Let’s look at the positives: the Los Angeles Kings had among the greatest defenses in the NHL last season and made the playoffs. The bad? The team is filled with dead-weight contracts that have obliterated their thickness and they got easily bumped in the first round of the playoffs.
Regardless of the negatives, you’ll be hard-pressed to locate a better heart nucleus on a group with Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick. Kopitar is the reigning Selke Trophy winner and Doughty is coming from a great 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 series?
Stanley Cup +1800
It appears like a distant memory, but LA hoisted the cup in the 2013-14 season. The team then followed that performance up by not making the playoffs the next season and a miserable first-round ousting the season afterwards.
The core of the Kings is battle-tested and more than able to hold its own in a Stanley Cup series, but how the rest of the team fares is hard to predict. And heaven forbid the very best players on the group struck a scoring slump at the playoffs because relying on the bottom-six forwards for crime is guaranteed to doom LA.. That is not to say they can’t make a run based on phenomenal defense and a red-hot goalie in Quick.
Western Conference +750
The Western Conference is loaded with dangerous teams. The perennially contending Chicago Blackhawks still look like the course of the summit but there are still emerging powerhouses in St. Louis and Anaheim. For the Kings to win the Western Conference for the third time in six months, they will need to have the ability to beat those three groups.
The Kings combined for a middling 5-4-2 record against the Blackhawks, Blues and Kings last year. In fact, one of those three groups, LA’s only winning record was against the Blackhawks.
Pacific Division +225
Even though the Kings have won two Stanley Cups in the past five seasons, they’ve never won a Pacific Division title. In reality, the only time the Kings finished the regular season atop their division was in 1990-91 when they topped the Smythe Division. It’s very sensible that the Kings could end that drought this year — since they are co-faves with the Ducks — however they will need to avoid another crippling slump.
The Kings squandered a 10-point division lead last year to the Ducks following the group imploded to close out the year. LA was 30-16-3 entering the all-star break last season and then faltered to a pedestrian 18-18-3 to the remainder of the season.
The biggest cause of this collapse was that their battles within the branch, as the Kings went just 10-7-0 contrary to the Pacific after the all-star break compared with 8-4 before. And when you factor in that six of those wins after the break came from Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton, you can be justifiably worried entering this season.
Point Total OVER/UNDER 97.5
In Darryl Sutter’s three full seasons as head coach of the Kings — we aren’t including the shortened 2012-13 year — that the team has averaged 99 points each season. It is honestly hard to see this team regressing a lot after submitting 102 points last year, but a small drop may be expected contemplating their Travels near last season.
In order to surpass the 97.5-point mark, a few older players will probably need to supply added scoring. Goal scoring will notably be required from the wings, as the sole winger to finish with more than 40 points every year was Milan Lucic, who signed with Edmonton this offseason.

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