2024 Kings Seasons In Review – Kevin Fiala

Moving ahead with the seasons in review series, with a look into the campaign from Kevin Fiala.

Fiala posted his second consecutive season of 70+ points. One shy of 30 goals and one shy of 45 assists. At his best, Fiala is the team’s most dynamic offensive player. When he’s at his best, he’s got the right balance between risk and reward and we saw long stretches of that this season, even if it took him a bit of time to find his way in the early goings.

Kevin Fiala
LAK Statline –82 games played, 29 goals, 44 assists, +1 rating, 62 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 5 games played, 1 goal, 1 assist, +1 rating, 4 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 56.2% (+3.2%), SCF% – 56.9% (+4.9%), HDCF% – 57.5% (+5.8%)

Trending Up – Fiala this season was the intersection of surface-level numbers and actual numbers. The metrics say that good things happened for the Kings when Fiala was on the ice and good things did in fact happen when Fiala was on the ice. Fiala was not just on the right side of 50 percent in all of those categories/metrics but actually on the right side of 55 percent. The Kings had the puck regularly when Fiala was on the ice and gave up very little the other way. It’s one thing to post numbers that strong in terms of chances and another to translate it into goals. Fiala was also on the right side 55 percent of goals for percentage at 5-on-5 this season.

Only 13 players in the NHL ranked about 55 percent in all of the following categories – CF%, SF%, SCF%, HDCF% and GF%. Fiala was one of those 13. Really good stuff.

Then there’s the power play and Fiala had the most productive season of his NHL career. Fiala posted 7.2 points per/60 in power-play situations, the highest total he’s posted in a single season throughout his career. His 31 power-play points this season led the Kings and of the 222 forwards to play at least 100 minutes on the power play, Fiala ranked 16th in the NHL in PPP per/60. The Kings took a small step back on the man advantage in terms of overall percentage from 2022-23 to 2023-24 but it certainly wasn’t due to the play of Fiala. He was among the most productive players in the NHL in man-advantage situations this season, a nice step forward for a notorious even-strength scorer.

Trending Down –Fiala’s production in the regular season was really strong. His postseason totals did not match his regular season success. Fiala buried one goal and collected on assist in the Round 1 defeat against the Oilers. His goal was an important one, coming in the third period of the Game 2 victory, but it was a seeing-eye shot from the outside. The Kings did not score a power-play goal in the series and Fiala is the team’s most creative player in that situation. Fiala had his share of “oh so close” moments. In the series, Fiala led the Kings in scoring chances and was second in shots on goal and shot attempts. Just the one goal, though, and at the end of the day, it’s the production that counts. It’s something the Kings will need from Fiala going forward.

The worst part of Fiala’s regular season was probably the lack of a permanent home. There was a lot of excitement about pairing Fiala and Pierre-Luc Dubois back in training camp. While the team had a lot of success early, it wasn’t until Fiala moved onto a line with Phillip Danault and Trevor Moore that he began to deliver his highest level of performances. When push came to shove down the stretch though, Viktor Arvidsson was put back onto that line, which left Fiala bouncing around in either an 11/7 configuration or with various linemates on the third line. It got him on the ice more but he never established himself in a particular spot. It’s a positive that Fiala seemed to be productive regardless of his linemates. It’s not as positive that we’re two years in and don’t seem to know exactly where his best role in the lineup is. That’s not all on Fiala but it’s something both he and the Kings would be well-served to find going forward.

2024-25 Outlook– Fiala has five seasons remaining on the five-year contract he signed with the Kings in the summer of 2022. Through two seasons, Fiala has more than lived up to the contract that he signed and he now enters year three.

As noted above, what Fiala has yet to do is establish himself on a regular line, or even with a regular line mate. We know he’ll be here and we know he’ll score. He’s proven he can do that regardless of who he plays with. It’d be nice, though, for Fiala to have a more regular home in the lineup. In Year 1, the goal was for that to be alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe but the Kings worked better with a different alignment. In Year 2, the plan was for Fiala to link up with Dubois and while that line played together at various points in the season, it wasn’t the answer either, at least as it was constructed initially. Fiala left the 2022-23 season hoping to find a full-time home. He and the Kings have the same task here this year. Fiala will be here and he’ll be important. Finding the right home for him, hopefully longer term, is important as well.