The LA Kings have announced their 2026-27 Opening Night active roster, which features 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders. A full roster can be found **here**.
Forwards (13): Joel Armia, Quinton Byfield, Erik Haula, Samuel Helenius, Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere, Scott Laughton, Andre Lee, Trevor Moore, Artemi Panarin, Corey Perry, Alex Turcotte and Mats Zuccarello.
Defensemen (7): Mikey Anderson, Cody Ceci, Brandt Clarke, Drew Doughty, Brian Dumoulin, Joel Edmundson and Erik Gustafsson.
Goaltenders (2): Anton Forsberg and Darcy Kuemper.
As part of today’s roster announcement, defenseman Kirill Kirsanov was loaned to the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, while forward Kevin Fiala remains on injured reserve (IR).
The active roster features 19 players who skated in at least one game for the Kings last season, led by two-time Stanley Cup Champion and the franchise’s all-time leader in goals by a defenseman (165), Drew Doughty, who is set to return for his 19th NHL season. Doughty enters the 2026-27 campaign 17 games away from tying Dustin Brown (1,296) for the second-most games played in franchise history and 21 games from becoming the 22nd different blueliner in NHL history to reach the 1,300-career game mark.
Doughty is joined by Adrian Kempe, last year’s Bill Libby Memorial Award winner as the Kings’ Most Valuable Player after leading the team in nearly every offensive category, including goals (36), assists (37), points (36-37=73), game-winning goals (8), shots on goal (226), overtime goals (4), shootout goals (6), multi-goal games (6), and multi-point games (16). Kempe’s pacesetting totals were partially fueled by his career-long seven-game road point streak (5-6=11) from Oct. 11-28, 2025. Also on the roster is the team’s Most Outstanding Defenseman last season, Brandt Clarke, who set new career-highs in games played (82), goals (8), assists (32), points (8-32=40), power-play points (13), shots on goal (159), time-on-ice per game (19:48), and game-winning goals (2). He led all Kings blueliners in goals, assists, points, power-play points, and game-winning goals, while his 32 helpers on the campaign were the second-most among all team skaters. The 23-year-old signed a five-year contract through the 2030-31 season this past June.
Forward Artemi Panarin is set to begin his first full season as a member of the Kings following his acquisition on Feb. 4, 2026, from the New York Rangers. Panarin made an immediate impact for the Kings by recording two assists in his debut appearance on Feb. 25 against the Vegas Golden Knights, becoming the third skater in the past 20 years to record multiple assists in his debut with the Kings. In 26 games from his team debut through the end of the regular-season, Panarin was tied with Kempe for the most points in that span with 27 (9-18=27), including a cumulative team-best +9 rating, with seven of those 26 contests being multi-point efforts.
The Kings’ active roster also features several of the team’s offseason additions, highlighted by forwards Mats Zuccarello and Erik Haula, and defenseman Erik Gustafsson. The trio of skaters bring a combined 237 games of Stanley Cup Playoff experience to their first season with the Kings.
The Kings open the 2026-27 season Wednesday, Sept. 30, against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena at 8:00 p.m. MT followed by a visit to the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, Oct. 3, at SAP Center. The team’s Home Opener is slated for Tuesday, Oct. 6, as they host the Florida Panthers at 7:00 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena.