The projected first line for the Los Angeles Kings are Adrian Kempe, Artemi Panarin and Quinton Byfield. Here’s how each forward will rank based on expected production for next season.
3. Quinton Byfield
After spending the last three seasons mainly on the second line, Byfield is expected to move up. This is the first season of Byfield’s career where he will spend most of his time in the first line.
Byfield is sharing the ice with Kempe and Panarin, who will both have a bigger role in the offense. Kempe is an established scorer and led the Kings in goals the last two seasons. While Panarin was the leader in assists for the Rangers in every season from 2022-2025.
Since Kempe is the number one scorer and Panarin is the number one playmaker, this leaves less responsibility for Byfield. Instead of controlling the puck, the Kings will look for more defensive ability from Byfield.
A two-way forward making his first appearance starting on the first line, the stats should be lower than the established stars. Byfield will have the role as extra support while Kempe and Panarin do the heavy lifting on offense.
2. Adrian Kempe
For the past three seasons, Kempe was the leader in total points for Los Angeles. However, this season should be different. Kempe could be the second-best player rather than the clear number one.
Despite Kempe being projected to be the second-best player, Kempe could still be the first scoring option. In four of the past five years, Kempe has scored at least 35 goals a season.
Consistently, Kempe has scored more than 30 goals and has racked up over 70 points in a season. Yet, Kempe will more than likely still fall behind Panarin for total points on the Kings.
There’s a difference between Kempe and Panarin. It happens to be the playmaking disparity. Throughout his career, Panarin has consistently racked up more points due to having more assists than Kempe.
1. Artemi Panarin
Panarin is projected to be the point leader and the overall best player on the Kings due to his playmaking. In Panarin’s career, he has recorded over 50 assists eight times, while Kempe has never done that once.
In addition to the assists numbers, Panarin has racked up over 80 points eight times as well. This is another milestone that Kempe has not achieved once in his career.
Even when taking in Panarin’s time with both the Kings and Rangers last season, he put up 84 points. This would’ve led the Kings in total points, not only just last season, but every season from 2019.
Now that Panarin is having a full season to build chemistry with the Kings, it is likely that he will have 80 or more points. Therefore, Panarin will not only be the point leader in Los Angeles, but he will have the most production on the first line.
