Los Angeles Kings team preview: Last dance with Kopitar, Doughty?

The Los Angeles Kings have quietly been among the Pacific Division’s top squads for the past four years, going toe-to-toe with the heavyweight Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights to earn a top-three finish each year since 2022.

But of course, making it to the playoffs is only half the battle, and since their Stanley Cup victory in 2014, the Kings have yet to find a series win.

In fact, in their past four post-season appearances, they’ve fallen to the Oilers, who have become a real thorn in the side of the Kings organization. Their meetings haven’t been particularly competitive, either, as Los Angeles has not taken Edmonton past six games since their first meeting of this era, back in the spring of 2022.

More heartbreaking, maybe, is that they probably squandered their best chance last May, powering their way to a 2-0 series lead before dropping the next four straight. Did Jim Hiller’s coach’s challenge on the game-tying goal in Game 3 fundamentally alter the series? It’s hard to say, but even if it did, they had three more games to rectify that.

Can the Kings slay their dragon? Potentially. Or maybe they aim for the entire division, putting off a meeting with the Oilers until after they’ve got a series victory under their belt.

Before all that, however, they have 82 games to play.

Today’s preview heads to the California coast as we delve deeper into the Kings.

The Kings took a big chance on the veteran defenceman this summer when they signed him to a sizeable four-year, $18 million deal — the most money and term Los Angeles offered to any of their free-agent signings this off-season. It’s a big commitment for first-year Kings general manager Ken Holland to make to someone whose underlying defensive numbers aren’t stellar, even if there is familiarity there. In 54 games with the San Jose Sharks last season, he was minus-nine and gave up 220 high-danger chances and 50 goals to opponents while playing his highest ice-time since 2018-19. Working in Ceci’s favour this year is the strength of the Los Angeles blue-line, which led the Kings to the second-fewest goals-against in the NHL last season. Ceci plays his best hockey with sheltered minutes — after his trade to Dallas in February, the 31-year-old was plus-15 with nine assists and his ice time hovered around 20 minutes per game. Likely to find a place on the bottom pair, Ceci bouncing back defensively and maybe even contributing on the offence will be key if the Kings want to make this contract worth their while.

The strength with which the Kings stifled the offence of their opponents should at least in part be attributed to Anderson. The 26-year-old defenceman was thrust into a position of more responsibility after the September 2024 injury of Drew Doughty and saw a career-high in ice time, averaging 22:41 — up a full minute on his previous career high — and alongside Vladislav Gavrikov, formed a shutdown pair. Anderson also saw the fifth-highest short-handed time on ice in the entire league (243:29) and helped the Kings to a penalty kill that operated at 81.4 per cent. Anderson is a defensively-minded blue-liner, but still managed six goals and 18 assists last season. He’s projected to slot alongside the 2016 Norris Trophy-winning Doughty this season, so with his ice time likely to remain considerable, he has every chance to prove himself the Kings’ No. 1 defensive defenceman.

Top prospect: Liam Greentree

After three years in the OHL, Greentree will be given the opportunity to battle for his spot in the pros. The 2024 first-rounder captained the Windsor Spitfires into the second round of the OHL playoffs before falling in seven games to the Kitchener Rangers. The Oshawa, Ont., native took a step forward in his third year of major junior hockey, registering 119 points (49 goals, 70 assists) in 64 regular-season games and adding 24 points in 11 playoff games. A pre-season injury to the newly acquired Corey Perry presents an opening for Greentree to possibly make the opening-night roster with a strong training camp, but even if he is sent back to juniors, he will continue to develop as captain of a Spitfires team that has OHL championship aspirations.

Kopitar and Doughty have brought so much to the city of Los Angeles, including Stanley Cups and a combined 2,661 games since they started playing together in 2008. They’ve been such stalwarts on the ice that it’s hard to imagine a Kings team without either one of them, but it’s become a very real possibility that this will be the last dance with a Kopitar-Doughty tandem. The 35-year-old Doughty is still kicking it despite injuries, with four goals and 13 assists in 30 games last season and an appearance on Canada’s 4 Nations Face-Off roster, and has no apparent plans to slow down. The 38-year-old Kopitar, however, openly said that the 2025-26 season could be his last in the NHL. The Slovakian already has 1,454 games and 1,278 points with two Selke Trophies under his belt. If this is their last time sharing the ice, they’ll have played 18 seasons together, with two All-Star Games and two Cups. Not a bad run for two of the best to do it in Southern California, but maybe they’ll save their best for last.

After putting up a career-worst .890 save percentage in his second season with the Washington Capitals, Kuemper needed a fresh start. As did Pierre-Luc Dubois, and the two were swapped in a one-for-one trade between Washington and Los Angeles in June 2024. What followed for the 35-year-old netminder was a bit of a second wind, putting up his best save percentage (.922) since his Stanley Cup-winning stint in Colorado in 2021-22. He also put up a career-best goals-against average (2.02) and was named a Vezina Trophy finalist for the first time in his career. In his second full season with the Kings, he likely won’t need to put up the same career numbers for it to be a successful year, but in a division with snipers like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Jack Eichel, and on a team that hovered mid-league in goals-for last season, carrying that momentum into this year will be big for a team that has sights on a favourable playoff position.

When at his best, Kuzmenko is a true difference-maker on the ice. In his first season in the NHL, he had 39 goals and 74 points in 81 games for Vancouver. His high shooting percentage was always bound to be unsustainable, but even a regression could have put him in the upper echelon of offensive talent. Since then, he’s failed to come close to replicating those totals. He may be rebounding with the Kings, however, scoring five goals and 17 points in 22 games with them last season and evidently, the GM liked what he saw and re-upped with Kuzmenko on a one-year, $4.3-million contract. While it’s too soon to predict exactly where the Russian will slot into the lineup, it’s fair to say it will be in the top-six, and with a talented cast around him that includes the likes of Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala, Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere, he will be given every opportunity to succeed. It might be unrealistic to expect Kuzmenko to hit 39 markers again, but if he can demonstrate the goal-scoring talent we know he’s capable of while also remaining responsible away from the puck, he could figure to be an offensive weapon for the Kings.