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Time to start the annual Off Season thread, all things hockey Kings or otherwise. I'll start a new Season Thread in the fall when things get underway.
I'll kick it off with a Kings article from TA. Interesting note was during this entire Kings Colorado series the beat writer Eric Stephens was nowhere to be found.
It was a Colorado guy who put content out and it definitely had Avalanche spin to it but he did nail a bunch of stuff on the Kings too. I know Stephens is spread thin covering all three CA teams but not even producing one article as his main team is playing in the POs was unacceptable.
He has covered the Ducks plenty this series but the last Kings article before today was April 15, the Kings hadn't even started the POs yet.
What the L.A. Kings are doing isn’t working. Is it time to start over?
Even though he never seemed entirely comfortable with the spotlight on him, Anže Kopitar embraced the accolades as Game 4 wound down on Sunday afternoon. The Los Angeles Kings legend let the moment wash over him.
The final minutes of his Hall-of-Fame career — if he isn’t inducted on the first ballot, it would be shameful — included the crowd serenading him with “Thank you, Kopi” chants, and the emotion was evident on Kopitar’s face. A capacity Crypto.com Arena crowd gave him a collective, figurative hug.
Game 4 proved to be a deserving send-off until the day the Kings hoist his No. 11 jersey into the rafters. It also shined a light on an ugly reality this franchise now faces. The four-game sweep by the powerful Colorado Avalanche showed, in stark terms, how far the Kings are from Stanley Cup contention, and how much they’re in need of a reckoning after a fifth consecutive first-round exit.
Unlike the previous four losses to the Edmonton Oilers, there was no mystery to this result. No blown endings to curse over, no lost opportunities to lament. The Kings, to their credit, put up a fight, particularly in two tight, one-goal losses in Colorado. Perhaps that was the best they were capable of. A 5-1 victory Sunday completed the Avalanche’s systematic annihilation of an overmatched foe.
That was necessary. Game 4 allowed Kopitar to say goodbye to his adoring fans instead of making a quiet exit three days later in Denver, but it should also open eyes throughout the Kings’ offices — and those of the Anschutz Entertainment Group ownership team — to a bleak future if no significant course corrections are made.
What they’re doing now isn’t working. Hard questions must be asked at AEG, starting with the viability of team president Luc Robitaille as the one to make the correct decisions about personnel and the strategy to build a winner. Nothing came from shifting into a win-now mindset after going three years without postseason play. Not under former general manager Rob Blake and not so far under his successor, Ken Holland.
The Kings are decidedly worse off than they were a year ago, when they blew their best chance to take down the Oilers and responded by hiring Holland. Being broomed by the Avalanche and put in a dust bin only reinforced the prevailing feeling that missing the playoffs altogether would have been a preferable end to the 2025-26 season.
It isn’t right for NHL teams to throw away seasons. It isn’t fair for them to charge what they do in ticket prices and then purposely not put a competitive product on the ice. But the current system isn’t set up for teams that are too competitive to completely fail, but also aren’t going to realistically challenge for the Stanley Cup. The mushy middle is a bad space to be in, and the Kings have the look of long-time occupants.
There is no draft lottery to look forward to. Their most recent top-10 pick was Brandt Clarke in 2021, the last of a three-year stretch that included Alex Turcotte and Quinton Byfield. None of them has ascended into stardom, although Clarke took some meaningful strides this season.
Another new coach is likely coming in, though D.J. Smith did a commendable job in an interim role by helping the Kings take advantage of their beneficial late-season schedule to get the organization the added revenue of two home playoff games. Whether the keys are handed to someone proven, such as Bruce Cassidy, or a coach getting their first-time NHL shot, they’re not getting a Ferrari of a roster. More like a Toyota Camry that’s seen its best days: still reliable, hardly exciting.
Adrian Kempe starts his eight-year, max-term extension. Artemi Panarin begins his two-year extension. They will eat up a combined $21.6 million of the salary cap. Combine them with Kevin Fiala, missed sorely since he broke his leg at the Olympics — the Kings scored only five goals in the four games against Colorado — and that’s more than $29 million tied up in three forwards. The even bigger issue is that they seem to be the only forwards capable of producing consistently.
Even if Smith likely won’t be around to see it, he said on Sunday that Byfield figures to step into the first-line center role Kopitar long held down. The 23-year-old essentially became their matchup defensive option, and a late surge gave him a career-high 24 goals. Questions remain, though, about whether he raises up his point total as a 1C or whether he will top out as a solid 2C who hovers around 20 to 25 goals and 50 to 55 points.
