Kings’ Drew Doughty to undergo ankle surgery, out month-to-month

It looks like the Los Angeles Kings will be without their star blueliner for the foreseeable future. On Friday, the team announced that defenseman Drew Doughty will have surgery to repair a fractured ankle.

While there is no definitive timeline for his recovery, the Kings say Doughty is listed as month-to-month.

Doughty was injured during his team’s preseason matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday. Doughty was going in to angle off Tanner Pearson inside his own blue line. Unfortunately, Doughty fell awkwardly into the boards, with his left leg being contorted. He was helped off the ice and didn’t return to the game.

It was Doughty’s first preseason game this year, as he wasn’t in the lineup for L.A.’s game against the Utah Hockey Club.

Initial x-rays taken shortly after the game showed that the 34-year-old had a fractured left ankle but no structural damage.

Doughty is coming off another productive season at both ends of the rink. The London, Ontario native scored 15 goals in 82 games, the first time since the 2017-18 campaign he scored at least 10 goals in a season. His 50 points marked the second year in a row he hit that mark and the fifth time in his 16-year NHL career.

Doughty also posted a plus/minus of +15, the highest rating he registered in six seasons.

His efforts helped the Kings make it back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the second straight year, losing to the Edmonton Oilers again, this time in five games.

Doughty has appeared in 1,177 games, all with the Kings. He has notched 156 goals and 513 assists for 669 points. He is widely regarded as one of the best two-way defenders of his generation, which earned him the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman in 2016.

Doughty has also scored 57 points in 95 playoff appearances, with his play in the 2012 and 2014 postseasons catapulting the Kings to the franchise’s first two Stanley Cups.