Team Outlook: Los Angeles Kings

Heading into the 2022-23 NHL season, I’m going to look at every team to see how they are looking going into the season.

From: lakingsinsider.com

2021-22:

The Kings went 44-27-11 with 99 points to finish in 3rd in the Pacific Division. However, in the playoffs, they lost in 7 games to the Oilers in the 1st round.

Draft:

The Kings had 7 draft picks for the draft, starting in the 2nd round. In the 2nd round they took forward Jack Hughes from Northeastern University. In his freshman season, he got 16 points in 39 games and he was the first player from the NCAA drafted. In the 2 seasons prior, he got 98 points in 130 games with the US National Team Development Program in the USHL. They also drafted Kenny Connors of the USHL in the 4th round. Connors had 56 points in 61 games in his second USHL season. For this next season he is currently committed to play for UMass-Amherst of the NCAA.

Additions:

A couple days before the NHL draft, the Kings traded for Kevin Fiala from the Minnesota Wild. Fiala had a career high 85 points in 82 games last season with the Wild and 3 assists in 6 games during the playoffs. Fiala should bring a good young forward presence to the Kings to be able to get some more goal scoring on the roster.

Losses: Even though the Kings didn’t add much to their roster, they also didn’t lose much. Their biggest loss over the offseason was Dustin Brown. Brown retired over the offseason. Brown had his worst season in a while last season but he played his full 18 season career with the Kings, getting 712 points in 1296 games, the most games played in franchise history. They also lost Andreas Athanasiou who spent his last 2 seasons with the Kings. With the Kings he had a total of 40 points in 75 games and a goal in 6 games during the playoffs last season.

Who to look for:

Forward Alex Turcotte was drafted in the 1st round of 2019. Turcotte Played 8 games with the Kings last season and didn’t register a point. However he played with their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign and got 18 points in 27 games and 2 points in 3 games during the playoffs. Quinton Byfield was drafted 2nd overall in the 2020 draft. He couldn’t play most of the 2021 season due to injury, but he played last season. In 2021-22 he got 6 points in 11 games with the Reign and 10 points in 40 games with the Kings. Defenseman Jordan Spence was drafted in the 4th round of 2019 and he got 42 points in 46 games in his first season with the Reign. He also got 8 points in 24 games with the Kings.

Prediction:

The Kings have all the pieces now, the only thing I worry about is their goaltending situation as both Cal Petersen and Jonathan Quick were inconsistent at times last season. However, I could see them making the playoffs again.

Stats from: eliteprospects.com, capfriendly.com