Credit: William Liang-Imagn ImagesSAN DIEGO, CA — The Tampa Bay Lightning were stunned in 2019, being swept by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2019. A little stroll down history lane, stay with me here. They were the President’s Trophy winner and were building something special there, but were utterly stunned at the hands of what, on paper, was lesser. Many general managers might have seen that devastating series as a sign to tear it down, or at least retool. Julien BriseBois could’ve, but he didn’t. Instead, the Lightning stuck with it and rattled off back-to-back championships, three straight finals, as their run ended in 2022 with the Avalanche toppling them.
For the Los Angeles Kings, it was kinda the opposite situation. The 2021-22 Kings had no business throwing off their rebuilding early and ended up being a playoff team. They pushed a soon-to-be ‘nipping at the heels’ contender to seven games, the most wins they would see in a series since their championship triumph over the Rangers in 2014. Rob Blake, the former General Manager, and his management brain trust saw this and said, ‘let’s push forward’.
The context helps because the 2021 season, how it was built up and closed, provides all you need to understand the state of the franchise going into the 2026-2027 season.
There are missing some details, but this is the gist of where they were and how they navigated, or rather spiraled, to the now.See, the state of the franchise is in an obscure position. The team, even though they were reeling in 2023-24, absolutely peaked in 2024-25. They were the best team, categorically, that the Kings have iced since the 2018 team that got swept by the inaugural rendition of the Vegas Golden Knights. The Kings fell into the abyss after that 2018 season, and, despite a similar feel in 2024-25 after a failed clear by Quinton Byfield, they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in a dispiriting fashion last season.
The backend decisions that defined their collapse in 25-26, Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, Joel Edmundson, and an aging Drew Doughty — remain unchanged heading into 26-27. A resurgent, yet aging Doughty and a rising Brandt Clarke are expected to buoy a defensive core that, in fact, sank the team entirely last season. They were ‘reinforced’ by Erik Gustafsson as a free-agent signing in the offseason, as he had been productive under Peter Laviolette before in New York.
There’s Laviolette himself, a prized and seasoned head coach who was going into the offseason without a gig and landed himself in LA. He wants the defensive core to be more spry with the puck so he can play more in the offensive zone. Well, coach, this team has anchored on low-risk stinginess at the cost of offense for five seasons now. Also, given the ceilings and offensive limits of five of their six regulars back there, I find it difficult to foresee an active defensive core up ice that doesn't bleed odd-man rushes.
Laviolette will get Gustafsson, as mentioned, as Ken Holland didn’t swing at any major names on the backend during free agency or via trade at the draft. Holland and company essentially traded for more picks and added via free agency, avoiding the trade frenzy of the offseason despite a clear message that he’s here to compete for a championship. The corresponding moves looked like reshoring the prospect pipeline with quantity rather than superb quality, and insurance-free agent signings that could be moved towards the deadline, should the season turn for the worse. Looks like an insurance policy is being taken out due to the inherent risk involved in their not-so-bulletproof management of this roster.
You want assurances rather than insurance, right? I can assure you, Adrian Kempe, the team’s best offensive threat from the wing, will see time at center. I can assure you that another winger, Alex Laferriere, will be an option at center. Because the team has been in recovery mode since their peak in 2024-25, just two seasons ago, postpartum of Pierre Luc Dubois, a center insurance plan behind Byfield. Since their 2-0 opening against the Oilers, they have been in damage control, a pivot handled by a seasoned GM, but in the fashion of patchwork rather than an upgrade-level schematic.
In 2024-25, they were coming off botching the Matt Roy and Dubois situations, and despite that, the team was basically a powerhouse. A top ten offensive club while a top two defensively, second best in shot suppression, while their 1D was out most of the year? Hard to wrap the brain around. Nothing spectacular on special teams outside of being within reach of the top five on the kill. They scorched their way into the playoffs with a savvy deadline pickup, with the second-best record in the league down the stretch. Just to blow it all. The collapse that followed, a 2-0 series lead against Colorado squandered, still defines the conversation heading into this season.