Byfield is signed long-term, and the options behind him are sketchy, although the Kings could re-sign trade deadline add Scott Laughton. Alex Laferriere is a nice player. Trevor Moore showed he can still be useful. Both are complementary wingers. Andrei Kuzmenko, who played on a one-year contract this season, wasn’t available until Game 3 after tearing his meniscus in late February, but he showed he’s a specialty forward with some skill when healthy. The rest of their forward lineup is composed of grinders.
The Kings aren’t dangerous offensively and their defense corps is far from dynamic. Clarke, 23, has that type of upside. Drew Doughty, now 36, doesn’t. He remains an adept defensive presence but an $11 million cap hit — which he certainly earned — for 23 points doesn’t look good, any way you slice it.
And there isn’t a prized prospect ready to step in next season and make an impact. The closest thing to that, 2024 first-round pick Liam Greentree, was traded to the New York Rangers in the package for Panarin. There isn’t anyone on the AHL divisional champion Ontario Reign who looks like a future top-of-the-lineup fixture. It is a roster filled with high-floor, low-ceiling types.
The Kings also must take a hard look at their philosophy. Their on-ice ethos is responsible hockey, or “playing the right way.” Where has that gotten them over the past half-decade? Or longer? Defense might win championships, but the Avalanche just showed them how a complete roster with superstars and diligent worker bees can do that and still maintain an explosive side. The Kings can still grind out wins, but there weren’t nearly as many as there were in 2024-25, and their risk-averse style increasingly dulled the senses of viewers.
How do they get out of their looming purgatory? Sure, the Kings could try to make another big splash and kick the tires on Robert Thomas, Elias Pettersson or — gasp — Auston Matthews, if Toronto’s captain is determined to move on after a disastrous Maple Leafs season. They could also bide their time and hope Connor McDavid concludes that he can’t win the Stanley Cup in Edmonton.
But the boldest move — and maybe the necessary one, even in a world with an increasing salary cap — is to start over. To date, the Kings have shown no appetite for jettisoning significant contracts and embracing a rebuild for the chance to draft a new franchise-level player — and build an enviable prospect pool around him. Building a new core, the way rivals Anaheim and San Jose have done in recent years, brings hope amid the resulting losses.
Sunday’s game gave the Kings a chance to give Kopitar, one of the last links to their Stanley Cup era, a final salute. But it’s now been a dozen years since their last playoff series win. There’s been nothing to celebrate on a team level since they beat the Rangers for that second championship in three years. It’s time to revamp how they do things and reevaluate who runs the process.
I'll kick it off with a Kings article from TA. Interesting note was during this entire Kings Colorado series the beat writer Eric Stephens was nowhere to be found.
It was a Colorado guy who put content out and it definitely had Avalanche spin to it but he did nail a bunch of stuff on the Kings too. I know Stephens is spread thin covering all three CA teams but not even producing one article as his main team is playing in the POs was unacceptable.
He has covered the Ducks plenty this series but the last Kings article before today was April 15, the Kings hadn't even started the POs yet.
What the L.A. Kings are doing isn’t working. Is it time to start over?
Even though he never seemed entirely comfortable with the spotlight on him, Anže Kopitar embraced the accolades as Game 4 wound down on Sunday afternoon. The Los Angeles Kings legend let the moment wash over him.
The final minutes of his Hall-of-Fame career — if he isn’t inducted on the first ballot, it would be shameful — included the crowd serenading him with “Thank you, Kopi” chants, and the emotion was evident on Kopitar’s face. A capacity Crypto.com Arena crowd gave him a collective, figurative hug.
Game 4 proved to be a deserving send-off until the day the Kings hoist his No. 11 jersey into the rafters. It also shined a light on an ugly reality this franchise now faces. The four-game sweep by the powerful Colorado Avalanche showed, in stark terms, how far the Kings are from Stanley Cup contention, and how much they’re in need of a reckoning after a fifth consecutive first-round exit.
Unlike the previous four losses to the Edmonton Oilers, there was no mystery to this result. No blown endings to curse over, no lost opportunities to lament. The Kings, to their credit, put up a fight, particularly in two tight, one-goal losses in Colorado. Perhaps that was the best they were capable of. A 5-1 victory Sunday completed the Avalanche’s systematic annihilation of an overmatched foe.
That was necessary. Game 4 allowed Kopitar to say goodbye to his adoring fans instead of making a quiet exit three days later in Denver, but it should also open eyes throughout the Kings’ offices — and those of the Anschutz Entertainment Group ownership team — to a bleak future if no significant course corrections are made.
What they’re doing now isn’t working. Hard questions must be asked at AEG, starting with the viability of team president Luc Robitaille as the one to make the correct decisions about personnel and the strategy to build a winner. Nothing came from shifting into a win-now mindset after going three years without postseason play. Not under former general manager Rob Blake and not so far under his successor, Ken Holland.
