50 Days until LA Kings hockey!
Well, sort of.
50 days until the LA Kings take the ice at Crypto.com Arena, against the Florida Panthers on October 6. I’d have normally timed this out until the regular-season opener but hey, technicalities fly just fine around here. I needed another week to get this one where I wanted it and so we pivot to the home opener. I blame Gary Bettman and his actually much appreciated earlier start date.
50 Days is a barometer I like to use to begin looking forward. It’s not an end all, be all. The Kings could make moves between now and then. Could maybe see a late free agent signing or perhaps a training-camp tryout. Maybe there’s that out of left field trade we might be pushing for but not really expecting in August. Could be absolutely nothing at all. But 50 days is, nonetheless, where we’re at today.
In 50 days, we’ll have seen this Kings team in action twice, our first opportunity to see what a Peter Laviolette coached team in Los Angeles looks like on the ice. We’ll see how personnel on the blueline, largely acquired for one system handles a very different system this season. We’ll see how personnel specifically acquired with this approach in mind does for the Kings up front. Unknowns galore, but I don’t think that is all that different than things we’ve seen in the past.
First, let me tell you about a few players.
Player A scored at a 52-goal pace when forecast over 82 games and he did the bulk of his damage at even strength. In fact, just over six percent of his total goals scored came on the power play and the rest all came at even strength. Paced out over last season as a whole, his total would’ve ranked second in the NHL last season behind only Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon.
Player B was one of the NHL’s best playmakers, averaging 62 assists per season. Only seven players in the NHL had more assists in that span and just five players collected more points. Only two players around the NHL scored more even-strength goals than Player B but he also produced on the power play, ranking sixth in power-play assists and power-play points.
Player C averaged 2.85 assists and 4.17 points per/60 at all situations. If you placed those totals into last season’s NHL numbers, he would have ranked third in assists behind Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid. Would have ranked fourth in points behind Kucherov, McDavid and MacKinnon.
Each of the 50 main facts stated below is, well, factual. Facts are interesting, though. Things can be true but not predictive at the same time. Factors that might actually predict what’s to come often requires a leap. The facts below certainly slant more towards positive numbers. Everything said is true, but how much stock you actually put into those facts, how much they actually mean, I suppose that is up to you. But they are factual.
So, with that in mind, presenting 50 facts about the 2026-27 Los Angeles Kings.
0. Let’s unmask some identities first.
1. Adrian Kempe scored at a 52-goal pace last season from the time Artemi Panarin joined the Kings roster through the end of the season.
1a. He did so despite battling a foot injury that cost him one game and limited him during a six-game stretch in which he did not find the back of the net.
2. Of Kempe’s 16 goals in that 25-game span with Panarin on the roster, 15 came at even strength, tied with Montreal’s Cole Caufield for the most by any player in the NHL from the Olympic break through the end of the regular season.
3. Additionally, Panarin had an assist on 11 of Kempe’s 16 goals, a 69-percent clip.
4. 61 percent of Panarin’s assists as a member of the Kings came on a goal scored by Kempe.
4a. Early days, but a Panarin/Kempe partnership in one form or another is expected at the start of training camp.
5. Player B isolated Panarin’s two seasons spent under new Kings Head Coach Peter Laviolette in New York: the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons.
6. Panarin set career highs in goals and points under Laviolette in the 2023-24 campaign, as the Rangers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals.
7. Panarin also exceeded the 70-assist mark for the second time in his NHL career and averaged over 60 assists over his two seasons playing under Laviolette.
8. The last time a member of the LA Kings collected 60+ assists in a season was Wayne Gretzky during the 1995-96 campaign.
9. Speaking of player partnerships, during Kevin Fiala’s three full seasons in Minnesota, he spent just over 316 minutes playing with forward Mats Zuccarello at all strengths.
10. Fiala’s offensive numbers when on the ice with Zuccarello – highlighted above as Player C – are far better than any season in his NHL career to date and would place him among the NHL’s elite offensive players when forecast over 82 games.
11. Additionally of the 22 players Fiala shared the ice with for at least 300 minutes, the Wild averaged 6.6 goals per/60, the second highest number of any of Fiala’s teammates, behind only Kirill Kaprizov.
12. Across his time in LA, among players he has played at least 300 minutes with, he has not posted a higher total of on-ice goals for with any teammate.
12b. Early days, but a Fiala/Zuccarello partnership in one form or another is expected at the start of training camp.
13. Let’s talk about Laviolette a bit. The Kings are Laviolette’s seventh NHL team coached. Each of the first six teams improved their regular-season points percentage in Laviolette’s first season.
14. All six of those teams qualified for the playoffs in Laviolette’s first season and five of those six improved their playoff performance in Laviolette’s first season.
15. Additionally, five of those six teams finished inside the NHL’s Top-7 in goals scored during Laviolette’s first season and all six finished in the top half of the NHL.
16. Looking specifically at teams coached by both Laviolette and Associate Coach Phil Housley – the Rangers and Predators – they finished no lower than eighth in scoring by defensemen, finishing in the Top-5 four times.
