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LAST SEASON
The Los Angeles Kings were the surprise of the Western Conference last year, as they ended a three-year playoff drought with an unexpected breakout season. The Vegas Golden Knights struggled through injuries all season and the Kings slipped in and stole their playoff spot in the Pacific Division.
Things looked bleak for the Kings early on. They started the year off by dropping six of their first seven games and they lost Drew Doughty, their top defenseman, to a knee injury just two weeks into the season.
The Kings were able to get by without Doughty thanks in part to a strong performance from former veteran goaltender Jonathan Quick. In 16 games between the beginning of November and the end of December, Quick posted a sparkling .928 save percentage and the Kings were able to stay in the mix.
Doughty returned to the lineup at the beginning of December and the Kings quickly started to climb up the standings. An offense that had been among the worst in the league the previous few seasons saw breakout performances from multiple players. Trevor Moore set career highs with 17 goals and 48 points while Adrian Kempe more than doubled his previous career high in goals with 35.
Shortly before the trade deadline, it was announced that Doughty would miss the remainder of the season after undergoing wrist surgery. There was some pressure on him to try to find a defenseman to replace Doughty but general manager Rob Blake stood pat and didn’t make any major moves ahead of the deadline.
The Kings wound up finishing third in the Pacific. They gave the Edmonton Oilers a difficult run in the first round of the playoffs, ultimately losing in seven games.
KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES
Additions
Kevin Fiala, LW/RW
Pheonix Copley, G
Departures
Dustin Brown, RW (Retired)
Andreas Athanasiou, LW/RW (CHI)
Olli Maatta, D (DET)
Troy Stecher, D (ARZ)
Christian Wolanin, D (VAN)
Austin Strand, D (ANA)
Martin Frk, RW (STL)
Brock Faber, D (MIN)
OFFENSE
The Kings’ offense took a step forward in 2021-22 from where it had been in previous years but still finished in the bottom third of the league in terms of goals scored.
Anze Kopitar led the team in scoring for the fifth season in a row, as he tallied 19 goals and 67 points over the course of 81 games. The boost in the Kings’ offense came from the breakout performances of multiple young forwards on their roster.
Adrian Kempe came into the season with 55 goals in his first 312 games in the NHL and popped off with 35 goals in 78 games. Phillip Danault was signed in the offseason because of his defensive game, but he broke the 20-goal plateau for the first time with a 27-goal season.
LA’s offense will get a boost this season with the addition of Kevin Fiala, their big offseason splash. The Kings acquired Fiala from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for top prospect Brock Faber and a first-round pick and then signed Fiala to a seven-year, $55.125 million contract.
Fiala, the No. 11 overall pick from the 2014 NHL Draft, put together the best season of his career with the Wild in 2021-22, amassing 33 goals and 85 points over 82 games. Fiala figures to play opposite Adrian Kempe with Anze Kopitar down the middle as the team’s top forward trio.
DEFENSE
While young forwards tend to get most of the attention for LA’s breakout season, the Kings also had a handful of young defensemen step up and have strong performances that were especially critical during Doughty’s absence.
Doughty was a monster for the Kings when he was healthy, as he scored 31 points in 39 games while logging an average of 25:44 per night, but his season was derailed by a knee injury in late October and then he was shut down in Late March to undergo wrist surgery.
When Doughty was out, Matt Roy stepped up and filled a lot of his minutes on the team’s top pairing. Mikey Anderson also thrived under the pressure of taking on a larger role while Sean Durzi impressed during his rookie season.
Even with Doughty back for 2022-23, this is a very young blueline. Doughty and Alex Edler are the two veterans while Anderson, Roy, Durzi, and Tobias Bjornfoot are all under the age of 30, with Roy being the oldest at 27.
GOALTENDING
Just a few weeks ahead of the start of the 2021-22 season, the Kings inked Cal Petersen to a three-year contract worth $5 million annually. Petersen was coming off a 2020-21 campaign in which he had overtaken the Kings’ net, as he posted a .911 save percentage in 35 games while veteran Quick put up an .898 save percentage in 22 games.
The results reversed in 2021-22, as Quick bounced back and had his best season in years, posting a .910 save percentage over 46 games, while Petersen had an .895 save percentage in 37 games.
When the Kings were playing the Oilers in the playoffs, it was Quick in the net. Both Quick and Petersen will be back in 2022-23 and the hope for the Kings is that their netminders finally both have good runs at the same time.
COACHING
Todd McLellan has done a nice job leading the young Kings through their rebuild. He took over behind the bench for the 2019-20 season and navigated two non-playoff seasons before helping guide the team to a playoff berth in 2021-22, a quicker turnaround than just about anyone would have expected for the Kings.
This is McLellan’s third go-around in the Pacific Division, as he coached the San Jose Sharks and then the Edmonton Oilers. His teams are often in the mix but have never made it over the top.
There’s more pressure on McLellan to win now given the Kings’ breakout season last year, but the Kings know this is a long-term process and it’s hard to imagine his seat will get hot if there are growing pains.
ROOKIES
The Kings have done an excellent job at stockpiling draft picks over the past few years and now their farm system is loaded as a result.
Quinton Byfield, Rasmus Kupari, Sean Durzi, and Arthur Kaliyev were among the freshmen who stepped into the league last season and there’ll be more highly touted prospects coming this year. Alex Turcotte, the No. 5 overall pick from the 2019 NHL Draft, is the next impact forward on the horizon for the Kings while Brandt Clarke and Helge Grans will soon be pushing for spots on the team’s blueline.
BURNING QUESTIONS
1. How many breakout performances were legitimate? A critical aspect of the Kings’ success last season came from breakout performances from unexpected sources. Kempe, Moore, and Danault each set career highs in goals and were first, second, and fifth on the team in scoring. The Kings need these players to continue to chip in offensively.
2. Can Cal Petersen bounce back? Cal Petersen looked like the goalie of the future in Los Angeles but a difficult season in 2021-22 now has that in question. This season will be the first of Petersen’s three-year, $15 million contract and the Kings are hoping for a bounceback. Quick is a free agent at the end of the season and him being the better goalie in 2022-23 would make things complicated.
3. Will this be Quinton Byfield’s breakout year? The no. 2 overall pick from the 2020 NHL Draft had his rookie season delayed when he fractured his ankle during the preseason. Byfield scored six points in 11 games in the AHL and then scored 10 points in 40 games in his debut with the Kings. With Kopitar and Danault down the middle, there isn’t pressure on Byfield, but a breakout season would be huge for the Kings.
PREDICTION
The Kings are bound to see some regression from the players who had career years last season but they also have a lot of young talent on their roster poised for breakout performances. Having a healthy Drew Doughty will also be huge for the team and its young blueline. The Kings will continue to improve in 2022-23 and should again challenge for a top-three spot in a more competitive Pacific Division.
