The Los Angeles Kings have announced their opening night roster for the 2025-26 season.
Many faces from last season are coming back up front, but there are a few new faces on defense.
The roster may have undergone some tweaks, but the mission remains the same: to get back to the Stanley Cup finals.
The roster as it was for the opening night loss to the Colorado Avalanche:
- Forwards (13): Joel Armia, Quinton Byfield, Phillip Danault, Kevin Fiala, Warren Foegele, Samuel Helenius, Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar, Andreo Kuzmenko, Alex Laferriere, Jeff Malott, Trevor Moore, Alex Turcotte
- Defensemen (7): Mikey Anderson, Cody Ceci, Brandt Clarke, Drew Doughty, Brian Dumoulin, Joel Edmundson, Jacob Moverare
- Goaltenders (2): Anton Forsberg, Darcy Kuemper
There were some transactions away from the ice concerning the roster. Forward Corey Perry was placed on injured reserve and is week-to-week after successful knee surgery. Defenseman Kyle Burroughs is day-to-day after being placed on injured reserve.
While many fans love to see the returns of Kempe, Kopitar, and Doughty, they have a love-hate relationship with the new GM, Ken Holland, and the moves he made. He wanted to make this team tougher to play against and add experience for a lengthy playoff run. He added Perry, Ceci, Dumoulin, Armia, and Forsberg, who have a combined 478 games of playoff experience.
Time will tell how these moves shake out, but playoff time will be the telling tale.
Last season, the Kings tied a franchise record with 48 wins and 105 points. While the regular season was great, the end result was not as they wanted, as they were once again eliminated by the rival Edmonton Oilers in the first round.
Consistency will be the keyword this season. After a hot start, the Kings tailed off a bit while other teams ahead of them took off. That resulted in another playoff matchup with the Oilers. This season, they need more scoring from the bottom six, but the defense may be the most important position to watch this season. Last season, they had a 2.48 goals against average, an 81.4% penalty kill success rate, and were second in the league, allowing only 25.5 shots per game.
Another factor in the success this season may be age. Los Angeles enters this season with the ninth-oldest team average age in the league, at 28.6 years old.
Will that help the Kings in tough times and the playoffs?
Or will it hurt them down the stretch?
The moves Holland made indicate this team could be better than last season, but the jury is still out on that.
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