Three questions leap out when assessing the Los Angeles Kings’ first couple weeks of action.
What exactly to make of the Kings and their 2-3-2 start? Will a well-played overtime road victory against the St. Louis Blues kick-start a successful lengthy stretch and a surge up the standings? And is the addition of Corey Perry really what they’ve needed all along?
Hey, in touching on the last one first, the Kings themselves have leaned further into having the winger they once despised.
Imagine telling someone in 2012 that Corey Perry will make his Kings debut tonight
— LA Kings (@LAKings) October 21, 2025
The responses may only represent a fraction of the Kings’ fan base but judging by that alone, the presence of Perry is still a difficult reality to process — and that’s not accounting for a rival 30 miles south whose supporters cheered him on for 14 seasons when he was a high-grade goal scorer and top-shelf nuisance.
Long after he starred as No. 10 for the Anaheim Ducks — a number that hasn’t been worn by a Ducks player since — Perry wore it for the Kings and made his debut Tuesday in their 2-1 win over the Blues to start a five-game road trip. He didn’t add to his career totals of 448 goals and 935 points in his 14:41 of action, but the main reason why the Kings signed him wasn’t because of the numbers he could produce.
“Well, I thought he added a lot,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said of Perry, who made his debut after recovering from knee surgery following an on-ice injury during a pre-camp informal workout. “You guys saw him play. I thought he was dangerous, as dangerous as anybody up front. And the intangible stuff — it’s just good to have him around. He’s a winner and so that rubs off.”
The Kings had their best defensive performance so far as they limited the Blues to just 18 shots on goal. Not only did they resemble the stingier aspects of their most recent seasons, they got the goaltending to back their overall play with Darcy Kuemper returning from injury.
The road trip continues with Thursday night’s stop in Dallas, where the theoretically Stanley Cup-contending Stars are smarting from a 5-1 drubbing at home by the Columbus Blue Jackets, their third straight defeat. Stops include Nashville, Chicago and San Jose — all of whom offer a chance for the Kings to find some consistency and build momentum.
Some have wondered when Hiller will be replaced — or general manager Ken Holland or team president Luc Robitaille — as a response to fan dissatisfaction. Whether that reflects greater Kings fandom is harder to gauge. But the start to this season has been far from ideal and we’ll look at the early developments that have been good, bad and downright ugly.
The good
The best player is starting to cook
Adrian Kempe fired a one-time shot past Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, and then struck a pose, drawing back an imaginary arrow and then letting it fly. Eight of his team-leading nine points have come in four multi-point efforts over the last five games. The perception that he was starting the season off slowly was just that, and yet it feels like he hasn’t been at his absolute best.
Kempe is off to the best start in his 10-year career. The winger’s importance to the Kings already gives him leverage in his extension talks, and that only continues to increase with his production off the jump and stars like Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel and Kyle Connor taking themselves off the potential 2026 free-agent market. Kempe’s agent J.P. Barry told The Athletic on Wednesday that no verbal agreement has been forged and he’s waiting to reengage with Holland. But the longer it drags, the price could continue to rise.
The best young player is always a threat
Quinton Byfield has two goals and four assists in his first seven games. It is a small sample size when projecting what he will do over an 82-game schedule, but he’s playing more than ever — his 19:19 average time on ice is a shade more than Kempe and tops among all Kings forwards — and will have plenty of important situations to move beyond the 50-point territory he’s existed in over the last two seasons.
Can he take that next step and become a 70-point forward or even come near a point per game? The good thing with Byfield is that he’s looking like a dangerous player on virtually every shift and has meshed well with Kevin Fiala, for whom the Kings haven’t always found the right fit. The two can use a right wing that can take advantage of the chances they’ll create. Byfield hasn’t been perfect, but he’s one Kings forward who can put fear in the opposition.
Quinton Byfield has six points in seven games for the Kings. (Jeff Curry / Imagn Images)
A promising start for a young defender
Whatever issues the revamped blue line has had in the early going can’t be laid at the feet of Brandt Clarke. The 22-year-old has been more than commendable in what should be a second-pairing role with Joel Edmundson, but the minutes still haven’t reflected someone playing a critical part of their blue line. His offensive gifts aren’t being used to their advantage.
One can point right at the last two games, where Clarke’s ice time hasn’t reached the 15-minute mark. Hiller lauded how far he has come along as a defender in his own end, but the trust doesn’t feel complete when he is last out of the six in playing time. Clarke doesn’t play when the Kings are short-handed and he shares second power-play unit time with Drew Doughty as neither is part of the five-forward top unit.
