The Kings are headed toward the opening of free agency with more questions than answers.
July 1 is typically a moment where hope springs and possibilities abound. Still, this year’s crop of unrestricted free agents is less fruitful than usual, thanks to a second straight summer of a catapulted salary cap.
Meanwhile, the Kings’ assets are relatively meager for opportunities in what’s already been a robust trade market and figures to include even more stars before the summer is over.
According to PuckPedia, the Kings have around $11 million in salary-cap space, a lean figure thanks to ample gristle throughout a defense corps that’s still paying Drew Doughty a commensurate sum as well as premium prices with trade protection to veterans like Cody Ceci.
While the Kings don’t have many options in the FA market, expendable assets of value to trade, or an abundance of cap flexibility, one thing they do have is an urgent need.
General Manager Ken Holland sounded less than optimistic on Saturday in at least two different settings in which he discussed contract negotiations with the Kings’ trade-deadline pickups from the past two seasons, center Scott Laughton and winger Andrei Kuzmenko.
While the Kings have plenty on the flank after the February addition of Artemi Panarin, Kuzmenko was a positive contributor when healthy and trusted last season, while their needs in the middle are less of a hole and more of an abyss.
Already aware captain Anže Kopitar was set to retire, the Kings sent Phillip Danault, one of their top playoff performers, to the Montreal Canadiens after he requested a trade by the December transaction freeze. Laughton was brought in to replace him over three months later, but now the Kings appear to require two pivots once again.
“When you lose Kopitar, it’s going to be a tough position to fill. There are many teams looking for centermen,” Holland said. “We have Alex Turcotte, who can slide into the middle. We’re looking forward to talking to some unrestricted free agent centermen.”
The free-agent class is topped by centermen like Boone Jenner and Anders Lee, former captains with character but not necessarily top-six output. The trade market is drying up a bit at center, though Panarin’s former teammate Vincent Trocheck and others may still be in play.
On Saturday, Holland made it seem as though internal contingencies were the most likely solutions, going back to wells that had already proven dry, even beyond Turcotte, a fifth overall pick turned salvage effort.
“There’s an option, (Alex) Laferriere played a little bit in the middle last year,” Holland said. “Coach (Peter) Laviolette had a conversation with (Adrian) Kempe recently about ‘does he like it better on the wing? Could he play in the middle?’ He was a centerman his entire minor hockey career and then his first three years as a pro.”
Yet by Holland’s own repeated admission, Laferriere, who hadn’t played center since middle school prior to the Kings’ experiment, was more effective on the wing. Kempe had proven as much, muddling through the early part of his NHL career in the middle before taking off by Kopitar’s side — “the rest is history,” as Holland said.
The Kings’ defense corps was once its bedrock, bursting with depth, quality and the ability to convert a home-plate mentality into counterattacking opportunities. Squandered assets and unexpected free-agent departures turned it into a source of frustration and boredom for fans, who watched labored breakouts, poor puck management and ugly games pile up.
Holland had said he hoped to transform or at least reconfigure his rearguards through a combination of stylistic and personnel changes. But on Saturday, it sounded like the onus would fall largely on Laviolette and assistant Phil Housley as they picked up the pieces of a once-glorious defense corps now led by the recently re-signed Brandt Clarke.
He said that Jacob Moverare, who logged 10 or more minutes just 10 times last year despite performing effectively in a depth role, would not return. Beyond that, any significant change seemed far from guaranteed.
“Unless we make a trade, we have six (defensemen under contract), and we’ll try to sign one or two defensemen out there to kind of come in and compete for a job — different than what we have,” Holland said. “We’re looking forward to going to training camp and seeing where (Jared) Woolley’s at, and where (Kirill) Kirsanov’s at, and where (Angus) Booth is at, young guys that played really well either in junior or in the American Hockey League. We have a different coaching staff now with ‘Lavi,’ and we’ll see if they have a little bit of a different philosophy on how we play.”
The free-agent market on defense is headlined by Rasmus Andersson, who declined a trade to the Kings during the 2025 draft weekend, and John Carlson, whose negotiating rights were dealt to defending champion Carolina after he expressed a desire to return East following a quarter season with the Ducks.
Even if they were amenable, their projected annual salaries would devour all but a sliver of the Kings’ cap space. Mayor’s Manor reported that the Kings did not anticipate spending all the way to the upper limit this season.
They’re not a team with the wherewithal to pursue high-value trade options, the recent success to attract ring-chasers or the financial flex to pay heavily to round out their roster.
Undermanned in the middle and inadequately equipped on the back end, Holland, a septuagenarian with four Stanley Cup rings, will have to earn every word of his reputation this summer.
If he doesn’t, it could mean the end of the line for the man who hired him, Luc Robitaille.
Robitaille is approaching a decade as team president with an 8-24 record in playoff games. It’s the second-lowest winning percentage in the NHL in that span, and no series wins.
All that came after he ousted the architect of the Kings’ only two championships, Dean Lombardi, for purportedly falling short of the organization’s standards.