17. The 2025-26 LA Kings finished last in the NHL in that metric last season, both in the regular season and playoffs.
17a. Something’s got to give, eh?
18. Only one team in the NHL finished in the bottom five in both power play and penalty kill percentages last season. That team was the LA Kings.
19. On the power play, forward Kevin Fiala led the Kings with 17 power-play points last season, despite suffering a season-ending injury at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February.
19a. Yes, the Kings power play was truly that ineffective last season.
20. Only the Calgary Flames and St. Louis Blues had a player with a lower total lead the team in power-play points last season.
21. Forward Artemi Panarin has never collected under 17 power-play points in a season during his NHL career.
22. That includes the shortened 2020-21 season, when he played just 42 games.
23. In his two seasons playing under Peter Laviolette, Panarin collected 44 power-play points, tied for the fourth most in the entire NHL during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons combined.
24. Panarin will play his first full season with the Kings in 2026-27.
25. Forward Mats Zuccarello eclipsed 17 power-play points in four of his last five seasons.
26. Zuccarello averaged 25 power-play points over the last five seasons, despite averaging only 69 games played during that span.
27. Zuccarello signed a one-year contract with the Kings on July 1.
28. On a per/82-game basis, Panarin, Zuccarello and Fiala would have combined for 77 points last season on the power play.
29. Since winning the Stanley Cup, the Kings have had three players combined for at least 75 power-play points twice in the last five seasons, ranking fourth and 12th in the NHL when that happens.
30. The 2024-25 Kings ranked 30th in the NHL in PK% (74.6 percent) and power-play goals allowed (61).
31. The Kings three most utilized defensemen on the penalty kill were Mikey Anderson, Joel Edmundson and Cody Ceci.
32. Looking specifically at 4-on-5 numbers, Anderson’s goals against per/60 number on the penalty kill was his worst career season of the six he’s spent in the NHL. Edmundson’s was his second worst of his 10 full NHL seasons. Ceci’s was his third worst of his 12 full NHL seasons.
32a. All three have lower career averages than their 2025-26 season.
33. Of the 109 NHL forwards to play at least 100 minutes while shorthanded last season, Erik Haula ranked seventh-best in goals against per/60.
34. Haula signed a two-year contract with the Kings on July 1.
35. The Kings ranked 12th in the NHL in expected goals against, per/60, on the penalty kill last season, per Natural Stat Trick.
36. The Kings ranked 30th in 4-on-5 penalty kill save percentage last season.
37. Only Ottawa and Vancouver had a wider disparity between expected goals against on the penalty kill and actual goals against on the penalty kill, per Natural Stat Trick.
38. If the Kings had finished exactly league average in both categories – PP and PK – they would have scored nine power-play goals and allowed 17 fewer shorthanded goals than they actually did in the 2025-26 season.
39. That would have moved the team from a -22 goal differential to a +4 goal differential, the difference between 21st and 16th in the NHL in that category.
40. Looking at all-time shootout percentages, among shooters with at least 20 career attempts, there are 20 active players at 42 percent or higher for their NHL careers.
41. Four of those players are on the LA Kings – Panarin, Zuccarello, Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore.
41a. No other team has more than two players in the active Top-20.
42. At 55.8 percent lifetime, Panarin has the second best percentage in the NHL among active shooters, behind only Philadelphia’s Trevor Zegras.
43. Here’s a blind player test for you. We’re looking at a defenseman here.
Player X: 69 Games Played. 7 Goals. 35 Points. +6 Rating. With Player X on the ice, his team led all defensemen in percentage of shot attempts controlled. Player X was also a Top-2 defenseman on his team in percentage of high-danger chances controlled while he is on the ice.
44. Player X is Erik Gustafsson’s collective statistical profile during his two seasons played under Peter Laviolette and Phil Housley (2022-23 in Washington, 2023-24 in New York).
45. During those two seasons under Laviolette and Housley, Gustafsson ranked in the 67th and 80th percentile respectively, among all NHL defensemen, in speed bursts over 20 MPH, per NHL Edge.
46. During those two seasons under Laviolette and Housley, Gustafsson ranked in the 74th and 77th percentile respectively, among NHL defensemen, in max speed burst, per NHL Edge.
47. Among last season’s six regular defensemen on the Kings roster, only Cody Ceci was above the 50th percentile in both categories.
47a. If you haven’t heard, Laviolette and Housley expect skating and conditioning from those on the blueline.
47b. Might just be room for someone who brings those things.
48. The 2026-27 season will be the first that the Kings contest without Anze Kopitar on the roster since 2005-06.
49. The Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006 with Peter Laviolette behind the bench as Head Coach.
50. The LA Kings begin the 2026-27 season on Wednesday, September 30 at 7 PM Pacific against the Colorado Avalanche. The home opener falls on Wednesday, October 6 at 7:30 PM Pacific against the Florida Panthers, 50 days from today.