Declaring your team's most important player is not a simple thing. It's not always the most valuable guy or the highest points producer. It is the player who makes your team go; the one you can't afford to lose, even if all he contributes can't be measured by fancy stats.
Kings' Most Important Player: Drew Doughty, Defenseman
Given how good Drew Doughty is already at age 25, it’s a bit of a shock that he has yet to win the Norris Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s best defenseman.
Check out his litany of accomplishments, amassed in just seven years since breaking into the NHL as a rookie in the 2008-09 season: Two Stanley Cups (2012, 2014), two Olympic gold medals (2010, 2014), twice a Norris finalist (2009-10, 2014-15)
Heck, that’s more than most players dream of over the span of an entire NHL career.
The scary thing is, the London, Ontario native is just entering the prime of his career. Imagine what the future holds. And that is why he remains the most important piece of a Los Angeles Kings team trying to recover from a surprising postseason miss.
Doughty is arguably the most dynamic defenseman in the league -- a physical, sturdy presence at 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds. He can move the puck with finesse and poise, and possesses superb vision. He not only anchors the Kings’ defensive corps, he is a catalyst on offense as well.
The former second overall pick (2008) led all Kings defensemen in scoring last season, putting up 46 points for a team that desperately needed offense as it scratched and clawed to remain in the playoff race. He finished third overall in power-play points (17) and helped his team control 56.6 percent of shot attempts when he was on the ice at even strength, according to hockeyanalysis.com.
During the Kings’ three playoff runs prior to last season, Doughty has had 39 points, seemingly finding an extra gear when it mattered most.
No player for the Kings has done more heavy lifting than Doughty, with his minutes and responsibilities increasing after the loss of Slava Voynov to a suspension that lasted almost the entire season (and remains in place), and numerous injuries to the team’s blue line.
He led the team with a mind-boggling 28:59 of ice time per game (no one else was even close), and appeared in all 82 games. That’s nothing new, though, because Doughty has led the team in average ice time every season since he has been in the league. His durability has been remarkable, too, with only 16 games missed in total during that span.
After a year of devastating off-ice incidents and disciplinary issues for his team, Doughty will have to step up even more this season, with the Kings needing to lean on players like him and first-line center Anze Kopitar to right the ship and get the team back to their winning ways.