Kings defenseman Drew Doughty has been named to Team Canada for the first Four Nations Face-Off, officially replacing the injured Alex Pietrangelo on the roster.
The tournament will be held Feb. 12-20. Canada will open against Sweden, which features Kings teammate Adrian Kempe and Leo Carlsson of the Ducks.
For many players from Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland, it’ll be the first time they’ve been able to represent their nations in what the NHL describes as a “best-on-best” tournament, or at least the first time in several years. The last World Cup of Hockey was in 2016 and the league last participated in the Olympics in 2014.
Doughty played in both those tournaments, but his chest hasn’t been adorned with the consecrated maple leaf in the nine years since.
“They know I have experience and how bad I want to be there, how hard I’ll play for that crest,” Doughty said.
This season, he’s been outfitted in black and silver almost as infrequently. He missed 47 games after undergoing surgery to repair a broken ankle during training camp. Doughty, 35, said his mind flashed to not being able to skate for his country immediately after he understood the severity of his injury.
“I think a lot of people had me written off –– do have me written off ––so I’m really proud to make this team,” Doughty said. “Any time (I) put on that (Canada) jersey, it means the world to me.”
Doughty has played in just half a dozen matches in 2024-25, but that included leaping into an arduous stretch of three games in four nights against top Eastern Conference competition. Disregarding any murmurs of an ice-time restriction, he played nearly 24 minutes in his first game back and against the Ducks on Saturday, after he’d already found out he made the Canadian cut, he logged more than 31 minutes in a shootout loss. Both he and his coach thought his immersion should continue while most of the league will be recuperating.
“He’s had enough time off. He wants to play hockey, and I think he needs to. He should. Everyone was going to lock the doors and leave for a while, and he’s just getting started,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “He’ll join us and be in better shape and (with improved) timing. He’s going to go play against the best players in the world, so he’ll sharpen himself right up.”
Doughty appeared to be joining the team as a seventh defenseman, a role familiar to him from the 2010 Olympics, when he won his first of two gold medals. He expanded his role over time and played a superlative final, despite missing the pregame bus. Four years later, he manned a deep, competitive right side that also featured Pietrangelo, Shea Weber and P.K. Subban.
“I’m going to go in there and whatever spot they put me in, I’m going to do my best to play in it,” Doughty said. “If I’m seventh, I’m going to try to move up the lineup just like before.”
Doughty edged out younger players who hadn’t recently sustained serious injuries, including the rival Edmonton Oilers’ Evan Bouchard. Bouchard ranks sixth in scoring by a defenseman this season, and all the other players in the top nine were named to one of the four selections.
“I know I’ve done this for a long time and I know I’m getting older, but I can still do it,” Doughty said. “I’ve still got a lot more in the tank, and I’ve got a lot more better hockey to play, too.”