Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn ImagesSAN DIEGO, CA — After three portions completed, it’s come down to the final duo of this Los Angeles Kings series. It is timing that brings us to this point, as it’s the most convoluted and suspect aspect of this franchise going into the new season. It’s a massive reason why I saved it for last, and it’s going to be heavily scrutinized as the season moves along.
Who is the number one center? Easy.
This is the clearest, easiest piece of what is a convoluted puzzle heading into 2026-27. This has been a question despite having a top prospect whose ceiling has become suspect due to inconsistencies, a poor build around him, and a fleeting overarching plan the front office has failed to execute. Quinton Byfield, despite the negative superlatives regarding production, is the number one in Los Angeles. He’s had some ups and downs in LA but has found a floor, not a ceiling, a sign of hope from the franchise’s front office.
He’s broken through and flirted with 50 points over the last three seasons, breaking it twice, coming up short last season with 49. He’s now had two campaigns in the Kings system as a top-six center, boasting 45+ points, and has done so with limited talent on his flanks and a slogged-backed, defensive-grinding system to play under.
He will finally have elite capacity on both flanks, which at even strength will be a major boost to a player who has landed himself over the last season in the upper half of production amongst the league’s forwards (out of 204 forwards who logged 2,600+ minutes over the last three seasons, Byfield is 86th in goals, 55th in assists, 68th in points). Now he hasn’t broken into the top 30, a select group that rebrands itself as elite in even strength production, and for a player that a franchise desperately needs to break through that barrier, there’s cause for concern.
It will be a test that could sink or swim his ceiling moving forward, but his underlying relative analytics represent an excellent defensive player with higher offensive upside who could use new wingers (204 forward grouping, 29th in CF%, 24% in FF, 40th in SF%, 24th in GF%, 29th in SCF%, and 18th in HDGF%).
His production vs. on-ice relative rates suggest a coupling with elite wingers that could drastically boost his output.
What is killing Byfield’s overall production is the lack of points on special teams. He is rapidly heading towards stepping into a role he hasn’t fully been able to carry off yet, mostly spending time rotating between the first and second units, with the ladder being a unit he has anchored. Sinking him further is a sub-50% faceoff percentage that undermines his ability to retain possession on the man-advantage. While it is a niche skill that has its place in hockey and can sometimes be overlooked for certain players, it is absolutely needed on the man advantage and on the penalty kill.
On the penalty kill, he is excellent, with rates that are either elite or nipping away at elite (SA/60, xGA/60, SCA/60, HDCA/60), and some rates are a cause for concern (GA/60, HDGA/60). These last two (GA/60, HDGA/60) are heavily skewed based on the performance on the netminder, as Byfield’s individual relative rates of suppression are fringing upon an elite penalty killer.
Given his excellent baseline for defensive suppression, a clear tarmac for an increased arsenal of EVs offense, and ample opportunity for added production on the man advantage, there is certainly room for optimism for Byfield to firmly take hold of being the team’s number one center.
Now then, that’s the vision of the front office. If that 50-point production benchmark is the ceiling with these changes, then boy-oh-boy, the team’s outlook is rather dim. The retirement of franchise legend Anze Kopitar, the trade of Phillip Danault last season, and the wreckage caused by the Pierre Luc Dubois acquisition have left the center positioning in damage control mode. This assessment isn’t just a bird’s-eye view, but something plain and clear during the tenure of General Manager Ken Holland.
The center decisions of Holland sync rather nicely with the discussion of the other part of the ‘center duo’. His moves suggest a path that appears reactive rather than proactive, despite the greater likelihood of a timeframe of knowledge surrounding the decline of Kopitar’s brilliant career. Rob Blake tried to be proactive regarding this very aspect, the center roster column, and it backfired. For the roster under Holland’s reactive heel, it’s realistically a trio, not a duo, that has two insurance policies that carry the weight of unease.
Behind Byfield is a duo in itself and not the duo that comes knocking down any doors. Scott Laughton is a capable shutdown centerman who was acquired in a marginal push towards the playoffs last season, in the wake of the Kevin Fiala injury and Artemi Panarin's cancel-out moment.
Laughton re-upped in the offseason with the Kings and was joined by free agent Erik Haula. Laughton is a respectable defensive depth piece, and Haula, in his prime, was a respectable, speedy offensive depth piece.
Depth pieces. The team needed a top-six center and got depth pieces.
To be clear, there are quantifiable labels attached to each player, but Haula might actually be the better defensive player at this stage of his career, with excellent penalty-killing metrics that bode well for his projected partnership with Joel Armia. For Laughton, at this point, just like most of Laughton’s small tenure in the post-deadline world for the Kings, he is likely to be a faceoff specialist who can handle tough assignments. Both players are excellent in the dot. Out of 204 forwards who have logged 2,600+ minutes in the last three seasons, Laughton is the 37th-best, with Haula at 27th-best.
The fact that these two are holding center spots due to a major departure is entirely out of a Holland playbook, reusing the same play to some extent, filling the void left by Vladislav Gavrikov with Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci (Jordan Spence booted for more Brandt Clarke exposure). Now Kopitar retires, and the team does patch work with depth centermen while Byfield gets more exposure. The playbook is clear; it’s just a questionable one, and looking at the recent body of work, both centers under Byfield are not remotely shoe-ins for a 2C slot but rather platoon-type rotation depending on matchups.
The numbers will typically speak for themselves, and so will the actions and actionable words from the General Manager. These words, such as Adrian Kempe being discussed as playing some center, and actions like when the team dipped its toe into unknown waters by deploying Alex Laferriere at center. Both are options per Holland.
Is this patchwork a pivot towards something more grandiose? Because in the interim, this is quite the opposite. Taking the hit to pivot towards something else makes sense, but does the front office really think that way? With the acquisition of Panarin last season, I don’t think this team is in “take a hit to make a play mode”.
Haula may very well end up on the wing, allowing one of their works-in-progress-type centermen in Kempe or Laferriere to step in. But let’s full stop there: A contender isn’t figuring out who to deploy as a 2C. A pretender, maybe, as a platoon of depth players and two wingers-turned-centermen represent a team patching holes in their boat as they gradually sink.
The Kings do not have a center duo. They will rely on their biggest strength, at the wing, to either supplement the issue or at least saddle a Ford Focus with Ferraris on the wings. They have a project in a 1C; they are finally giving the full grace to either take off or fall flat. The Kings will field Kempe, Panarin, Fiala, Mats Zuccarello, Trevor Moore, Armia, Corey Perry, and Laferriere on the wing. That’s an impressive group, as we’ve covered in our wings’ duo series, but it will have a single point of failure anchoring it.
That center duo isn’t a thing in LA. What it is is a suspect trio of a team pretending to contend in the now.
