Let us look at the advantages: the Los Angeles Kings had one of the best defenses in the NHL last year and made the playoffs. The poor? The team is full of dead-weight contracts that have obliterated their thickness and they have easily bumped from the first round of the playoffs.
Regardless of the negatives, you will be hard-pressed to locate a better core nucleus on a group with Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. Kopitar is the reigning Selke Trophy winner and Doughty is coming off an excellent 2015-16 season that saw him win the Norris Trophy.
The question remains: can the Kings’ low-scoring, defensive-minded play conceal their problems with depth and lead them to another deep playoff run?
Stanley Cup +1800
It appears like a distant memory, but LA hoisted the cup in the 2013-14 season. The group then followed up that performance by not making the playoffs the next season and a miserable first-round ousting the year afterwards.
The core of the Kings is battle-tested and more than able to hold its own at a Stanley Cup series, but how the rest of the group fares is hard to predict. And heaven forbid the very best players on the group struck a scoring slump at the playoffs because relying upon the bottom-six forwards for crime is guaranteed to doom LA.. That is not to say they can not create a run based on incredible defense and a red-hot goalie in Quick.
Western Conference +750
The Conference is loaded with teams that were dangerous. The perennially contending Chicago Blackhawks still look like the class of the summit but there are still emerging powerhouses in St. Louis and Anaheim. In order for the Kings to win the Western Conference for the third time in six seasons, they will need to be able to beat these three groups.
The Kings combined to get a middling 5-4-2 record from the Blackhawks, Blues and Kings last season. In fact, one of those three teams, LA’s only winning record was against the Blackhawks.
Pacific Division +225
Though the Kings have won two Stanley Cups in the previous five seasons, they’ve not won a Pacific Division title. In reality, the only time that the Kings finished the regular season atop their division was in 1990-91 when they awakened the Smythe Division. It is very sensible that the Kings could end that drought this season — as they are co-faves together with the Ducks — but they will need to prevent another crippling slump.
The Kings wasted a 10-point division lead last season to the Ducks following the team imploded to shut the year out. LA was 30-16-3 entering the all-star break last season and then faltered to a pedestrian 18-18-3 for the remainder of the season.
The largest cause of this collapse was their battles within the branch, as the Kings went only 10-7-0 against the Pacific following the all-star break compared with 8-4 before. When you factor in that six of those wins following the break came from Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton, you’ll be justifiably worried entering this year.
Point Total OVER/UNDER 97.5
In Darryl Sutter’s three full seasons as head coach of the Kings — we are not including the shortened 2012-13 season — the team has averaged 99 points per season. It’s honestly difficult to see this team regressing too much after submitting 102 points last year, however a small drop could be expected considering their ice-cold close to last season.
To be able to surpass the 97.5-point mark, a few older gamers will likely need to provide added scoring. Goal scoring will notably be required from the wings, as the sole winger to finish with over 40 points last season was Milan Lucic, who signed with Edmonton this offseason.

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