Post by Los Angeles Kings on Sept 20, 2024 13:11:09 GMT -6
Los Angeles Kings Season Preview
The winds of change blew through Los Angeles in the offseason with players like Dougie Hamiltion, Travis Hamonic, Sam Reinhart and Brandon Tanev leaving via free agency. Leaving via trade was Vladislav Namestnikov and Jordan Binnington is not good.
Forwards:
The Kings are expected to bring back their top line, with another year of improvement under their belt. Anton Lundell, Sean Couturier, and Jake Guentzel combined for 301 pts in the regular season last year. All three are in the last year of their respective contracts so questions will loom throughout the season. Both Couturier and Guentzel are unrestricted.
Carter Vehaeghe is back on the 2nd line this year, but Cody Glass is expected to be elevated to the 2nd line to get further development, and will be paired with farm graduate Rasmus Kupari. Head Coach Peter DeBoer will no doubt play this combo by ear. Can Kupari handle 2nd line minutes? Will Kupari’s discipline issues lead to him dropping further down the lineup? During the 2nd preseason game, this line was -3 across the board and looked like they lacked the chemistry to work together.
Evgeny Kuznetsov has been dropped to the 3rd line this year to provide veteran presence with youngsters Beck Malenstyn and Ryan Poehling. It’s clear that head coach Peter DeBoer is trying to spread his talent across 3 lines to have 3 attack lines, and to also encourage development of the younger players. This will be Malenstyn’s and Poehling’s first year on the pro club, and it will be interesting to see how they work out together, each also having low discipline.
The 4th line is made of defensive specialists. Alex Iafallo, Nico Sturm and Teddy Blueger were all brought in via free agency to help bolster the team’s penalty killing, which was lacking last year. Those 3 will likely rotate in with Julien Gauthier, who’s dropping down to the 4th line. Will a 76 overall player really get 4th line minutes in LA, or will he bounce throughout the lineup, or will he make good trade bait at some point?
Conclusion: The forward depth is definitely less dangerous with the loss of Sam Reinhart. The Kings will likely try to score by committee, as they try to incorporate their younger talent into the lineup. They have improved their PK by a wide margin, however the younger players also bring substantially lower discipline, so many more penalties are expected.
Defense:
MacKenzie Weegar is back and he’s expected to pair with youngster Brock Faber in the top pairing for the Kings. Brock is a highly touted rookie, and it will be interesting to see how he fairs with the responsibility and icetime. If you can recall, the same experiment with Tobias Bjornfot when he broke into the pro ranks did not go well at all.
Erik Karlsson is slated to be the in the second pairing with youngster Tobias Bjornfot. It’s clear that Bjornfot can’t handle top line minutes but he’s also had another year of development. Its crucial that he is paired with a solid veteran.
The bottom pairing sees free agent signing Jamie Oleksiak paired with Robert Hagg (last season’s #7 defenseman). Oleksiak is substantially better than Hamonic and Hagg is an improvement over Djoos, so expect the Kings to be more confident in their bottom pairing this year.
Christian Djoos will find himself in the 7th slot this year after having Robert Hagg pass him on the depth chart.
Conclusion: Losing Dougie Hamilton is a huge hole for this defense corpse. It’s logical that they focus on splitting up the top 2 in Weegar and Karlsson to pair with the youngsters. Development will be key this season with both Weegar and Bjornfot needing contracts at season’s end. Weegar is unrestricted.
Goaltending:
The Jordan Binnington IS NOT GOOD experiment is FINALLY over. Former rival goalie Connor Hellebuyck was brought in (at a hefty cost), and should provide the ELITE goaltending that LA has lacked. No longer should you hear that the Kings are trying to win IN SPITE of their goaltending. Alexandar Georgiev is back as backup this year. He was extended in the offseason and should be a good safety option in case Hellebuyck opts for free agency at the conclusion of this season.
What do we expect from the Kings this season?
The Kings should be a playoff lock once again and should finish 2nd or 3rd in the Pacific. Vegas is an absolute juggernaut and all playoff paths go through Vegas to the finals. The focus in LA appears to be a bit on win now but also on development. This is definitely NOT a team that appears to be ALL IN on this season, and with the likes of Vegas, can you blame them? The Kings are likely to stay in flux until they find out the contract status of their star players Sean Couturier, Jake Guentzel, MacKenzie Weegar and Connor Hellebuyck. Difficult decisions in LA loom. A mid-season swerve to ALL-IN or to a BLOW-IT-UP is not out of the question. Soon GM Chernuka will need to SHIT or get off the pot.