The bad
The captain’s injury
Anže Kopitar hit the first bump in his final NHL season as a foot injury knocked him out of the lineup. The Kings originally listed him as week-to-week, and while he missed his third straight contest Tuesday, Kopitar is with the club on the trip and has shed his non-contact red jersey for a regular white one for practice Wednesday. Not having the consistent and reliable two-way pivot, however, is still a big hole to fill.
Kopitar was put on injured reserve to open a spot for Perry to join the lineup. But that is mainly for roster management, and because it can be made retroactive to when he got hurt Oct. 13 in Minnesota, he’s already missed the minimum seven-day time an IR stint requires. The fact he is back on the ice bodes well for him returning to action, possibly as soon as Thursday or at the very least by the time they reach San Jose next week.
Erratic goaltending
While Kuemper tried to get right after picking up a lower-body injury, Anton Forsberg was leaky in a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and better in holding the fort against the Carolina Hurricanes, giving L.A. a chance to come back before falling in overtime. But the 32-year-old so far hasn’t been an upgrade from David Rittich, posting an early .880 save percentage and below-average advanced metrics.
Expecting Kuemper to duplicate his Vezina Trophy-finalist season is a tall ask but his first win in four starts offers encouragement. The Kings didn’t need to turn to Pheonix Copley, whom they got back from Tampa Bay after losing him to the Lightning on a waiver claim. But with a back-to-back upcoming Saturday and Sunday, Forsberg will be back in net and they need him to be better.
Poor starts
An early positive sign for the Kings is they’ve been resilient. On three occasions, they rallied from multi-goal deficits and managed to scratch out four points that could have easily been regulation losses and left them in a bigger hole. Their start is concerning on some levels, but it would be a five-alarm panic if they were 1-6-0 instead.
Saying that, the Kings are one of just three teams that have yet to manage a regulation victory. (The Sharks and Calgary Flames are the others and so we’ll say “woof” to the Pacific Division.) It hasn’t helped that Tuesday’s game was only the third in which they’ve scored first and the win over the Blues was the first time they had a lead after two periods — which disappeared with Justin Faulk’s third-period goal. They’ve simply got to play with the lead more.
The ugly
Penalties and spotty killing thereof
For a while, it was embarrassing for a Kings club that was generally more disciplined than most. October hockey tends to feature more whistles from the referees, but they were shorthanded 22 times in the first four games. Several minors were of the offensive-zone variety. They’ve cut down the trips to the penalty box in the last three games, but 28 minors keep them tied for 10th most.
This is where losing Matt Roy and Vladislav Gavrikov, two heavily used shutdown defenders, to free agency in consecutive summers can make maintaining a top-10 penalty kill a greater challenge. Saturday’s loss to Carolina was the first time the Kings didn’t allow a power-play goal. While they gave St. Louis only three chances, Faulk’s tying goal came on the advantage. It’s just seven games but the Kings are killing them off at a 70 percent clip, putting them 26th.
Cody Ceci tries to put pressure on Carolina’s Jackson Blake. (Luke Hales / Getty Images)
The Dumoulin-Ceci pairing
Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci were the two key signings to fill the holes created by Gavrikov leaving for the New York Rangers and their decision to trade Jordan Spence to the Ottawa Senators. Slotting the two veterans on the third pair made initial sense as both wouldn’t be exposed as much to the opposition’s top forward lines. The more experienced pairs of Doughty with Mikey Anderson and Joel Edmundson with Clarke could handle the heavier stuff.
It was a disaster. Per Natural Stat Trick, Dumoulin and Ceci have played just over 41 minutes together at five-on-five and the Kings were outchanced by a 2-to-1 margin (including 13-4 against in high-danger chances) and outscored 5-0 with them together on the ice. The coaching staff does get credit for breaking them up and both have been better with Dumoulin paired with Doughty and Ceci teamed with Anderson. But it has not been an auspicious beginning for the multi-year signings that total $30 million.
The disappearance of a core youngster
Alex Laferriere earned a three-year contract extension with an average annual value of $4.1 million on the strength of two seasons where he showed great growth and the promise that he could be a strong complementary winger that can pop for 20 or more goals. The 23-year-old’s backhand finish in the second period Tuesday after a Kempe-forced turnover showed the scoring potential he has matched with his straight-line game.
The problem is that it was Laferriere’s first goal and point. He isn’t the first young player to start slowly and he’s a worker that can be useful without scoring. But he had 19 goals and 42 points last season in 77 games. Penciled in to play with Byfield and Fiala after ending 2024-25 with them, Laferriere was replaced by Joel Armia and bumped down to the fourth line. Now tasked with filling Kopitar’s spot centering Kempe and Andrei Kuzmenko, the goal and increased responsibility could be the shot in the arm Laferriere needs.