League rankings at even strength 2021-2026. Kings always an elite, sound defensive team with excellent possession metrics that struggled to find offense but found a formula in 2024-25 that broke through in a major way. That team possessed the puck at even strength amongst the top teams in the league, scored amongst the top ten, stifled goals and shots within the top three along with an elite teamwide save percentage. Not building off of that team was a critical mistake.They made their ‘repairs’, but went from an 8th-best EVs (even-strength) offensive team to the 25th (the lowest Kings team since their 2021-22 breakthrough). Kuemper’s injury certainly escalated things. But in the end, the repairs that insulated the most against were the acquired players on the blueline, who went from 2nd-best EVS defense to 3rd, at the complete expense of transition and outletting. The team essentially absorbed the shock of change defensively, but at the cost of being able to produce offense; that is abundantly clear.
There’s a strong argument that the team has been in full decay mode since then, and the repairs are just cosmetic while the organization scrambles to put together a more viable long-term plan.
The once-heralded treasure trove of prospects from 2017-2022 is all but spent, or has been left out too long to sour. Out of that crop, they will stand by two players with higher-than-league-average impact ability (Clarke and Byfield) and a third with league-median impact ability in Laferriere. The jury is still not set on their goaltending pipeline, something that survived the turbulence of the Blake administration.
The team’s current impact players are starting to kick the tires of ‘north of 30.’ In a few cases, they have players either licking 40 or already there. It's a precarious situation that cannot be glossed over by the remarkable playmaking of Artemi Panarin, the dynamic ability of Kevin Fiala, or the straightaway scoring ability of Kempe. This is a structurally flawed roster that will have to adjust to a new system, with older legs, and the same defensive boat anchor it deployed in a mostly forgettable season.
The defensive core has arguably four defensemen who are liabilities with the puck. With the new system coming from Laviolette, the defense is supposed to open up? That certainly plays away from four of their defensemen's strengths, which, for a couple of them, are few. Gustafsson can do spot duty but has not consistently tied together seasons as a regular in the NHL.State of the franchise, or affairs, however you look at it, looks gloomy.
The team has bolstered their wings in lieu of their center albatross. Mats Zucarello is a quality player when healthy, despite knocking on the door of 40. Erik Haula and resigning Scott Laughton solidify the bottom six, but they also added Corey Perry for a second stint in LA, essentially minimizing or canceling out Alex Turcotte for next season and the work Jared Wright put in last season. Sorry, Taylor Ward, won’t see you for a while.
The goal crease is expected to be an excellent tandem when healthy. Kuemper historically has bounced back well from injury, and Forsberg was good enough down the stretch last season to start in the playoffs. The only issue here is when the team will regroup here and implement their impressive goalie prospect pipeline. That is pending, and Ontario watch will develop early on for a predetermined forecast to be absolved.
If, and I do say if, Kempe can manage the transition back to center well, the Kings could be on solid ground. Giving him the best wingers would be the likely course, leaving Byfield, Fiala, and Laferreire to handle the top matchups. Of course, this means another season of Byfield handling the toughest matchups without the best wingers available. But running Kempe, Byfield, Laughton, Helenius with Haula on the wing via the third line, or Kempe, Byfield, Haula, Laughton, they could be in good shape.
The problem is, just being in good shape is not good enough. This is a franchise starved of postseason success. Not the Chicago Cubs, historically starved but categorically, a message of the same tone. They play on the margins, and of late, that’s been good enough for making the playoffs just to get trounced in the first round.
Their division is growing; it's getting better each season. Teams are not falling behind; they are stepping up. Rebuilds and retooling that took years are turning it around, lessons the Kings can only look at in hindsight.
2026-27 is absolutely critical for these Kings, for Byfield and for Clarke, for an organization that tries to raise its ceiling around the margins, which might have completely and absolutely whiffed on a stellar 24-25 campaign, and has yet to reckon with how much those decisions cost them. There’s an excellent insurance plan ahead, but assurances of success are not yet in place.
