Happy Thanksgiving, Insiders!

Have a story on Kevin Fiala’s charitable givebacks coming as well, that would’ve been today’s only story. That’ll probably come now on Sunday but I also wanted to provide a couple of short updates from today’s LA Kings practice that I felt were pressing.

Couple of notes from today’s @LAKings practice –

– Drew Doughty skated on his own earlier this morning. He’s not close yet but today was a “test run” per Jim Hiller as he works his way back.

– Warren Foegele left today’s skate early. No update just yet on 37.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) November 27, 2025

– Defenseman Drew Doughty skated this morning in a non-contact, red jersey. He was on his own, not with the full group, but it’s always just a great sign to see Doughty on the ice as he works his way back from a lower-body injury.

“He went out, put his skates on for the first time,” Jim Hiller said after today’s practice. “I don’t know if it went really well, he’s a ways away, let me say that, it was just kind of a test run for him.”

I don’t think Doughty is all that close in terms of like he’s not going to play this weekend. He’s still on a week-to-week timeline with the lower-body injury. The timeline was always estimated to be on the shorter side of week-to-week, considered to be more like 2-3 weeks than 4-6 and already seeing Doughty back on the ice would jive with that. It’s been just over a week now since we got that update, so he is more than on the proper schedule. So, we’ll keep an eye on Doughty and see where things go from there, but I’d call today encouraging.

– On the other side of things, forward Warren Foegele left today’s practice early and did not return.

“I haven’t talked to [the training staff] yet, but he did leave the ice, so that’s never a good sign when you don’t finish practice,” Hiller added. “So I’ll have to connect with [them], I haven’t yet.”

Don’t know a ton beyond that. As Hiller indicated, it’s never great news when you don’t finish practice and you have to leave the ice early. I didn’t see exactly what happened with Foegele, just saw him on his way off the ice. There was nothing to indicate it was related to the upper-body injury that cost him time earlier this month. Since it had just happened and Hiller spoke with the media just after practice, there just aren’t any real updates to share beyond the fact that he left early. We’ll connect with Hiller again in the morning before the game in Anaheim and see if there is any further update. Should he not be able to go, forwards Alex Turcotte and Jeff Malott are options to check in.

– On Turcotte, Hiller was asked about how him sitting out a game can impact him. Hiller took the question a bit differently, to talk about how he felt Turcotte practiced today. Sometimes players sulk. Sometimes, they get down. Hiller felt that Turcotte specifically responded extremely positively today, with Hiller calling him the standout player from today’s skate.

“I’ll tell you this, because I talked to Turc, only because I noticed that Turc was the hardest working guy in practice. I thought he was the best player in practice today. He was shooting the puck, he was all over everything, you guys saw the drills, scoring goals, so that’s how you respond, right? I mentioned it to him because he stuck out like a sore thumb. He’s got the right attitude and hopefully that translates tomorrow.”

Hiller ending the quote with “tomorrow” is telling, in that it implies that Turcotte will play against the Ducks. It’s not a given he’d be the guy to check back in if Foegele can’t go, but he’s a more like-for-like player than Jeff Malott, who is the other option. Also a chance they both play. That’s putting the cart ahead of the horse, though. For now, just good to hear about his response and I’d expect him back in soon. Turcotte was on the ice late for extra work too, one of the last guys on the ice. Good to see a guy in that position working on his game.

Preview to come tomorrow morning, Insiders! Kings in Anaheim for the first Freeway Faceoff of the season and one of the first games I’d consider to be meaningful between those two teams in some time. Spoke with Corey Perry about that today and who would know better than Perry. More to come!