Drew Doughty Named Captain of the Los Angeles Kings

Captaincy Latest Chapter in Kings’ Career

Doughty was the frontrunner to wear the “C” after Kopitar retired. The captaincy is just the latest achievement by the Ontario native.

The two-time Stanley Cup champion is the franchise’s all-time leader in goals by a defenseman with 165 and is preparing to begin his 19th NHL season, all of which have come with the Kings.

Doughty, 36, has appeared in 1,279 career games. He enters the season just 17 games away from tying Dustin Brown’s 1,296 games for the second-most in franchise history. He is also only 21 games away from reaching 1,300 for his career, which would make him just the 22nd defenseman in NHL history to reach that mark.

Selected second overall by Los Angeles in the 2008 NHL Draft, Doughty has become one of the most accomplished defensemen to ever play for the franchise. He sits atop nearly every major regular-season category among defensemen in franchise history. Along with his 1,279 games and 165 goals, he has recorded 544 assists and 709 points. He also leads Kings defensemen in even-strength goals (82), even-strength points (394), power-play points (304), overtime goals (8), game-winning goals (34), shots (2,590), multi-point games (134) and multi-assist games (83).

His impact has gone well beyond the scoresheet as well. Doughty also leads Los Angeles defensemen with 2,076 hits, 1,694 blocked shots and 314 takeaways.

Doughty’s longevity also puts him in rare company around the NHL. His 1,279 games are the 26th-most ever played by a defenseman and rank second among active blueliners behind Brent Burns, who has appeared in 1,579 games. Doughty is also one of only a handful of defensemen in league history to play that many games with one franchise, joining Nicklas Lidstrom, Ray Bourque, Marc-Edouard Vlasic and Ken Daneyko.

Kings Also Announce Alternate Captains

Adrian Kempe, Artemi Panarin, and Mikey Anderson have been named alternate captains. Per NHL rules, a team can only have one captain and two alternates, so the team will likely rotate the “A” throughout the season.

Organization Praises New Captain

General manager (GM) and vice president Ken Holland praised the defenseman following the announcement:

“Drew Doughty has earned this. He’s a champion who’s won Stanley Cups and competed at the highest level of this game for a long time, and he’s shown he can lead this team by the way he competes every day. That’s the standard we want to set, and there’s no one better to set it than Drew.”

Doughty represents the next chapter in Kings’ history, but his captaincy is a reminder the standard remains the same. There may be a new “C” in Los Angeles, but the goal is still to raise another Stanley Cup banner.