The L.A. Kings had one of the strangest years of any team in a while last year, and I have to admit that I have a hard time wrapping my head around it. One thing I will say is that Kopitar went out with a bang, posting his best defensive year in years, but many other forwards regressed significantly; Kempe had his worst year in a long time, and Byfield was good but not his usual self. Laferriere dipped from last year; Fiala was his normal solid self but was injured after the Olympics. Moore was good, and Armia was fine, but with all this L.A. had the fewest high-danger chances against in the NHL. 

 On the D side, Doughty and Clarke were great, and Anderson put in his normal solid defensive season. Ceci and Edmundson were their normal bad, and Dumoulin was good in the 3D spot. Not the type of write-up that I do that lands a team as one of the best defensive teams in the league. Although Forsberg did have a career year between the pipes, even if Kuemper struggles quite a bit.

 With Kopitar gone in retirement Ken Holland had some work cut out for him in a replacement this summer and justifiably was not able to find it. It appears that the Kings will try Kempe out at center for now and let Byfield stay in his second line spot while Haula was brought in to add some depth. Mats Zuccarello was added from Minnesota who had a fine offensive year last year at the ripe age of 38 playing alongside his buddy Kaprizov whom he has enjoyed chemistry with for quite some time. Is that going to translate here in L.A.? Well he did play with late season acquisition Artemi Panarin with the Rangers so I have to wonder if he won't be given a place on a line with him. My favorite addition actually comes from the coaching change of Peter Laviolette for D.J Smith. Lavi as he is called is the only coach I have ever seen that has been able to transition teams into a very hybrid system like he uses. A left wing lock, man on man tracking type system that utilizes a 1-3-1 0r even 1-1-3 neutral zone with an aggressive offensive possession game where D men are encouraged pinch and jump into the play. It is not the normal 1-3-1 that has a tendency to be more trapping. It is more fluid and really relies on good chemistry and team flow. Usually this can take a team awhile, and by awhile, I mean a year or more to adjust to but he seems to get teams their really fast. 

Conclusion

This is going to be fun to watch honestly as L.A. has a lot of new players already and are transitioning to a more complex system that really relies on forwards to be in their spots defensively in all three zones. D men are given grace to be aggressive, and forwards are expected to back them up. I am not saying that L.A does not have the forwards to perform this, but I jump from last year will be in order for sure. On paper this looks like a down year for L.A. but I will give Laviolette some time to work before I count the Kings out. Lavi has been known to get great results from not the best looking lineups. With the Kings being in the weak pacific division I will give the bubble spot of 4rth. neck and neck with the Sharks. 

P.S I think the Kings are more looking ahead to next year. Catch me on my channel to hear some of that interesting conversation here