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Kovalchuk, a healthy Jeff Carter and the Kings power play |
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Ek's note. Please join us in welcoming our new LA Kings writer, Bobby Kittleberger. Bobby comes to HockeyBuzz with a great amount of interest and knowledge of the California hockey scene. He has written extensively for Bleacher Report covering the Anaheim Ducks and the LA Kings. His other passions include contributing guitar and music education content to Guitar World, Guitar Player, and Harmony Central.
Ilya Kovalchuk was a fun signing, the kind that keeps a fanbase excited during the offseason.
And he’ll help the Kings, especially on the power play. But there’s more subtle good news in LA, flying under the radar in the form of a healthy Jeff Carter who spent all but 27 games of the 2017-2018 season on IR.
Barring an unforeseen setback (training camp is still a ways off), Carter should be at full strength and ready to center the King’s second line, where he’ll be just two seasons removed from leading the Kings in points overall with 66 and power play points with 22. He added a team-high 250 shots and was the only player on the team that year to eclipse 190, good for a 54.4 Corsi For%. In 2016-2017 he was the only offensive bright spot for a Darryl Sutter team that finished 25th in the league in goals for.
To add insult to injury, there were only 30 teams that year.
Going into the 2018-2019 season, Carter’s return coupled with the offensive injection of Kovalchuk should give the King’s 17th ranked powerplay of 2017-2018 a significant boost. Let’s zoom out a bit more.
LA can now ice the following players on the power play:
Anze Kopitar
Dustin Brown
Ilya Kovalchuk
Jeff Carter
Tyler Toffoli
That’s dangerous, even without considering the threat of Drew Doughty, who alone put up 20 power play points on last year’s team. We could throw Tanner Pearson in there too.
In years past the LA Kings success has leaned heavily on defense and Jonathan Quick. Their defense is still good, and Quick is still a top-tier goaltender, but I think the Kings are going to have a great season in 2018-2019 (and I’m not a King’s fan), and it’s going to be on the back of their offensive strength and their power play.
And I don’t think it matters much whether Carter plays wing or centers the second line (he did both last year). The amount of talent they have to disperse is going to make both units extremely dangerous.
I’d like to see it broken up like this:
PP1
FWD: Kovs - Kopitar - Toffoli
DEF: Muzzin - Doughty
PP2
FWD: Pearson - Carter - Brown
DEF: Martinez - Phaneuf
Maybe John Stevens could throw one of his centers up on defense.
Again, I don’t think it matters.
With Kovalchuk and a healthy Carter, it’s going to do some damage. And while there’s always the possibility that Carter “won’t be himself” after that much time missed, there’s little reason to doubt that he’s going to make their power play significantly better than last year.
Add Kopitar, Brown, and Doughty all coming off career offensive years, and the Kings are primed to be far more than a fringe wild card team in 2019, even those three guys regress to the mean.
They’ll challenge the west’s heavy hitters, and they’ll do it by scoring a lot of goals.
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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