EL SEGUNDO –– Summarily and spiritedly lampooned for their offseason, the Kings set out to show that the game is played over ice and not on paper as training camp opened Thursday.
Drew Doughty returned for his 18th campaign and captain Anže Kopitar came back for his 20th (and perhaps final) year in black and silver. Longtime rival Corey Perry, 40, who is one of just three active players from the 2003 draft, will have to wait another six to eight weeks to add to even more veteran leadership as a result of a knee injury he sustained while skating last week.
The Kings will also be without their top defenseman from last season, permanently. Vladislav Gavrikov, whom outgoing general manager Rob Blake said in early March was prepared to sign a contract extension, left for the New York Rangers, after the abruptly out-of-favor Jordan Spence was dealt to Ottawa for draft picks.
“We lost a couple good players, but we brought in some really good guys and really good teammates,” center Quinton Byfield said. “We have a lot of veteran guys; everybody just jells well. I’m very excited about this team, like everyone else here. There’s a lot of young guys here that are ready to take the next step, and that’ll help us. It’s internal growth as well.”
Byfield, 23, and right defenseman Brandt Clarke, 22, were the foremost candidates for that “internal growth” potential, with the two former lottery picks still having plenty of runway after their second and first full seasons with the club, respectively.
Following the departures of Spence and Gavrikov, who played right defense for much of last season while Doughty was injured, Clarke should have no shortage of opportunity this year.
“I’m appreciative that they all see me in a bigger light this year, and they want me to seize that opportunity. There’s more ice time there, but the onus comes down to how I play, how I manage my abilities and what I do with my time on ice, making the plays and the right reads,” Clarke said. “I’m ready for that challenge, and I’m ready to prove them right, in a sense, so I’m just excited for what’s ahead.”
Byfield said the Kings had been “chirping” Clarke, referring to him as Bobby Orr and Cale Makar.
“All jokes aside, he looks really good and it looks like he’s filled out a little bit. I want to see him succeed, because it’ll help our whole team,” Byfield said.
Despite the fact that Gavrikov earned only a modest raise – his $5.875 million cap hit became a $7 million annual average value in a climate where his individual value increased and the market ceiling rose substantially – the Kings’ multiple offers beyond Blake’s initial sum failed to keep Gavrikov in the fold. Gavrikov instead signed with the Rangers, who missed the playoffs last season, for seven years and $49 million.
Incoming GM Ken Holland then took the exact amount of money that Gavrikov and Spence will earn this year combined and committed it to a pair of 30-something rearguards, Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin. On Thursday, Dumoulin skated with Clarke, who had been paired with another seasoned newcomer to the Kings last year, Joel Edmundson.
“I can definitely see that he’s a laid-back, nothing-bothers-him type of guy,” Clarke said of the soft-spoken Dumoulin.
While the acquisitions of Perry and Joel Armia, a physical penalty killer, provided ostensible boosts up front and Anton Forsberg may be an upgrade over David Rittich as the No. 2 goalie, the reconfiguration on the back end was enough to all but ubiquitously sour analysts on Holland’s first offseason in El Segundo.
That the Kings were scrambling to ice a defense corps seemed perverse for a team once brimming with blue-line depth, before the departures of Brock Faber, Sean Walker, Sean Durzi, Matt Roy, and, most recently, Gavrikov and Spence.
The Kings also entered the summer in a rare position for a playoff team, having substantial cap space. But a rise in the cap ceiling meant many other teams could retain their players, and top free agent Mitch Marner zeroed in on Vegas as his destination early in the process.
“In a sense, there’s positives that come out of (not adding a big-name player),” Clarke said. “We have such a good core, top to bottom last year, we communicated so well, we were all on the same page and we all cared about each other so much. I think they wanted to keep that identity, they didn’t want to shake that up too much and that goes a long way, because we all believe in each other in this dressing room.”
With no big-ticket forwards available, the Kings opted to run it back with their top-nine from the stretch run last season, including a fresh one-year deal for trade-deadline pickup Andrei Kuzmenko. He meandered through much of 2024-25, which he split between three teams, but not only took off individually with the Kings but appeared to click their forwards into place overall.
Pre-deadline, they scored the 27th-most goals in the NHL, but from the deadline onward, they were No. 1 in the NHL in total goals and second in goals per game. That didn’t change their result in the postseason, where they were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in a fourth straight first-round series.
“In our opening meetings with (Coach Jim Hiller), we alluded to being more consistent,” said Byfield, admitting his own consistency remained a focus. “This year, we are going to try and build on the post-deadline success we had and, hopefully, be a lot better in the playoffs.”
