50 Days, 50 Facts About The LA Kings

We are officially 50 Days away from Opening Night!

Which, for me, means one of my favorite articles to research and write over the offseason. Presenting 50 Facts about the LA Kings.

I started this series two summers ago and repeated it last year. It is a theft from Matthew Berry, one of my favorite Fantasy Football reads, but it’s an article he writes each season that always makes me think. The premise is incredibly simple. Just post things that are factually true. Typically, facts jump off one another, they help to push the storyline along, but at the core of it all, it’s simply a listing of facts. Nothing more. Facts, as we know though, can be used to lead. Facts are always true but facts when used by just about anyone writing an article are likely used to steer your opinion in the direction they want to steer you towards. It’s not that they aren’t true. They are. But the person using them has intention behind it.

For example, here are two completely factually true player profiles.

Player A: Player A led all Kings defensemen in goals per/60 at 5-on-5 last season. Player A was also atop the charts in terms of individual shots on goal, shot attempts and scoring chances on a per/60 basis. The same can be said for on-ice chances, as no Kings blueliner saw on-ice scoring chances or high-danger chances for, on a per/60 basis, than Player A. Player A was also a factor on the power play, leading the Kings in power-play assists per/60 as well.

Player B: Player B scored just two goals and collected six points from the blueline last season. Just one of those goals came at 5-on-5 and it came late in a blowout win. In 5-on-5 situations, Player B ranked sixth amongst Kings’ blueliners in points on a per/60 basis and he ranked last in assists per/60. Player B had the lowest goal share of any Kings defenseman despite starting nearly 55 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone at even strength.

Player A sounds like an offensive dynamo, a play driver and a player I’d like in the mix. Player B sounds like an absolute liability at the offensive end of the ice.

Player A is Brandt Clarke. Player B is also Brandt Clarke.

I love Brandt Clarke as a player. I think his upside is tremendous, probably the highest of any player you’d consider to be a prospect within our organization. But, without telling a lie, I could paint the picture of a disappointing player, without the proper context, without the necessary details. All by just using facts. I could make him out to be a world beater too, as Player A appears to be.

The Kings expect Brandt Clarke to be a regular, 82-game player this season at the NHL level. With that needs to come offensive impact, which I believe he will have. If you’re just pointing to the facts, though, without the proper observations, context, information and such, you might only have half the story at your disposal. Sometimes, those are the facts that I decide to give you to push the narrative – positive or negative – that I want to push and I want to be absorbed. I believe that just about anyone who you might read is doing the same thing. Sometimes it’s subconscious, sometimes it’s very intentional. But, even the most factual of articles can be filled with half truths. Even this one.

With that being said, presenting 50 facts about the 2024-25 LA Kings.

1. Let’s start with Clarke – Brandt Clarke led all AHL defensemen in points-per-game (0.92) last season.

2. Over the last 20 years, only four rookie defensemen have played in 40+ AHL games and posted a points-per-game of 0.8 or higher: Brandt Clarke, Jordan Spence, Brandon Montour and John Carlson.

3. Two of those defensemen are on the LA Kings.

4. Clarke ranked in the NHL’s 94th percentile last season in percentage of his ice time spent in the offensive zone.

5. Spence led all Kings defensemen in individual high-danger chances and scoring chances per/60 last season and was in the NHL’s Top-15 in the former category.

6. Spence’s even-strength shooting percentage was 1.6%, ranking 190th of the 217 defensemen to log at least 500 minutes last season.

7. His 1.09 assists and 0.55 primary assists, both per/60, ranked in the Top-20 among NHL defensemen last season.

8. Here is a list of players from the 2020 NHL Draft who had 20 goals, 30 assists and had a plus rating in the 2023-24 season – Seth Jarvis, Quinton Byfield.

9. Byfield finished second on the Kings last season with 37, 5-on-5 points this past season and led his team with 0.84 primary assists per/60 and 1.4 assists per/60.

10. After Jim Hiller was named as the Kings Head Coach, no Kings forward played more 5-on-5 minutes than Byfield did.

11. Jim Hiller was named as the permanent LA Kings Head Coach this summer.

11A. Per Rob Blake, Byfield is slotted to start the season on a line with Kevin Fiala.

