LOS ANGELES — Since returning to the playoffs in 2021-22, the Kings have amassed 407 points in the NHL standings, the highest total for any four-year stretch in a franchise history that dates back to 1967.
Even so, they haven’t even placed in the top 10 league-wide during that span — the Kings rank 12th, 32 points behind the top-rated Carolina Hurricanes — and all 11 teams ahead of them have at least been to the second round in that period. Eight have reached the conference finals, five have secured a berth in the Stanley Cup Final and three have won a championship.
The Kings, on the other hand, have gone 11 campaigns without exiting the first round, missing the playoffs five times in the process.
Here are four searing queries that could define the year ahead and their chances of finally escaping the opening round.
Will Kopitar’s final season be one to remember?
Anže Kopitar announced he will retire at the end of this season, his 20th campaign in Los Angeles. While there is little left for him to accomplish individually, a third Stanley Cup would be a magnificent crowning achievement for the career King. It would match the totals of other preeminent centers of his era, like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jonathan Toews.
Yet Kopitar, who took over the captaincy in 2016 after Cups in 2012 and 2014, and the Kings have been stuck in neutral or park for 11 campaigns. They’re also coming off a summer in which they lost their best defenseman from last season, Vladislav Gavrikov, and failed to capitalize on the cap space to both re-sign Gavrikov and add an impact attacker.
The fanfare for Kopitar will undoubtedly and deservedly be grand, but there’s little sign that these Kings, who ran it back in most prominent spots and instead opted to enrich the lowest rungs of their lineup, can make such an abrupt about-face. For an exemplar of habits, conduct and awareness, however, few could be elevated above Kopitar.
“He’s the leader, he sets the tone and he still plays against the other team’s best players,” new Kings GM Ken Holland said during a Q&A with the Kings’ Josh Schaefer (Holland has not addressed the broader media since July 1). “When your best forward is playing 200 feet, everybody’s playing 200 feet.”
Can the Kings re-sign Adrian Kempe?
In a market where Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov commanded a record $136 million contract while Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, hockey’s brightest star, extended his deal for two years at the same $12.5 million cap hit of his last pact, the Kings and Kempe are trying to assess the 29-year-old Swede’s value. The salary cap ceiling is expected to rise from $95.5 million to $104 million and then $113.5 million over the next two years.
Since the Kings have returned to the postseason, Kempe has led the team in goals while placing second in assists, points, power-play points and plus/minus rating. Signing him would also stem a troubling trend of losing prominent unrestricted free agents.
Kempe has said that he would like to return the Kings to their winning ways. In the same breath, he also said, “I think we’re doing the right things, you know, we said that after the last four seasons, we said the same things.”
“(Kempe) is a priority. I’m planning that we’re gonna get him signed. Because the cap is going [up] $10 million and then $10 million, right now there’s kind of an unknown of where all this is,” Holland told Schaefer. “I have had lots of conversations with his agent, J.P. Barry, so I’m optimistic and hopeful that, at some point in time, we’re going to get him signed up to a long-term extension.”
Can Brandt Clarke become an elite defenseman?
Once overflowing with right-handed-shooting rearguards along with a left shot that could play right defense in Gavrikov, the Kings whittled their surplus into a deficit that prompted them to sign Cody Ceci to an already-unpopular contract this past summer. Gone are Gavrikov, Matt Roy, Sean Durzi, Sean Walker, Jordan Spence and Helge Grans, with the collective return for them falling somewhere between modest and nonexistent.
Remaining from their stockpile behind seasoned veteran Drew Doughty is Clarke, the eighth overall pick in 2021. Clarke has treaded a tempered path, spending the 2024 playoffs in the minors while the Kings were defenestrated by Edmonton and seeing some healthy scratches last year as well as notable constraints when dressed.
Now, the training wheels and bumper lanes are no more for Clarke, who will start 2025-26 as part of the Kings’ top four defensemen and second power-play unit.
“He’s basically a forward too,” Phillip Danault said. “He always joins the rush, he’s fast and quick-thinking, offensively. It’s always good to have your ‘D’ activating in the ‘O’ zone.”
Is the 11-7 alignment passé?
The Kings went to the 11-7 configuration frequently and effectively when Coach Jim Hiller assumed control in the middle of the season two years ago and again after a certain point last season.
In the playoffs, they shortened their bench, leaning heavily on nine forwards and four defensemen. As Kempe and Holland pointed out in the spring, that was less than ideal.
Now, in addition to three returners, the Kings signed Joel Armia and Corey Perry to beef up the fourth line. They also traded Spence, who mysteriously lost the trust of the coaching staff last postseason after averaging 18:01 time on ice in the 2022 playoffs and 15:40 in 2024.
“I would say with the current makeup of the team, I’d think you would see a lot less of (11-7),” Hiller said. “With the depth we have, I don’t think you’ll see it as much this year.”