Offseason Checklist: Los Angeles Kings

Clarke’s first two seasons saw him play sparingly.  One yielded a return to the OHL, the other saw him in the minors for the bulk of the campaign.  In 2024-25, he played a regular role, albeit on the third pairing but still managed a respectable 33 points in 78 games.  This season, he was able to up his point total to 40 to lead all Los Angeles defenders.  While his ice time jumped up by over three minutes per night, he was still under 20 minutes per game.  Notably, his ice time on the power play was largely split with Drew Doughty despite Doughty managing just one power play point all season.  Had Clarke played more like a true top-unit option, he likely would have had a few more points.

On the surface, this appears like one of those cases where the team would probably want to do a long-term deal while Clarke’s camp might prefer a short-term one.  A long-term agreement would involve a lot of projecting as Clarke wouldn’t be signing a contract that views him as a 40-point player; he’d need more incentive than that to sign.  Holland would need to be confident that Clarke has another level to get to, perhaps the 50-point plateau.  That’s when the bigger money would start to come in, potentially in the $8MM to $9MM range.

On the other hand, going with a short-term deal would provide some more certainty in the long run (which is probably more appealing to Clarke if he things he has another gear offensively and can handle a bigger role) with a bit more cap flexibility in the short term as well.  AFP Analytics projects a two-year pact to run somewhere in the $5MM range.  Clarke would be giving up some short-term earnings with the hopes of a bigger payday a couple of years from now but the potential reward could outweigh the risk.  Holland may be trying to convince him otherwise in the coming weeks.

Add A Top Center

For a while now, one of the bigger weaknesses the Kings have had is finding a high-end second center to play behind Anze Kopitar.  Now, the need is intensified.  Not only do they not have the second pivot still, but now they don’t have Kopitar either after the Slovenian announced his retirement after 20 seasons with the franchise.  Now, instead of needing one impact center, they arguably need two in a market that doesn’t have a lot available.

I say arguably as Quinton Byfield has spent a lot of time down the middle in recent year.  It stands to reason that they’ll be counting on him to take a step forward next season and be entrenched as one of those two while hoping that he can get better at the faceoff dot to become more reliable.    That’s the easy one.

Replacing Kopitar, a legitimate two-way presence, isn’t going to be anywhere near as easy.  The UFA market doesn’t have any middlemen of that caliber and there aren’t many top centers available for trade.  Dylan Larkin is someone Holland is quite familiar with but while he may want out, there’s no guarantee Detroit will deal him.  Robert Thomas was in play at the deadline but the asking price was too steep for anyone to meet.  If he doesn’t sign an extension, perhaps Nico Hischier would be in play but again, the price tag (acquisition and extension) would be hefty.

One of the challenges Holland will face on that front is that they don’t have a ton of notable trade chips.  They moved one of their top trade chips in Liam Greentree to the Rangers as part of the Artemi Panarin trade, weakening an already weaker prospect pool.  They at least have all of their first-rounders available but there’s a very good chance that teams with deeper systems get into the bidding, ones that can probably put together better packages than the Kings can.

If they aren’t able to land an impact center, the next best option would probably be to try to re-sign Scott Laughton.  Acquired at the trade deadline from Toronto, he impressed down the stretch in a bigger role, picking up eight points in 21 games while logging over 15 minutes per night.  Laughton isn’t a big scoring threat but would give them a stable third-line pivot and essentially fill most of the role they brought in Phillip Danault to do several years ago before moving him earlier this season.  AFP Analytics projects that Laughton could land a three-year pact worth around $4.1MM per season.  If Holland thinks Laughton can be the solution on the third line, shoring up the depth isn’t a terrible backup plan if they can’t trade for a key center.

Bring In More Firepower

As much as their record was nothing to get overly excited about, the Kings allowed the seventh-fewest goals in the league this season.  Their goaltending was quite sharp, to say the least.  But while there is certainly a case to make that they need to upgrade on the back end, the biggest priority is to add more scoring.  They didn’t score under Hiller and didn’t score much more under Smith.  The end result was a 29th-place finish in goals scored with the lowest 82-game total they’ve had since 2018-19.

A full season with Panarin should certainly help things, no doubt.  But among players to spend the full year with the Kings, they had just one player reach the 50-point mark, Adrian Kempe (who was rewarded with an eight-year, $85MM deal for his efforts).  Needless to say, that’s not good enough for a team that views itself as one that should be able to do a bit of damage in the playoffs instead of being first-round fodder.

Andrei Kuzmenko was supposed to help in that regard but wound up underachieving, getting injured, and then being scratched in the playoffs.  A third of their double-digit goal-scorers are now out of the organization.  Basically, they need top-six scoring help and bottom-six offensive upgrades as well.

Getting into the playoffs on the back of 20 overtime or shootout losses probably isn’t going to be sustainable as a long-term strategy.  But the fact they lost a lot of close games means that some extra firepower could swing some of those losses the other way.  Perhaps a coaching change (or Smith changing their system somewhat) brings more offense around but some boosts up front will also be needed.