Doughty said Friday that the Kings should improve the roster by signing free agents or by trading draft picks and prospects to build around center Anze Kopitar, forward Dustin Brown, goalie Jonathan Quick and himself, the four players remaining from the Kings' 2012 and 2014 Stanley Cup championship teams.
"Me and 'Kopi,' 'Quickie,' 'Brownie,' we're all getting older," Doughty said. "We all had, I thought, phenomenal seasons, but we're running out of time. You've got two of the best players at their position (Kopitar and Doughty), both ways, two of the most complete players at the position. And with all this [NHL salary] cap room, yeah, we've got to bring guys in. That's it, for sure. There's no point just waiting for these prospects to develop when you've got guys in their prime, guys that are hungry to win and guys that are sick of losing so, yeah, we've got to bring guys in."
Doughty is 31 years old, Kopitar is 33, Quick is 35 and Brown is 36.
The Kings (21-28-7) finished sixth in the eight-team Honda West Division, 14 points behind the fourth-place St. Louis Blues. The top four teams qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It is the third straight season the Kings have missed the playoffs. Since winning the Cup in 2014, they have won one playoff game, in a five-game loss to the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 Western Conference First Round.
The Kings transitioned into rebuilding during the 2018-19 season and began trading players from their championship teams, including defenseman Jake Muzzin and forwards Tanner Pearson, Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Carter, to acquire draft picks and young players while freeing up space under the salary cap.
Doughty said the trade of Carter to the Pittsburgh Penguins on April 12 coincided with a loss of confidence that caused Los Angeles fall out of playoff contention this season. The Kings were seventh in the division but five points out of a playoff spot the day of the trade; they were 5-9-1 after it.
"I don't know if that's when it did happen, but it kind of seemed like after that happened everything kind of went backwards," Doughty said. "It wasn't that we didn't believe in each other or anything like that. We were playing some good teams. I mean, playing [the] Colorado [Avalanche] all those games (four of their final five), one of the best teams in the League, those were tough games, tough pill to swallow. We didn't even have a chance, like not even close, so those were tough to swallow. But, yeah, I mean we've got to get better."
Kopitar led Los Angeles with 50 points (13 goals, 37 assists) in 56 games this season and scored his 1,000th NHL point May 5. Doughty scored 34 points (eight goals, 26 assists) in 56 games; his 0.61 points per game was the fourth-highest of his 13-season NHL career.
With Kopitar and him each producing at a high level, Doughty said he believes this offseason is the right time for the Kings to bring in proven NHL players.
"That's the bottom line, that's what we need," Doughty said. "All the individual players need to get better over the summer, stuff like that, but as a team we just need to be better and get better. That's not just on the players."
Kopitar, the Kings captain, said, "I think there's no secret that this summer is going to be very important for us from all standpoint of views really, whether that's obviously developing younger guys, maybe bringing some guys in. So it should be very exciting for everybody, and we'll see what happens."
