The Los Angeles Kings since winning their last Cup in 2014 have not lived up to their former championship pedigree. In their last eight seasons since they have only made the playoffs three teams and have not exited the first round. Since then, they have been trying to slowly re-tool and add an injection of youth through drafting. This past season the team made the playoffs for the first time in four years but were defeated by the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
Now, they look to take that next step and head back into true contention. To make it out of the first round and push to be a more formidable team in the postseason. In an effort to add more top end talent to the roster, the Kings traded for Kevin Fiala from the Minnesota Wild. They gave up prospect Brock Faber and the 19th pick in the 2022 Draft to send him to LA. More recently on June 30th, he signed a seven-year 7.875 million dollar deal. Fiala last season had a career high in goals (33), assists (52), and points (85) in 82 games last season.
Signing Fiala, along with last year’s additions of Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson, provide necessary skill and veteran depth. Those players, alongside all the injection of younger talent like Arthur Kaliyev, Quinton Byfield, and potentially Alex Turcotte, could be the pieces necessary to contend deeper in the playoffs.
The main core of Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, and Jonathan Quick are not getting any younger. Dustin Brown just finished his last season in the NHL after announcing his retirement at the end of the season. They are slowly all heading into the twilight of their careers but are still talented enough to try and help the King’s hunt for another championship in the near future. But that’s if all the right pieces fall into place. The Kings have a talented roster but a lot of it is still rather young. Not all of their prospects have fully blossomed into the form that they were all drafted for. And with that means there is still a lot of growing pains for the team.
They have proven that in a weaker Pacific Division they still have a solid avenue to contend assuming the teams around them don’t get a whole lot better. But that window is shrinking ever so slowly. Not to mention, they still need to solve their depth issues on the defensive end. Outside of Doughty when he is healthy, the Kings’ defensive group is not very strong compared to the rest of the league. If they choose to gamble on trading some of their more blue chip prospects to add more talent at the position, is it really worth the temporary postseason gain? Who’s really to say. But for the time being, the Los Angeles has a solid crop of young and solid forwards to surround them with. The team as a whole just needs to take that next step while the core of Doughty, Kopitar, and Quick can still give All-Star level performances for the near future.
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