EL SEGUNDO –– In General Manager Ken Holland’s own oft-repeated words, the Kings know that a repeat of last year’s efforts won’t be good enough to make the playoffs for a sixth straight season.
Of 32 NHL teams, they finished 28th in power-play efficiency, 29th in goals and 30th in penalty-kill percentage. They were 20th in the league-wide standings, qualifying for the 16-team Stanley Cup Playoffs despite a 15-point dip in their total, largely because they played in the weakest division by record.
Holland and company knew changes were needed, and the first one was hiring the Kings’ third coach in a span of less than four months, veteran Peter Laviolette (former coaches Jim Hiller and D.J. Smith landed in Toronto as a head coach, and in Edmonton as an assistant, respectively).
Laviolette brings a new system, but to a roster with no significant changes in goal or on the blue line and some aging patchwork acquisitions up front. He’s had outstanding impact early in his previous coaching tenures –– the Kings are the seventh franchise he has shepherded –– but he steps into a stagnant situation. The Kings have lost in five straight first-round series and only the Detroit Red Wings have gone longer without winning a playoff series.
Here are four burning questions that could shape whether the Kings leap forward, slide back or continue running in place.
Does Laviolette still have Midas touch?
Possessing the seventh most wins in NHL history and the most for an American-born bench boss, Laviolette has padded those numbers in Year 1 of each stint.
The New York Islanders missed the postseason seven years in a row and amassed a meager 52 points the year before he got his first coaching gig, but then finished second in their division to make the playoffs under “Lavy.” After a partial campaign in Carolina, the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup the following season coming out of the 2005 lockout. He took over the Philadelphia Flyers 25 games into 2009-10 and took them to the Stanley Cup Final after a thrilling Game-82 clinch. He got the Nashville Predators back into the playoffs in Year 1 and to the Stanley Cup Final in Year 3. The Washington Capitals qualified for the playoffs in each of his first two seasons in DC, and then he won the Presidents’ Trophy en route to the conference finals in his maiden voyage with the New York Rangers.
Philadelphia, Washington and New York all finished third in power-play efficiency during Laviolette’s first turn at the helm, something he, associate coach Phil Housley and Ray Whitney, who played under Laviolette in Carolina, will attempt to duplicate for a Kings team that was utterly feckless with the man advantage last season.
Adrian Kempe praised the quality and clarity of Laviolette’s communication. A former King who played for Laviolette in both Philadelphia and Nashville lauded his ability to get his players to buy in and give their all.
“Lavy is the ultimate motivator,” Wayne Simmonds said via text. “He’ll have his guys willing to run through a brick wall.”
Can anyone besides Brandt Clarke produce on defense?
The Kings finished dead last in goals by defensemen last year and their six rearguards who played more than one game accounted for a pitifully low 14 goals and just 92 points. The next lowest point total was the Chicago Blackhawks’ 129, meaning Clarke was the difference between the corps’ offensive contribution being poor and being flat-out pitiful.
But in his last two healthy campaigns, 2022-23 and 2023-24, newly minted team captain Drew Doughty hit the 50-point threshold. In training camp, he looked as close to that form physically as anyone has seen since.
The Kings also parted ways with highly reliable but largely unskilled depth defender Jacob Moverare, bringing in power-play capable Erik Gustafsson and 2020 Hobey Baker Award winner Scott Perunovich.
While the Kings’ decision to bring back all six defenders from an offensively inept group that was also atrocious on the penalty kill and gave up nearly half a goal per game more than the year prior was puzzling, some square pegs might fit into round holes. So who might step up in the new system?
“I don’t know. That’s what’s exciting about it, you’re going to see some different skills this year, you’re going to see a different attack and you’re going to see a different ‘D’ corps,” Clarke told SCNG at practice. “It’s going to be a different look to our entire team.”
Who will man up in the middle?
Last season, both Anže Kopitar and Phillip Danault struggled offensively relative to their usual output, but their splits remained outstanding, reflecting their defensive prowess and veteran savvy.
Yet Danault returned to Montreal (and later the conference finals) in December and Kopitar retired in May. The Kings drafted Alex Turcotte fifth overall in 2019, Quinton Byfield second overall a year later and also poured every last drop into acquiring Pierre-Luc Dubois in 2023 in an effort to uncover their next generation of top-six centers.
Yet only Byfield fits the bill after Danault’s demand for a deal, Kopitar’s ride into the Slovenian sunset and a loss-mitigating move of Dubois after just one campaign.
Turcotte is still in the fold and entering a contract year. He has been bogged down by injuries and lost development time that have limited his role, but given that the Kings have two veteran journeymen and work-in-progress pivot Samuel Helenius behind Byfield, there is loads of upward mobility at center, and for Turcotte in particular.
“I know it’s a big year, but I just want to enjoy hockey, have fun with my teammates and get better every day. If you do that, great things will happen,” said Turcotte after scoring two goals and three points in the final preseason game, adding that “the biggest thing is just playing my game and trusting my abilities.”
NHL-proven or AARP-bound?
Perhaps the biggest question for the Kings is why a team that keeps losing in the first round of the playoffs year after year continues to get older and older.
The additions of Mats Zuccarello, Corey Perry and Erik Haula up front have a combined age of 115. In goal, their formidable stable of prospects finds itself behind two players in their mid-30s. Five of their seven roster defensemen are 32 or older, including multiple blue-liners with significant injury histories.
Despite plummeting in the standings (15 points), offensively (14th to 29th in goals) and on the penalty kill (from eighth-ranked to 30th) while also dipping defensively and watching an already feeble power play get worse, the Kings opted to add age rather than turn an eye toward tomorrow.
So, can it all coalesce? At least one young King was optimistic.
“We have guys that are going to step up, we have such great veteran leadership, and we have guys right in their prime that are amazingly talented,” Clarke told SCNG. “It’s definitely a mixed bag, but I think it’s going to come together and work really nicely.”