12. Last season, the six forwards to play 100+ minutes with Fiala at even strength had a higher expected goals for per/60 playing with him than playing without him.

13. Byfield and Fiala played 62 minutes together last season and recorded a 73 percent expected goal share.

14. In his first professional season, forward Alex Laferriere led the Kings in individual high-danger chances and scoring chances at 5-on-5.

15. Laferriere ranked second in expected goals scored at 5-on-5, behind only Trevor Moore.

16. Laferriere ranked seventh in actual goals and shooting percentage amongst regular Kings forwards.

17. He ranked ninth in time-on-ice per game amongst forwards at 5-on-5.

18. He also recorded a point on just over 60 percent of the goals he was on the ice for last season, ranking ninth among regular Kings forwards.

19. Laferriere also hit the post eight times last season, tied for the most on the Kings.

20. Four free agent forwards who changed teams this summer who averaged both a goal and an assist, per/60, at 5-on-5 last season.

21. Warren Foegele is one of those forwards.

21A. Foegele signed with the Kings on July 1.

22. Foegele ranked third in the NHL in scoring chances per/60, behind Zach Hyman and Auston Matthews, at 5-on-5.

23. He also ranked fourth in high-danger chances behind Matthews, Hyman and Anders Lee.

23A. Foegele is slotted to be the third member of a line with Byfield and Fiala.

23B. See #8

24. Foegele ranked fourth in even-strength points for the Oilers last season, trailing only Hyman, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

25. The Kings ranked 22nd in the NHL in hits last season.

26. Tanner Jeannot, acquired by the Kings in June, had 211 hits last season, which would have led the Kings.

27. Jeannot ranked fifth among forwards to appear in 50+ games in hits per/60.

28. Jeannot also ranked in the NHL’s Top-25 in penalties drawn, per/60, last season.

29. He was one of nine players in the league to rank in the Top-25 in both categories.

30. For what it’s worth, Andreas Englund ranked fourth among NHL defensemen in penalties drawn last season and led all blueliners in penalties drawn per/60.

31. Last summer, the Kings signed goaltender Cam Talbot, coming off a season where he ranked below his career average in SV% and GAA.

32. In the three seasons before (2019-22) Talbot posted a save percentage of .909, ranking ninth in the NHL over those three seasons.

33. The Kings acquired goaltender Darcy Kuemper via trade this summer.

34. Kuemper is coming off a season in which he ranked below his career average in SV% and GAA.

35. In the three seasons before (2020-23), Kuemper posted a save percentage of .914, ranking eighth in the NHL over those three seasons.

36. Per Natural StatTrick, in that window, Kuemper ranked fifth in the NHL in goals saved above average.

37. For just the third time in the last 18 seasons, forward Anze Kopitar did not lead the LA Kings in scoring in 2023-24.

38. Kopitar was, however, one of just two players in the NHL over the age of 35 to score 70 or more points (Sidney Crosby).

39. The player who did lead the Kings in scoring, Adrian Kempe, set career highs in assists (47) and points (75).

40. Kempe led the team in shot attempts and shots on goal from the slot last season.

41. Kempe also led the Kings in scoring chances off the rush and scoring chances off the in-zone cycle.

42. In 2023-24, Kempe had 23.0 expected goals, compared to 23.9 in 2022-23.

43. Kempe’s shooting percentage was five points lower (16.4% to 11.4%) from 2022-23 to 2023-24. Kempe was also tied with Laferriere for the most posts hit last season and created a team-high 39 rebounds.

44. When dressing 11 forwards and seven defensemen, the Kings posted a record of 13-1-1 last season.

45. In 11/7 alignments, the Kings averaged 3.9 goals-per-game, a mark which would have led the NHL last season over 82 games.

46. In 11/7 alignments, the Kings averaged 1.7 goals-against-per-game, a mark which would have led the NHL last season over 82 games.

47. Of those 15 games, five were played against teams that qualified for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

48. The Kings were the youngest team in 2023-24 both by age and experience (combined games played) to qualify for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

49. The average age of the projected 2024-25 LA Kings roster is 27.9, which would be the fourth-youngest age of teams that qualified for last year’s postseason.

50. The puck drops on October 10 to begin the regular season and we’ll learn how relevant, if at all, these facts wind up being.