2025 Kings Seasons In Review – Joel Edmundson

Rolling on with the seasons in review series, as we shift the focus from the right side of the team’s most consistent defensive pairing to the left, with a look at Joel Edmundson’s 2024-25 season, his first with the Kings organization.

Joel Edmundson
LAK Statline – 73 games played, 6 goals, 14 assists, +25 rating, 22 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 6 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist, +2 rating, 2 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 50.9% (-3.2%), SCF% – 48.5% (-6.6%), HDCF% – 50.6% (-6.5%)

There were a lot of questions asked when the Kings signed defenseman Joel Edmundson over the summer. You can’t judge a four-year contract after just the first season, but I do think that in Year 1, