Through his play, Kevin Fiala is changing the narrative around him….and that’s great for the LA Kings

Perhaps you noticed the moment. More likely, it passed without pricking your consciousness.

But there was Kevin Fiala, helping protect a 3-1 lead in an important late-season game against UtahED4.

If the same thing happened in October or November, you might have wondered if Fiala had snuck onto the ice without the coaching staff noticing.

But Fiala’s presence on the ice in that crucial moment was by design and a reflection of just how much has changed since those early weeks of the regular season.

They are changes that could have a profound effect on what lies ahead for this Los Angeles Kings team when the playoffs start April 19.

And they are changes that have not come easily either for the talented Fiala or an admittedly sometimes frustrated head coach, Jim Hiller.

“The season’s probably aged both him and I, to be honest with you,” Hiller said. “I hope it ages both (of us) in a good way. He’s playing his best. I’m going to say over the last week, he’s played as well as I’ve seen him play.”

Hiller’s comments came on a night when Fiala scored his 30th goal of the season and the Kings shut out playoff nemesis Edmonton. While the production is important – it’s the first time the Kings have had two 30-goal scorers (Adrian Kempe is the other) since Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown back in 2007-08 – the offensive production is in some ways secondary to Fiala’s in-season overall metamorphosis.

“We’ve got a ways to go, but if you notice, backchecking, lifting sticks, forechecking,” Hiller said lifting attributes that are part of the LA Kings’ DNA and which are more and more becoming part of Fiala’s hockey DNA. It feels good probably for him, and it does for me, because it’s been trying at times this season. And, you know, we’ve just asked more of him. And he’s asked more of himself. He wanted to change the narrative around himself. It’s not an easy thing to do.”

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It’s been a year of great change and significant challenge for Fiala.

Almost a year ago Fiala and his wife, Jessica, had their first child, a daughter, Masie-Mae.

Shortly after Masie-Mae arrived, Fiala joined Team Switzerland at the World Championships and won a silver medal – his second at the World’s – and was named tournament MVP and the tournament’s top forward.

When the NHL season started Fiala acknowledged that the dramatic change from being an at-home dad during the off-season to being a new dad juggling and NHL schedule was jarring.

“In the beginning it was not easy,” Fiala said during a recent conversation.

But video calls helped keep the new father connected when the team was on the road.

There was also the inevitable change in perspective that becoming a parent for the first time brings.

“Just to open the eyes, reality check, kind of what is important, what’s not in life,” Fiala said. “Cutting some things, prioritize, she’s priority one. It changes for sure in a good way.”

It may be an absolute truth that Masie-Mae could care less if her dad was minus-2 and took a bad offensive zone penalty or not.

But Fiala cares deeply. So, too, do the LA Kings coaching staff.

And Fiala’s ability to work through some of those issues is what makes his current high level of play so interesting. Because you don’t have to go very far to find people who believe that a dynamic, engaged Kevin Fiala is critically important to the Kings winning not just a playoff series for the first time since 2014 but maybe much more this spring.

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Jarret Stoll won two Stanley Cups with the Kings and went to the 2006 Stanley Cup Final with Edmonton. He provides analysis on Kings’ television broadcasts and sees in Fiala an elite player who has embraced working on all aspects of his game.

“We got exactly what we needed in a game-breaker, dynamic creative a guy that can take over games,” he said. “Yeah, there’s growing pains with every player and in every situation, coaches, players, management. No different with Kevin. An All-Star player who had to figure out parts of his game to be dominant. And when I say dominant, that’s a pretty heavy word, but we see when he’s on top of his game like right now that he can be dominant. He can kind of carry a team, really, through some games. It’s so good to see him make adjustments in his game…that make him a better player not only for himself but make him a better player for the entire team.”

Stoll talked to Fiala after Saturday’s 3-0 win over Edmonton in which Fiala scored the game-winning tally and encouraged him to keep playing the way he’s been playing.

“He’s really appreciative. He really cares about his game. He loves the game. He has his own guys he works with in the summer and he puts in extra time, extra work on the ice during the season even, which is hard to do,” Stoll said. “So that just tells me how he feels about himself his game and the game of hockey.”

When you are blessed with immense talent the mental part of the game is so critical.

Fiala admits he’s less hard on himself when things go awry than he was earlier in his career but added it is a work in progress being able to give himself a break if he’s not at the top of his game.

“Still not there where I want it to be. I’m still very hard on myself. It will hopefully become more and more the older you get,” Fiala said.

As for this season, which included being benched for a portion of a game early in the season and then scratched for a game after missing a team meeting due to a faulty computer device alarm, Fiala said he was never really worried he’d find his way.

“Some days are tougher than others. Of course I was never like really, really worried, but of course, you were thinking about it. But I’ve always come back. I think I have that hunger. To just not accept any situation just to work through it no matter what,” Fiala said. “There’s up and downs in every season but I think this time I kind of learned hopefully those things for the next step. It’s been a great season so far.”

Kevin Fiala fängt den Puck ab und netzt eiskalt für die LA Kings! 🥅 #GoKingsGo | @lakings | @KevinFiala22 | #Fiala pic.twitter.com/WOd9LnZMzK

— NHL Deutsch (@NHLde) April 4, 2025

Fiala’s renaissance is an important development on many levels for a Kings team headed to the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

Linemate Alex Laferriere said Fiala has been an important shoulder to lean on when he’s gone through his own struggles and the young winger has learned from watching Fiala meet his own struggles head-on.

“I think he didn’t have the start that he wanted to the year but kind of just the mental fortitude that he had to kind of stick with it and know that it was going to turn around there,” Laferriere said. “He’s been one of the most important guys for our team in the back half. I think it teaches me a lot.”

Former LA King and veteran national broadcast analyst Ray Ferraro feels some empathy for Fiala as Ferraro was a skill guy who was counted on during his career to be an offensive catalyst.

“I think players like Fiala get picked apart for what they can’t do and they don’t get embraced for what they can do,” Ferraro said.

Although coaches talk 200-foot players as the gold standard, Ferraro believes only a handful of 200-foot players also produce offense at a high level.

“That’s why Fiala is super important for the Kings. He has to create. You cannot always wait for the goal off the grind, sometimes you have to score off the rush, you have to score off a broken play, you have to score with high skill,” Ferraro said. “I think players like him are critical in the playoffs because as the room gets tighter you need to have players that can make something out of nothing.”

Now, Ferraro thinks he understands where Hiller and the coaching staff stand on Fiala. They don’t need him to be a Frank J. Selke Trophy nominee. But they need him to be engaged even when the chances aren’t there.

“I would say there’s one word that would sum that up and that’s application. You’ve got to be applied to the game,” Ferraro said. “And on the night that you don’t have it, that there are no chances, you can’t be a ghost. Everybody in the league has a ceiling otherwise everybody would do everything. On the nights that you’re not at your ‘A’ or ceiling game, you have to be able to provide something else for the team.”

Long-time NHL coach Bruce Boudreau, now a regular analyst on both American and Canadian networks, coached Fiala in Minnesota and recalled it wasn’t a straight line for Fiala and the coaching staff there, either.

But Boudreau also believed Fiala learned from his experiences and can play a complete game.

“Because he’s really smart,” Boudreau said. “He can stickhandle in a phone booth and he can make perfect passes.”

Boudreau is bullish on the Kings’ chances this spring.

“I think the Kings can win,” Boudreau said. “I love their work ethic.”

But he’s also candid when it comes to assessing Fiala’s role in any long Los Angeles playoff run.

“I think to win you need the good Kevin Fiala,” Boudreau said. “You need Kevin to step up and be one of your top three players. If you want to win.”

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