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Drew Doughty returned for his 18th campaign and captain Anže Kopitar came back for his 20th (and perhaps final) year in black and silver. Longtime rival Corey Perry, 40, who is one of just three active players from the 2003 draft, will have to wait another six to eight weeks to add to even more veteran leadership as a result of a knee injury he sustained while skating last week.
The Kings will also be without their top defenseman from last season, permanently. Vladislav Gavrikov, whom outgoing general manager Rob Blake said in early March was prepared to sign a contract extension, left for the New York Rangers, after the abruptly out-of-favor Jordan Spence was dealt to Ottawa for draft picks.
“We lost a couple good players, but we brought in some really good guys and really good teammates,” center Quinton Byfield said. “We have a lot of veteran guys; everybody just jells well. I’m very excited about this team, like everyone else here. There’s a lot of young guys here that are ready to take the next step, and that’ll help us. It’s internal growth as well.”
Byfield, 23, and right defenseman Brandt Clarke, 22, were the foremost candidates for that “internal growth” potential, with the two former lottery picks still having plenty of runway after their second and first full seasons with the club, respectively.
Following the departures of Spence and Gavrikov, who played right defense for much of last season while Doughty was injured, Clarke should have no shortage of opportunity this year.
“I’m appreciative that they all see me in a bigger light this year, and they want me to seize that opportunity. There’s more ice time there, but the onus comes down to how I play, how I manage my abilities and what I do with my time on ice, making the plays and the right reads,” Clarke said. “I’m ready for that challenge, and I’m ready to prove them right, in a sense, so I’m just excited for what’s ahead.”
Byfield said the Kings had been “chirping” Clarke, referring to him as Bobby Orr and Cale Makar.
“All jokes aside, he looks really good and it looks like he’s filled out a little bit. I want to see him succeed, because it’ll help our whole team,” Byfield said.
Despite the fact that Gavrikov earned only a modest raise – his $5.875 million cap hit became a $7 million annual average value in a climate where his individual value increased and the market ceiling rose substantially – the Kings’ multiple offers beyond Blake’s initial sum failed to keep Gavrikov in the fold. Gavrikov instead signed with the Rangers, who missed the playoffs last season, for seven years and $49 million.
Incoming GM Ken Holland then took the exact amount of money that Gavrikov and Spence will earn this year combined and committed it to a pair of 30-something rearguards, Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin. On Thursday, Dumoulin skated with Clarke, who had been paired with another seasoned newcomer to the Kings last year, Joel Edmundson.
“I can definitely see that he’s a laid-back, nothing-bothers-him type of guy,” Clarke said of the soft-spoken Dumoulin.
While the acquisitions of Perry and Joel Armia, a physical penalty killer, provided ostensible boosts up front and Anton Forsberg may be an upgrade over David Rittich as the No. 2 goalie, the reconfiguration on the back end was enough to all but ubiquitously sour analysts on Holland’s first offseason in El Segundo.
That the Kings were scrambling to ice a defense corps seemed perverse for a team once brimming with blue-line depth, before the departures of Brock Faber, Sean Walker, Sean Durzi, Matt Roy, and, most recently, Gavrikov and Spence.
The Kings also entered the summer in a rare position for a playoff team, having substantial cap space. But a rise in the cap ceiling meant many other teams could retain their players, and top free agent Mitch Marner zeroed in on Vegas as his destination early in the process.
“In a sense, there’s positives that come out of (not adding a big-name player),” Clarke said. “We have such a good core, top to bottom last year, we communicated so well, we were all on the same page and we all cared about each other so much. I think they wanted to keep that identity, they didn’t want to shake that up too much and that goes a long way, because we all believe in each other in this dressing room.”
With no big-ticket forwards available, the Kings opted to run it back with their top-nine from the stretch run last season, including a fresh one-year deal for trade-deadline pickup Andrei Kuzmenko. He meandered through much of 2024-25, which he split between three teams, but not only took off individually with the Kings but appeared to click their forwards into place overall.
Pre-deadline, they scored the 27th-most goals in the NHL, but from the deadline onward, they were No. 1 in the NHL in total goals and second in goals per game. That didn’t change their result in the postseason, where they were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in a fourth straight first-round series.
“In our opening meetings with (Coach Jim Hiller), we alluded to being more consistent,” said Byfield, admitting his own consistency remained a focus. “This year, we are going to try and build on the post-deadline success we had and, hopefully, be a lot better in the playoffs.”
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