The Kings are decidedly worse off than they were a year ago, when they blew their best chance to take down the Oilers and responded by hiring Holland. Being broomed by the Avalanche and put in a dust bin only reinforced the prevailing feeling that missing the playoffs altogether would have been a preferable end to the 2025-26 season.
It isn’t right for NHL teams to throw away seasons. It isn’t fair for them to charge what they do in ticket prices and then purposely not put a competitive product on the ice. But the current system isn’t set up for teams that are too competitive to completely fail, but also aren’t going to realistically challenge for the Stanley Cup. The mushy middle is a bad space to be in, and the Kings have the look of long-time occupants.
There is no draft lottery to look forward to. Their most recent top-10 pick was Brandt Clarke in 2021, the last of a three-year stretch that included Alex Turcotte and Quinton Byfield. None of them has ascended into stardom, although Clarke took some meaningful strides this season.
Another new coach is likely coming in, though D.J. Smith did a commendable job in an interim role by helping the Kings take advantage of their beneficial late-season schedule to get the organization the added revenue of two home playoff games. Whether the keys are handed to someone proven, such as Bruce Cassidy, or a coach getting their first-time NHL shot, they’re not getting a Ferrari of a roster. More like a Toyota Camry that’s seen its best days: still reliable, hardly exciting.
Adrian Kempe starts his eight-year, max-term extension. Artemi Panarin begins his two-year extension. They will eat up a combined $21.6 million of the salary cap. Combine them with Kevin Fiala, missed sorely since he broke his leg at the Olympics — the Kings scored only five goals in the four games against Colorado — and that’s more than $29 million tied up in three forwards. The even bigger issue is that they seem to be the only forwards capable of producing consistently.
Even if Smith likely won’t be around to see it, he said on Sunday that Byfield figures to step into the first-line center role Kopitar long held down. The 23-year-old essentially became their matchup defensive option, and a late surge gave him a career-high 24 goals. Questions remain, though, about whether he raises up his point total as a 1C or whether he will top out as a solid 2C who hovers around 20 to 25 goals and 50 to 55 points.
Byfield is signed long-term, and the options behind him are sketchy, although the Kings could re-sign trade deadline add Scott Laughton. Alex Laferriere is a nice player. Trevor Moore showed he can still be useful. Both are complementary wingers. Andrei Kuzmenko, who played on a one-year contract this season, wasn’t available until Game 3 after tearing his meniscus in late February, but he showed he’s a specialty forward with some skill when healthy. The rest of their forward lineup is composed of grinders.
The Kings aren’t dangerous offensively and their defense corps is far from dynamic. Clarke, 23, has that type of upside. Drew Doughty, now 36, doesn’t. He remains an adept defensive presence but an $11 million cap hit — which he certainly earned — for 23 points doesn’t look good, any way you slice it.
And there isn’t a prized prospect ready to step in next season and make an impact. The closest thing to that, 2024 first-round pick Liam Greentree, was traded to the New York Rangers in the package for Panarin. There isn’t anyone on the AHL divisional champion Ontario Reign who looks like a future top-of-the-lineup fixture. It is a roster filled with high-floor, low-ceiling types.
The Kings also must take a hard look at their philosophy. Their on-ice ethos is responsible hockey, or “playing the right way.” Where has that gotten them over the past half-decade? Or longer? Defense might win championships, but the Avalanche just showed them how a complete roster with superstars and diligent worker bees can do that and still maintain an explosive side. The Kings can still grind out wins, but there weren’t nearly as many as there were in 2024-25, and their risk-averse style increasingly dulled the senses of viewers.
How do they get out of their looming purgatory? Sure, the Kings could try to make another big splash and kick the tires on Robert Thomas, Elias Pettersson or — gasp — Auston Matthews, if Toronto’s captain is determined to move on after a disastrous Maple Leafs season. They could also bide their time and hope Connor McDavid concludes that he can’t win the Stanley Cup in Edmonton.
But the boldest move — and maybe the necessary one, even in a world with an increasing salary cap — is to start over. To date, the Kings have shown no appetite for jettisoning significant contracts and embracing a rebuild for the chance to draft a new franchise-level player — and build an enviable prospect pool around him. Building a new core, the way rivals Anaheim and San Jose have done in recent years, brings hope amid the resulting losses.
Sunday’s game gave the Kings a chance to give Kopitar, one of the last links to their Stanley Cup era, a final salute. But it’s now been a dozen years since their last playoff series win. There’s been nothing to celebrate on a team level since they beat the Rangers for that second championship in three years. It’s time to revamp how they do things and reevaluate who runs the process.