The winds of change blew through Los Angeles in the offseason with players like Dougie Hamiltion, Travis Hamonic, Sam Reinhart and Brandon Tanev leaving via free agency. Leaving via trade was Vladislav Namestnikov and Jordan Binnington is not good.
Forwards:
The Kings are expected to bring back their top line, with another year of improvement under their belt. Anton Lundell, Sean Couturier, and Jake Guentzel combined for 301 pts in the regular season last year. All three are in the last year of their respective contracts so questions will loom throughout the season. Both Couturier and Guentzel are unrestricted.
Carter Vehaeghe is back on the 2nd line this year, but Cody Glass is expected to be elevated to the 2nd line to get further development, and will be paired with farm graduate Rasmus Kupari. Head Coach Peter DeBoer will no doubt play this combo by ear. Can Kupari handle 2nd line minutes? Will Kupari’s discipline issues lead to him dropping further down the lineup? During the 2nd preseason game, this line was -3 across the board and looked like they lacked the chemistry to work together.
Evgeny Kuznetsov has been dropped to the 3rd line this year to provide veteran presence with youngsters Beck Malenstyn and Ryan Poehling. It’s clear that head coach Peter DeBoer is trying to spread his talent across 3 lines to have 3 attack lines, and to also encourage development of the younger players. This will be Malenstyn’s and Poehling’s first year on the pro club, and it will be interesting to see how they work out together, each also having low discipline.
The 4th line is made of defensive specialists. Alex Iafallo, Nico Sturm and Teddy Blueger were all brought in via free agency to help bolster the team’s penalty killing, which was lacking last year. Those 3 will likely rotate in with Julien Gauthier, who’s dropping down to the 4th line. Will a 76 overall player really get 4th line minutes in LA, or will he bounce throughout the lineup, or will he make good trade bait at some point?
Conclusion: The forward depth is definitely less dangerous with the loss of Sam Reinhart. The Kings will likely try to score by committee, as they try to incorporate their younger talent into the lineup. They have improved their PK by a wide margin, however the younger players also bring substantially lower discipline, so many more penalties are expected.
Defense:
MacKenzie Weegar is back and he’s expected to pair with youngster Brock Faber in the top pairing for the Kings. Brock is a highly touted rookie, and it will be interesting to see how he fairs with the responsibility and icetime. If you can recall, the same experiment with Tobias Bjornfot when he broke into the pro ranks did not go well at all.
Erik Karlsson is slated to be the in the second pairing with youngster Tobias Bjornfot. It’s clear that Bjornfot can’t handle top line minutes but he’s also had another year of development. Its crucial that he is paired with a solid veteran.
The bottom pairing sees free agent signing Jamie Oleksiak paired with Robert Hagg (last season’s #7 defenseman). Oleksiak is substantially better than Hamonic and Hagg is an improvement over Djoos, so expect the Kings to be more confident in their bottom pairing this year.
Christian Djoos will find himself in the 7th slot this year after having Robert Hagg pass him on the depth chart.
Conclusion: Losing Dougie Hamilton is a huge hole for this defense corpse. It’s logical that they focus on splitting up the top 2 in Weegar and Karlsson to pair with the youngsters. Development will be key this season with both Weegar and Bjornfot needing contracts at season’s end. Weegar is unrestricted.
Goaltending:
The Jordan Binnington IS NOT GOOD experiment is FINALLY over. Former rival goalie Connor Hellebuyck was brought in (at a hefty cost), and should provide the ELITE goaltending that LA has lacked. No longer should you hear that the Kings are trying to win IN SPITE of their goaltending. Alexandar Georgiev is back as backup this year. He was extended in the offseason and should be a good safety option in case Hellebuyck opts for free agency at the conclusion of this season.
What do we expect from the Kings this season?
The Kings should be a playoff lock once again and should finish 2nd or 3rd in the Pacific. Vegas is an absolute juggernaut and all playoff paths go through Vegas to the finals. The focus in LA appears to be a bit on win now but also on development. This is definitely NOT a team that appears to be ALL IN on this season, and with the likes of Vegas, can you blame them? The Kings are likely to stay in flux until they find out the contract status of their star players Sean Couturier, Jake Guentzel, MacKenzie Weegar and Connor Hellebuyck. Difficult decisions in LA loom. A mid-season swerve to ALL-IN or to a BLOW-IT-UP is not out of the question. Soon GM Chernuka will need to SHIT or get off the pot.
