For the Florida Panthers and Edmonton Oilers, running in place signified another berth in the Stanley Cup Final and, for Florida, another deep quaff of champagne from that coveted chalice.
For the Kings, it meant general manager Rob Blake and the organization parted ways, with veteran and four-time Stanley Cup winner Ken Holland coming aboard to break the Kings’ string of four consecutive first-round exits at the hands of the Oilers.
What they’ve done so far
The Kings haven’t yet been active on the acquisition front yet, but the man who will be making those trades and signings is no longer a GM in his first stint but rather a highly seasoned one.
In Holland, the Kings got an executive who was central to what the Detroit Red Wings did during a quarter century straight in the playoffs, including Cups in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008. He also helped give direction to Edmonton, who had won just one playoff round with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl but advanced six times in the final three campaigns of Holland’s tenure and back to the Stanley Cup Final this year under Stan Bowman.
Bringing in an outside eye to evaluate and ameliorate what’s made the Kings stagnant for four straight seasons was a major step, albeit with the infrastructure below remaining in place essentially to a man.
Although the Kings have not won a playoff series since their Stanley Cup exaltation of 2014, Kings president Luc Robitaille said they were “right there” in 2024 when they lost to Edmonton in five games and said he liked the additions of last season, suggesting the team was still “there” because on July 1 it would be considering what moves to make to genuinely compete for the Cup. While the players did not seem to share Robitaille’s evaluation of the 2024 playoffs, they did largely echo his assessment of their current position.
“As much as this hurt, again, I also think we took a step forward again this year, which is very encouraging going into the next season,” captain Anže Kopitar said via phone. “We grew as a team. Our culture is in a better place than it was last year. I think this upcoming season is going to be a good one for us.”
What’s next?
The pandemic-induced salary-cap freeze is no more, with a sharp rise this year and further momentum on the horizon. As a result, seemingly all 32 franchises are open for business in what could be one of the busier summers in recent memory.
The Kings could add, reconfigure or do both as they look to spark a team that showed flashes offensively but has simply not scored consistently. For the first nine games of 2023-24, they ranked No. 1 in goals per game and for the final 22 games of 2024-25 they placed second. In between those two outbursts, they ranked 27th of 32 franchises.
Holland has already been decidedly more talkative than Blake, having made numerous appearances on podcasts and elsewhere in the news media. As he has emphasized, coming aboard in May enabled him to get in final scouting meetings ahead of the draft and establish contact with his 31 peers as the critical days of late June and early July draw near.
Los Angeles will host the draft this year, the first ever decentralized one with the prospects in California and executives in their home states. The Kings have seven selections, including No. 24 overall, but no second-rounder as that pick was dealt to the Tampa Bay Lightning as the main piece in a trade for pending unrestricted free agent winger Tanner Jeannot. They picked up an extra seventh-rounder, 196th overall, from the Philadelphia Flyers in a swap that also netted them pending UFA winger Andrei Kuzmenko.
What do the books look like?
Whereas last year the Kings were limited to mid-level acquisitions to fill holes in the middle and lower parts of the lineup, they now have some salary-cap flexibility. PuckPedia projects them to possess some $21.7 million in cap space, though they have some significant players headed toward free agency as well.
Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov and his Russian countryman Kuzmenko headline that list, with Alex Laferriere being the foremost pending restricted free agent. Those three players made nearly $12.5 million last year and, at a minimum, Gavrikov and Laferriere were on track for raises while Kuzmenko rejuvenated his career with an equal parts productive and flashy stretch run for the Kings.
The Kings could dig deeper into free agency and perhaps even pursue top targets – Holland said he was free to do so and that there was no shadow of the Kings’ failed foray to add a big name with Pierre-Luc Dubois two seasons ago – but there will have to be prioritizations and tradeoffs in order to do so. In an offseason with a 28-year-old, 100-point scorer like Toronto’s Mitch Marner topping a class that could also include the speedy Nikolaj Ehlers of Winnipeg as well as Cup champs like Sam Bennett, Brad Marchand and Aaron Ekblad, Holland will have plenty of options to evaluate.
Who could depart?
Holland recently told Hockey Royalty that he had made an offer to Gavrikov, yet that response was published just after TSN’s Pierre LeBrun reported that he expected Gavrikov to hit the open market July 1. AFP Analytics projects Gavrikov’s value at roughly $7.5 million per annum, and at 29 he will be seeking max term from whatever team he signs with – the Kings have an advantage there in that they can offer him eight years while any other team can only go up to seven.
The Kings were initially confident they could sign Gavrikov following his switch of agents from Daniel Milstein to Robitaille chum Pat Brisson, but that certitude has since waned. Brisson could be seeking a deal similar to the eight-year, $58.8 million dollar pact he secured for Noah Hanifin from Vegas, with perhaps a bit more thrown in given the ascendant cap ceiling. Defenseman Jordan Spence, who was openly displeased with his role in the playoffs and was reported as being on the trade block by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, may also be wearing another sweater next season.
Laferriere has no arbitration rights, meaning the Kings could opt to effectively punt on longer-term negotiations. Most of their unrestricted free agents – goalie David Rittich, forward Trevor Lewis and Jeannot, primarily – may well come down to circumstance and preference.
Kuzmenko, on the other hand, may be more of a fallback option should they not be able to land a bigger-name, right-handed-shooting forward like Marner. Holland pursued Kuzmenko out of Russia in Detroit and again in Edmonton when the Oilers were a finalist for his services prior to his decision to sign with Vancouver. His stretch-run performance was phenomenal, but defensive trust issues limited his playoff contribution and consistency has been elusive over the span of three NHL seasons.