Too many questions surround Kings in post-Kopitar era
The Los Angeles Kings made it to the Stanley Cup Playofs this season for the fifth year in a row, but only barely.
And once they got there, even though they were freed from the fate of running into the Edmonton Oilers after being knocked out by them in the first round in each of the prior four postseasons, their reward this time was getting swept by the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.
Now, with a head coaching vacancy, no more Anze Kopitar and an aging core that is clearly a long way away from contender status, general manager Ken Holland must find a way to capitalize on having some top-end talent like Artemi Panarin and Adrian Kempe on his roster.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the uphill battle that Holland is facing in getting the Kings ready to be serious players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Tyler Yaremchuk: For Ken Holland and the LA Kings, yes they were a playoff team, but it was not a good season for LA. They lose in the first round again, and it’s just a different opponent this time after the last [four] years of losing to the Edmonton Oilers, they get swept by the Colorado Avalanche. They only won 35 games in the regular season. If you include the playoff games, they only won 35 times out of 86 games this year. To pretend that they were some team who just ran into bad luck or anything like that, it’s not true. I think it’s a team that really needs to re-shape this roster. They’re likely going to have a new coach next year. They don’t have one right now. Anze Kopitar is out the door. He’s retiring. Drew Doughty, he’s 36 years old with one more year on his deal. Who knows how much more time Drew Doughty has left in the league as a quality, top-four defenseman? Even their big splash for Artemi Panarin, he’s 34 years old. I look at this, and they have money to spend. They’ll sign [Brandt] Clarke, and they’ll sign Scott Laughton and all of that stuff, but I just think their path to actually being relevant in terms of the quality contender conversation in the West, I don’t see it.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, I do think they’re really far away, too. You look at their goaltending, Darcy Kuemper, 36. Anton Forsberg who had a great year, 33. He’s not the guy that’s going to carry you to the promised land. So what do you start to do now as you look at Anze Kopitar retiring. Who plays as your first-line center? Is Quinton Byfield ready to take over that position? I understand Panarin is good, but I don’t think there’s enough there to make it happen… Now on the back end, as you look at Brandt Clarke, what does his contract look like? He had a great year. That’s an interesting topic, but they don’t have a head coach. Where is this team going? What kind of system are you going to run? How does he want to build his team? These are a lot of question marks.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…