The Los Angeles Kings have been mired in mediocrity, but they have a chance to turn the page in the post-Anze Kopitar era. Should the Kings be more patient in building a new generation, or is it time for them to go all in with the veterans they do have?
The way their 2025-26 season unfolded – and the way their 2026 off-season is turning out – the Los Angeles Kings are a curious team.
On the one hand, they’ve made moves to solidify their team for the long term. However, the Kings still have many flaws – and anyone who saw them get steamrolled by the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs knows how far L.A. has to go before they’re a legitimate Cup front-runner.
This week, Kings GM Ken Holland made another win-now move when he hired former New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette to replace interim coach D.J. Smith as L.A.’s new bench boss.
If Laviolette were a player who bounced around the league, the word “journeyman” would apply to him. But Laviolette is an NHL lifer because he’s proven he can take a veteran-laden roster and deliver positive results – at least in the short term.
However, Laviolette’s challenges with the Kings are readily apparent. Los Angeles is moving on in the post-Anze Kopitar era. Although that process started with the acquisition of Artemi Panarin from the Rangers last season, most people look at the Kings’ roster and see a team with precious little depth at every position.
Up front, the Kings have Panarin, star wingers Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala (a healthy one). They also have young forwards Alex Laferriere and Quentin Byfield, while rostering veteran defensemen Drew Doughty and youngster Brandt Clarke. But there’s not much depth there, and Laviolette needs to come in and make this team into a playoff team.
Is it really possible for Laviolette to fix this group, or will the Kings backslide in the improving Pacific Division and miss the playoffs next season?
In many ways, the Rangers seem like the team best comparable to the Kings. The Rangers look to be retooling on the fly, and that’s more or less what the Kings are doing with Laviolette on board.
The Rangers do have significant cap space, and the Kings currently have $18.3 million. But while the Blueshirts have some $26.5 million in space, they don’t have a deep UFA group to spend it on. So internal improvement will be vital for the Rangers’ playoff hopes in 2026-27.
Really, you can say just about all of the same things about the Kings. They have to fill the hole Kopitar has left, and they have to spend some of their cap space on Clarke, who will be an RFA this summer. But here’s the biggest question: where’s the franchise talent for this Kings team?
The Edmonton Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The San Jose Sharks have Macklin Celebrini, and the Vegas Golden Knights have Jack Eichel.
The Kings, on the other hand, do not have any franchise-altering talents. They’d been hoping Byfield would be one, but that hasn’t been the case, and while Panarin is a talented player, at 34 years old, he’s just not that player anymore.
So, while Los Angeles is a preferred destination for many, if not most, NHL players, the Kings haven’t been able to acquire a Grade-A, first-rate superstar to compete on the same level as other true superstars.
This is all adding up to be a crossroads moment for the Kings. Holland may have a win-now mandate, and he has an impressive eight first-or-second-round draft picks in the next three drafts.
That might lead you to believe L.A. has decided to build through the draft, but we can see Holland instead choosing to spend some of those picks on difference-making players this coming year. At a point in time when first-and-second-round picks are worth their weight in gold, Holland could command a massive return for one or two of them.
This feels like a playoffs-or-bust L.A. team, and at this point, we’re feeling like the Kings are going to be a bust. Los Angeles is in danger of being passed by the Sharks and Anaheim Ducks, but the best route for the Kings to be a true Cup front-runner may mean L.A. has to take backward steps before they eventually make a renewed push up the Pacific standings.
This is why the Kings bear a lot of attention this summer. The way Holland moves this off-season will dictate the direction for L.A., and the Kings must take a cold-blooded look at where they stand in the NHL’s pecking order.
Once they do so, it should be clear that major changes are needed, and a new era for the Kings must be ushered in as soon as possible. Los Angeles can be a hockey hotbed again, but their current place in the competitive cycle means there’ll need to be patience for them as they regroup.
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