The NHL season is quickly approaching. To speed up the wait until the puck finally drops on the season, I’ll be previewing one team every day. I’ll be going one division at a time and publishing these in the order I think they’ll finish from first to worst. I’m currently going through the Pacific Division.

Last year’s finish: 4th in Pacific Division

Playoffs: Eliminated in first round

Predicted finish: 4th in Pacific Division (wild card)

Last year’s Los Angeles Kings were arguably one of the worst teams to make the playoffs in NHL history.

The Kings won just 35 games (including 22 regulation), farmed loser points by setting a new league record for overtimes losses in a season with 20 and made the playoffs as the last team in because somebody had to be the second wild-card team in the Western Conference. The Kings were then unceremoniously swept in the first round by Colorado.

There will be some new faces for the Kings this year. Longtime star Anze Kopitar retired at the end of the season, and Los Angeles has a new coach in Peter Laviolette. But while there’s still enough talent here to potentially make the playoffs in a weak Pacific Division, the Kings seem destined for another middle-of-the-road season.

The Kings were maybe a little bit better than their record said they were last year, considering that they were 10th in the league in expected goals share at five-on-five. But Los Angeles was just 23rd in expected goals generated per 60 minutes at five-on-five, couldn’t buy a goal and struggled at both ends of the ice on special teams. Even with some regression on the goal-scoring front — the Kings underperformed their expected goals by nearly 23 goals at all strengths — there’s not a ton here to get excited about, but there’s also enough talent on the roster that the Kings shouldn’t be bad, either.

With Kopitar retiring, all eyes are on Quinton Byfield, the second overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Byfield’s production doesn’t jump off the page like you’d hope for a former second overall pick, and his points per 60 minutes dropped last year from 2.15 the year prior to 1.86. But the environment in Los Angeles wasn’t necessarily conducive to offensive production last year, and there are a lot of encouraging signs in Byfield’s underlying numbers. Byfield will be the Kings’ top-line center this year, but they weren’t afraid to give him tough competition last year. He’s a well-rounded center, and maybe this is finally the year that he puts it together and becomes a bona fide top-line center.

The Kings’ offense did get a much-needed shot in the arm when they acquired Artemi Panarin midseason. In just 300 minutes together, the line of Panarin, Kopitar and Adrian Kempe had 57.7 percent of the expected goals while outscoring opponents by nine. If Byfield can step in for Kopitar and operate at a similar level, the top of the Kings’ lineup will be in good shape. In addition to Panarin’s history of high-end offense, Kempe has scored at least 35 goals in four of the last five seasons.

The problem is there are a lot of questions elsewhere, especially with Kevin Fiala on the shelf to start the year. Whether it’s Alex Turcotte or Erik Haula, do the Kings have anyone who can handle being a second-line center? Do the Kings have anyone who can generate offense aside from the top line? What does Mats Zuccarello have left in the tank at 39 years old? Getting Fiala back eventually will help a lot, but the Kings just don’t have enough juice offensively.

Defensively, the Kings have two great options in Drew Doughty and Brandt Clarke. Doughty is still Drew Doughty and can still be a shutdown defenseman, but Clarke broke out last year. With Clarke on the ice at five-on-five, the Kings had a 53 percent expected goals share and a plus-22 goal differential, thanks in part to improved defense on Clarke’s part.

But the Kings’ defensive group thins out pretty quickly after that. Mikey Anderson, at his best, is a defensive defenseman who struggles offensively. Brian Dumoulin, Joel Edmundson and Cody Ceci are all aging defensemen who can’t be trusted to play anything more than a bottom-pairing role. The Kings were one of the league’s best defensive teams at five-on-five last season, but between not having Kopitar anymore and an aging defense, that might change this year.

If there’s one thing that sticks out about the Kings, it’s how old this team is. Per PuckPedia, the Kings are the oldest team in the league in terms of average age at 31.3. That doesn’t account for playing time, but Zuccarello (39), Doughty (36), Dumoulin (35), Haula (35) and Panarin (34) could all play significant minutes. Plus, Corey Perry is back at 41 years young. For a team that went through a rebuild in the not-distant past, it’s terrifying.

That’s not even mentioning a goaltending tandem of 36-year-old Darcy Kuemper and 33-year-old Anton Forsberg. Kuemper has been all over the place in the last five seasons, recording two seasons with at least 23 goals saved above expected (and 15 in another) but finishing in the negatives twice in that span. That includes a minus-4.59 last year. The Kings should be alright in the goaltending department, but they might not steal a ton of games.

With Kopitar’s retirement, it feels like the Kings missed out on their window. Los Angeles should be a team in transition, but this is a team full of aging, grizzled veterans. It’s not all gloom and doom in Los Angeles, as there is talent on this roster. And it’s not as if there’s a ton of competition for the wild-card spots in the Western Conference. But even if the Kings make it back to the playoffs, that feels like the ceiling.

Advanced stats are from Hockey Stats