Kings’ Drew Doughty a finalist for Canadian athlete of the year

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty was among the finalists for the 2014 Lou Marsh Trophy, a prestigious award given to Canada’s athlete of the year.

This year’s winner, according to media reports Thursday morning, is Olympic gold medal-winning bobsledder Kaillie Humphries. She was selected by a panel of reporters and editors.

The other finalists were tennis stars Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic and lacrosse player Johnny Powless.

For Doughty, winning the Stanley Cup with the Kings and Olympic gold medal with Team Canada in Sochi, Russia, probably would have trumped the field in almost any other year. But the competition for the Marsh award was especially tough in 2014, notably from the tennis world.

Not only did Bouchard emerge on the world stage -- reaching the Wimbledon final -- but Raonic also made the Wimbledon semifinals and qualified for the season-ending men’s tour championships.

The Marsh award is named after a former sports editor of the Toronto Star. Wayne Gretzky has won it four times, the final time in 1989 when he was with the Kings. Sidney Crosby of the Penguins has won it twice, in 2007 and 2009.

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter @reallisa