The three California NHL teams —the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks—have grown accustomed to the Kings always leading the Ducks and Sharks in the Pacific Division standings. But is LA's place at the top of the California teams about to come to an abrupt end?
As NHL’s 2026-27 season begins, it feels like the league’s three California teams are about to see a change of the guard.
Because for a long time, the Los Angeles Kings were the only California team that was anything other than a bottom-feeder. The Anaheim Ducks were out of the Stanley Cup playoff mix from 2018 to 2025, and the San Jose Sharks were out of the post-season picture from 2019 through this past season.
The Kings, on the other hand, have been a playoff team for the past five seasons, but playoff success has eluded them throughout, as they’ve failed to advance beyond the first round in any of those five years.
And this summer, Los Angeles had one of the more ‘meh’ off-seasons of any NHL team, adding only a handful of veterans closer to the end of their careers than their prime, then changing coaches by hiring journeyman bench boss Peter Laviolette.
If that sounds seriously underwhelming, that’s because it is. While it’s true the Kings haven’t become demonstrably worse in any regard, it’s also true that San Jose and Anaheim are likely to be significantly better than they were last year – and that is positioning the Sharks and Ducks to leapfrog over Los Angeles and signal the start of a new power pyramid for the three Cali teams.
This writer has been saying it all summer – we’re bullish on the Sharks in particular. At a time when the Kings are essentially devoid of generational talent, San Jose has an embarrassment of riches, with foundational players including Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, Ivar Stenberg, Michael Misa, and more.
Although the Sharks’ defense corps could be one of the league's more helter-skelter groups, we’d still say San Jose’s blueliners are better than the motley crew they had last year. And really, no NHL team has more high-end young talent than the Sharks, who are going to dominate, starting soon, for a very long time.
Meanwhile, although we did predict the Ducks would slip one position from their third-place finish in the Pacific in 2025-26, we still believe there’s a lot to like about Anaheim.
If you’re judging him on talent alone, not his inflated salary, Ducks center Leo Carlsson is also a foundational piece better than anyone in LA, and the same goes for Anaheim defenseman Jackson LaCombe, wingers Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke, and goalie Lukas Dostal. So even if the Ducks take a lateral or slight backward step this season, they’re still head-and-shoulders more imposing than this creaky old Kings squad.
Now, can Los Angeles hang around the playoff conversation long enough to make a late run at a wild card spot? Sure. They have proud veterans, and they’re still better than the Seattle Kraken, Calgary Flames, and Vancouver Canucks. But it feels like the Kings’ competitive window has gone from fairly wide open in the Anze Kopitar/Drew Doughty-in-their-prime era to perilously close to being closed.
It’s clear to many, if not most, observers that the Sharks and Ducks are on the ascent through the Pacific standings, and that the Kings are on the descent. This could quickly turn into a last-gasp season for LA, but for the Sharks and the Ducks, better days are surely ahead.
And the new pecking order in California isn’t going to be pleasant for Kings fans, players and management to come to terms with.
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