Here’s a bold prediction, the Los Angeles Kings will play the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2025 postseason, and will be swept.
Welcome to a new Oilersnation summer series called Off-Season Review, in which we’ll take a dive into what’s going on with the other 15 teams in the Western Conference. So far in the series, we’ve looked at the two other Canadian teams in the Pacific Division, and in this article, we’ll look at the Edmonton Oilers’ punching bag, the Los Angeles Kings.

The Los Angeles Kings 2023-24 season in a nutshell

In 2022-23, the Los Angeles Kings had the ninth-worst penalty kill percentage in the regular season, posting a 75.8 PK%. It was the worst of the 16 postseason teams, and that bled into the 2023 postseason, as they had a 43.8 PK% in six games, by far the worst as the Minnesota Wild had a 62.5 PK%.
One thing was clear after losing to the Edmonton Oilers and their daunted power play for the second consecutive season, they needed to upgrade their penalty kill.
The Kings did just that in 2023-24, as their 84.6 PK% was the second-best in the league behind only the Carolina Hurricanes’ 86.4 PK%. There were only three games the entire season where they allowed two or more power play goals, with two of those games coming at the end of March.
And then the Kings ran into the Oilers for the third consecutive postseason. The excellent penalty kill was replaced with a 55 PK%, an improvement for sure, but once again the worst in the postseason. What’s more is that they allowed two games with three or more goals on the penalty kill, and allowed a penalty kill goal in all five games they played in the postseason.
To make matters worse for the Kings, they were unable to score on their own power play, as the Oilers killed all 12 penalties they took, a big reason why they made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Thus, the circle of the Los Angeles Kings season was exposed. They’re a solid team with a good mix of young players, as well as grizzled vets who have won it all on multiple occasions. However, they just can’t get over the hump known as the Edmonton Oilers.
Let’s take a look at some of their best players from the 2023-24 season, as well as the moves they’ve made this off-season.

Some Notable Statistics

I don’t like the Kings, I assume you don’t like them either. However, I think we can agree that Anže Kopitar is one of the most underrated players of our generation. At age 36, he scored 26 goals and 70 points in 81 games, finishing third on the team in the latter category.
Adrian Kempe, 26, led the team in points, potting 28 goals and 75 points, followed by Kevin Fiala, who scored 29 goals and 27 points. Trevor Moore led the team in goals with 31 while posting 57 points.
One young player the Kings can look forward to is Quinton Byfield, as he took a big jump and scored 20 goals and 55 points, up from three goals and 22 points in 53 National Hockey League games last season. On the other end of the spectrum, defenceman Drew Doughty continued his success, scoring 15 goals and 50 points in 82 games.
The Kings also have a solid two-way centre in Phillip Danault, who scored 17 goals and 47 points in 78 games, while their big acquisition of the 2023 off-season, Pierre-Luc Dubois, scored 16 goals and 40 points. We’ll get to him.
Between the pipes, the Kings’ main netminder was former Oiler Cam Talbot, who had a .913 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average. When he struggled, the team turned to David Rittich, who had a .921 save percentage and a 2.15 goals-against average in 24 games played.
It was a solid team that just ran into a team that has their number, but can they take the next step with their off-season transactions?

Off-Season Transactions

The Kings’ off-season started early, as they moved on from Pierre-Luc Dubois after just one season, trading him to the Washington Capitals in exchange for netminder Darcy Kuemper. More importantly, they didn’t retain on his horrendous eight-year, $68 million deal with a cap hit of $8.5 million. Again, he had 16 goals and 40 points.
On June 22, the Kings re-signed Alex Turcotte. The 23-year-old centre was selected fifth overall in the 2019 draft but has a goal and four points in 32 National Hockey League games. He signed a three-year, $2.325 million deal. They also re-signed Samuel Fagemo to a one-year deal.
Los Angeles traded Carl Grundstrom to the Sharks for depth defenceman Kyle Burroughs on June 27 and made a few more moves around the draft, including trading down in the first round and selecting Liam Greentree. Moreover, they traded a 2025 second-round pick and their 2024 fourth-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for Tanner Jeannot.
Jeannot broke onto the scene in 2021-22, scoring 24 goals and 41 points in 81 games, along with 130 penalty minutes, before a trade with the Lightning at the 2023 trade deadline. He scored just seven goals and 14 points in 55 games but racked up 75 penalty minutes with his physical style of hockey.
On the opening day of free agency on July 1, the Kings signed former Oiler, Warren Foegele to a three-year deal worth $10.5 million with a cap hit of $3.5 million. Notably, Viktor Arvidsson signed with the Oilers on a one-year deal. If we’re looking at this value for value, the Oilers will win this swap if Arvidsson can stay healthy next season.
The Kings’ other big move on Canada Day was signing Joel Edmundson to a four-year deal worth $15.4 million, with a cap hit of $3.85 million. He’s big, mean, and has been to the Stanley Cup Finals twice, winning it with St. Louis in 2019, but that’s about it.
Los Angeles made a few more minor moves that day, re-signing Trevor Lewis to a one-year deal worth $800,000, as well as netminder Pheonix Copley to a one-year deal worth $825,000. Jeff Mallot signed a two-year deal with a cap hit of $775,000, while Tyler Madden signed a one-year, two-way deal at the league minimum. Jack Studnicka, Glenn Gawdin, and Reilly Walsh signed similar deals.
Notable losses from their roster include defenceman Matt Roy (five goals, 25 points), Viktor Arvidsson (six goals, 15 points in 18 games), Cam Talbot, and Blake Lizotte (seven goals, 15 points). There were some other depth players to sign elsewhere.
Former Oiler Caleb Jones signed a one-year, two-way deal with the Kings. The left-shot defenceman was involved in the Duncan Keith trade in the summer of 2021 and has bounced around the league since.
The most notable signing for the Kings though was when they re-signed Quinton Byfield on July 15, as their young star signed a five-year, $31.25 million deal with an annual cap hit of $6.25 million. They’re betting on their young player to get better, which is a pretty darn good bet.
Still, if they play the Oilers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, they aren’t winning.
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Previously in this series…