Big day tomorrow!

The LA Kings return to the ice tomorrow evening against the Vegas Golden Knights at Crypto.com Arena, with a 26-game sprint to the finish in front of them. One more day to wait, though.

For today, it was one final practice day at Toyota Sports Performance Center, as the Kings got in their last bit of preparation in advance of tomorrow’s showdown. For starters, here’s how the Kings lined up during today’s practice day –

Panarin – Laferriere – Kempe
Byfield – Kopitar – Moore
Foegele – Turcotte – Kuzmenko
Malott – Helenius – Perry – Ward

Anderson – Ceci
Edmundson – Clarke
Moverare – Dumoulin
Kirsanov

Forsberg
Portillo

Not present today – Joel Armia, Darcy Kuemper and Drew Doughty.

Kuemper is back in Los Angeles but was given the day off. Armia should be back now, with an afternoon arrival, while Doughty is scheduled to get back in tonight. Hiller is expecting to have all three players available to him as of right now, but wasn’t fully committal with 24 hours between now and tomorrow’s game versus Vegas. Will see if we have any additional clarity tomorrow, before the Kings host the Golden Knights.

Darcy Kuemper arrived back in LA last night while Joel Armia and Drew Doughty are expected back today.

All three are expected to be available for VGK/EDM games, assuming no issues over next 24 hours. https://t.co/Zur18Xc2x6

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 24, 2026

The big addition – welcome back Adrian Kempe!

First day back on the ice for number 9, after he returned from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Kempe was exactly where we expected him to be, on a line with Artemi Panarin and Alex Laferriere. It’s the line that we expected to see Kempe moved on to, with Jim Hiller pretty open about that on the first day back from the break. Today, we saw it in action. Exciting to see the two of them on the ice, skating together both during line rushes and on the power play, which was also practiced during today’s skate.

“He’s one of the most skilled players in the league,” Kempe said of Panarin. “Obviously we don’t see him too much when he played for the Rangers, because we only face them twice a year, but everybody’s seen what he can do. Everybody’s seen his highlights, going back to his Chicago days and definitely in the Rangers jersey as well. It’s a lot of fun to have him here, [it’ll be] a lot of fun for me to be on the same line as him. He can make some really good plays out there. For me, just trying to get up to speed with him as quick as I can here before the game tomorrow, but that felt good in practice.”

To get up to speed as fast as possible while he wasn’t in LA, Adrian Kempe said he watched video of Panarin & also of players who have been successful playing w/ Panarin.

Liked hearing that. Shows Kempe is all-in on making the fit work, said things “felt good” today in practice.

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 24, 2026

One thing I thought was pretty cool that Kempe said today was that although he did not practice with the Kings until this morning, he was already putting in some work on his own to try and get up to speed with the way that Panarin plays. Kempe said he watched a lot of Panarin video on his own time and also took the time to watch video of players who have clicked well with Panarin in the past, which is actually not something I really thought about, but it’s a unique perspective. Additionally, Kempe said he talked with New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad while they were in Milan for the Olympics, both representing Team Sweden. Kempe and Zibanejad are different players, in different roles, but still good first-hand feedback as they were teammates for a number of years.

“I talked to Mika a little bit during the tournament, all he had to say was good things about him,” Kempe added. “Obviously it’s a little bit different, because he’s a righty and I’m a lefty and Mika’s a center and I’m right wing, so it’s a little bit different. I’ve tried to watch some video of him and tried to watch some video of other guys that have success playing with him, what they do, where they play and all that kind of stuff. Just trying to catch up to where the team is at right now, I just had a couple days off, so body’s feeling good, mind is rested, so I’m ready to go.”

More on the top power-play unit, with Panarin’s integration HERE. Below is what we saw during today’s practice, in terms of power-play alignment.

PP1: Clarke – Panarin – Byfield – Kempe – Perry
PP2: Clarke – Panarin – Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Laferriere
5-on-3 PP: Kempe – Panarin – Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Perry

There are probably a couple of placeholders in there, with Drew Doughty possibly moving onto the second power-play unit and maybe a spot for Joel Armia with the second unit, after he played in that role during the Olympics? Not positive there. But for today, that’s what we saw. Jim Hiller said after today’s practice that we could see Panarin playing with both units. That’s not all that surprising. Hiller has admitted the coaches will lean on Panarin as much as they are able to in offensive situations and we’ve seen a similar tactic from Hiller before to spark a struggling power play, when Kevin Fiala was integrated into both units for a time last season. Panarin isn’t going to play shutdown minutes, so upping his time on ice during power-play situations makes sense, it’s not as if the Kings are saving him for those types of shifts. Would rather he get some time to connect with Kuzmenko as well and try and make the time on the man advantage more dangerous than it’s been.

One thing that I didn’t cover a ton in the first story about the power play was the role that Kempe will play.

He began the season as more of a facilitator, playing the center point on the five-forward unit that was successful last season, but not so much this year. He’s been utilized in the bumper position as well, in addition to some time on the right side of the umbrella, but not nearly as much as we’d seen at times in past seasons. Kempe played there on the power play with Team Sweden at the Olympics and has spent a lot of time there with the Kings, just not as much this season. Is the possibility of getting back into that spot exciting?

“Yeah, it is.”

Kempe almost paused as he answered the question, realizing that yeah, this is exciting for him, before giving a detailed answer.

“It’s great to be on the other side, all I’ve got to do is try to get open and obviously shoot when I get the puck,” Kempe said. “It’s nice to play there a little bit more. I played there now during the Olympics as well, so it’s nice to kind of get into the the habits of playing there instead of playing in a bunch of different spots. I feel like it’s nice once you start to be in the same spot for a long time, you get more comfortable there, you get more confidence there. Hopefully we can work on that and have a good power play for the rest of the year.”

I suppose that this time of the year presents nothing but optimism. Goes double for the Kings right now. The Kings have never lost a game with Artemi Panarin in the lineup. Haven’t lost a game in 20 days. With that comes optimism, because the rest of the season is still ahead of the Kings and while they are in a position of needed to fight back from below the line for qualification into the playoffs, the break seemed to come at a good time for a team that is finally getting healthier and added a player who is as exciting an addition as we’ve seen here in some time.

As for what else we might expect to see between now and then, the Kings recalled defenseman Kirill Kirsanov and goaltender Erik Portillo and then reassigned them to the AHL after practice. Expecting both players to remain with the Ontario Reign for the foreseeable future. Defenseman Mikey Anderson and forward Alex Turcotte are both on injured reserve but both players are expected to be activated in advance of tomorrow’s game versus Vegas. With Armia, Doughty and Kuemper, all we can do is take what we’ve heard and give it until tomorrow. As of today, I’d pencil in all three to play, though Kuemper could back up. Will obviously check in again tomorrow and go from there.

Have one more story to come tonight, before it’s gameday coverage once again tomorrow! Good to have that back, been too long.