EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The Kings returned to the playoffs last season after a three-year absence, and Drew Doughty didn’t play one minute of their seven-game series against the Edmonton Oilers because of season-ending wrist surgery. It reduced one of the game’s fiercest competitors to cheerleader status.
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This year, Doughty has remained healthy. The 33-year-old continues to play at a high level and sees another opportunity to return to the kind of games that have helped shape his illustrious career. With the Kings sitting in a playoff spot and reportedly in the hunt for another potential impact defenseman, Jakob Chychrun, Doughty is an interested party in general manager Rob Blake’s opportunity to boost their chances toward a Stanley Cup run in the two weeks before the March 3 trade deadline.
“I’m not going to say we have the team in here to do it right now,” Doughty said. “It’s whatever the GM thinks, whatever the coaches think. But we have a very good team in here. I am confident that with this group we already have that we can go deep in the playoffs. I mean, it’s impossible to say, ‘Can you win a Cup? Can you not win a Cup? Can you win a series or not?’
“But, yeah, I’m open to adding guys. I’m open to staying the way we are. It’s just really whatever they think.”
Blake spent Wednesday night at the team’s “state of the franchise” event, in which Kings fans gathered downtown at Microsoft Theater to mingle and take pictures with players. They also got to listen to the GM and applaud his locking up of Mikey Anderson on an eight-year contract extension worth $33 million. That was one bit of an important business done on a left-shot defenseman, ensuring the 23-year-old will be a tough-minded fixture on their blue line — perhaps even a potential captain one day.
There is still the other important business that’s hovering over the club. Chychrun has been held out of game action for nearly a week and the Kings are believed to have been in discussions that don’t include Quinton Byfield or Brandt Clarke. It isn’t clear if their 2023 or 2024 first-round picks are on the table but Arizona is clearly aiming for at least one, along with quality prospects.
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A potential Plan B option is pending Columbus free agent Vladislav Gavrikov, who was also held out of the Blue Jackets’ game against New Jersey on Tuesday for “trade-related reasons.” Gavrikov is more likely to be a rental and would theoretically come at a lower cost. But it’s clear that the prize is Chychrun, who is only 24 and would give the Kings a terrific skater with a booming shot from the back end for the rest of this season and two more.
Blake naturally couldn’t talk specifics or bring up Chychrun, as that would risk tampering charges. But he did address adding to his team. And he is in position to make his first deadline trade that could impact their standing as a postseason hopeful, if not increase their chances of being a real threat — as long as they get in.
“We’d like to if it fits the right way,” Blake said. “I think we’re real comfortable where we are sitting right now. I think the guys have played well. Getting these injured guys back (Trevor Moore and Arthur Kaliyev have returned, Gabriel Vilardi is expected to return shortly), I think, solidifies the forward group and how they slot in there. We really haven’t had that since probably the first couple weeks of the season. That’ll be nice to get that going.
“I think every team come deadline, they’re always exploring all different options. And if there’s something – the one thing to be clear, it has to make our team better. We’re not taking away from this team anymore.”
That was about the extent of where Blake would go when it came to talking trade-related discussions in rare public comments. The Kings seemingly would need to send a contract or two back to Arizona to fit in Chychrun’s $4.6 million salary cap number, as they’re tight against the ceiling this season. And that may be what some of the haggling with the Coyotes is over. Arizona GM Bill Armstrong has been holding out for a high return on Chychrun, who has 28 points in 36 games and is a plus-8 on a bottom-dwelling team. Armstrong has the cap room to take on contracts but that also means he’ll ask for more.
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And Blake isn’t eager to bust up a good thing on his current roster. The Kings have come out of the All-Star break with a rousing 6-0 win over Pittsburgh on Dustin Brown night and followed up with handling Buffalo by a 5-2 count. He lauded Sean Durzi for handling the tough assignment of playing on his off side and credited Matt Roy with being a stable partner for Durzi and others who have rotated through on the second pairing. He’d also like to finally balance out the defense for coach Todd McLellan and assistant Trent Yawney with another high-quality left-handed shot to go with Anderson in the top four.
“You don’t want to bring something in that’s going to throw that mix off,” Blake said. “I think we have a good mix right now and I think they’re real comfortable in Todd’s style. To bring anything in there, it has to improve our team without taking anything out of that lineup. It has to add to that team to make it better.”
When asked about the concept of rewarding an outfit knee-deep in a four-team battle for the Pacific Division title, Blake deflected and said, “Signing Mikey Anderson is rewarding that club.”
Anderson is now the longest-contracted member of the Kings, as he is signed through 2030-31. He marveled at that fact. A 10-team no-trade clause kicks in 2026-27, when he initially could have become an unrestricted free agent. But the Kings made it clear that they view him as a core piece, part of a group that includes other long-term signees Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe, Phillip Danault, Moore and Alex Iafallo behind the franchise titans, Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Jonathan Quick.
“It doesn’t feel like that ever considering the fact you got Quickie and Kopi, all those guys that have been here for their whole career,” Anderson said. “But obviously we’ve got a great group of young core players. I’m just happy that I get to be here with them for the time being. Continue to keep moving the group forward and try and get back to where those guys were 10 years ago.”
Now can Blake do that on his end? He got Fiala, and the winger has delivered. But that was in the offseason. This is about pulling off a trade that could change his team’s fortunes in-season.
“That’s always a tough question,” Fiala said, talking on what adding a player to the room would mean. “I think it’s the wrong one to ask. It’s not my business. I’m just a player here who plays the game and goes on. So does everybody else here. We just try to focus on our game and take it day by day. We can’t control that stuff.”
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But Doughty, who has lifted the Cup twice, distinctly feels a move is inevitable. Just because.
“We’re going to have to make something happen because we’ve got too many guys coming up, too,” Doughty said. “Too many good d-men, especially. Too (many) right-handed shots. Something’s going to eventually happen, I would think. Maybe in the offseason.”
Or maybe now.
(Photo of Mikey Anderson, Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar: James Guillory / USA Today)
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