career, including two Olympic gold medals (2010, 14), a 4-nation-face championship (2025), a Norris Trophäe (2016; 3x finalist) and five NHL-All-Star nods (2014-19).

Denver, Colorado – March 27: Drew Doughty #8 The Los Angeles Kings watch in the game against the Colorado Avalanche in the Ball Arena on March 27, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/Nhli about Getty Images)