The Los Angeles Kings have made some major additions this offseason, adding forward Phillip Danault and defenseman Alex Edler. It’s clear the team is looking to get back into the playoffs – but is that a realistic goal?
The divisions will be back to normal next season, so to start, we can look at the team's competition within the Pacific Division. The Kings shouldn’t have a problem finishing ahead of the Anaheim Ducks and San Jose Sharks. That said, we can also be sure they won’t be near the Vegas Golden Knights at the top of the division. The Oilers have also finished as a top-12 regular season team over each of the last two seasons and after adding Zach Hyman, the team does finally have a bit more forward depth.
The three other ‘bubble’ teams likely competing for the third divisional playoff spot would be the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Seattle Kraken. The Flames are coming off an extremely underwhelming season. The team added Blake Coleman, Nikita Zadorov and Tyler Pitlick, but it’s tough to say whether that’ll be enough to get them back into the postseason. Meanwhile, the Canucks finished only a point ahead of the Kings last year, but will be looking to be much more competitive next season, after some major additions in Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Conor Garland. Then it’s a bit of a toss up as to where the Kraken could place. They have an excellent goaltending tandem and a pretty strong defense group, but do lack top forwards.
There’s also the opportunity for the Kings to slide into a wildcard spot as well though. We can pencil in the Colorado Avalanche to take one of the Central Division spots, while the Arizona Coyotes won’t be anywhere near the postseason. I’d also say that after some major blue line additions, the Winnipeg Jets are a pretty safe bet to be back in the playoffs. Once again though, there’s going to be a cluster of teams looking for the other spot and competing for a wildcard spot, with the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators and St. Louis Blues all in the mix.
Honestly, it’ll be a pretty wide open playoff race in the West next season. While there are really only about four teams who are pretty safe bets to be playoff teams, there are also only three teams who can probably be counted out from the playoff race. This should leave about nine teams fighting for one spot in each division, along with the two wildcard spots.
So it’s pretty tough to say what next season will look like for the Kings. I’d say the Kings making the playoffs is certainly a possibility but wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s likely. Realistically, when it comes to how competitive Los Angeles will be next season, it’ll probably depend how quickly the team’s young players continue to develop.
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What do you think is the most likely scenario for the Kings?
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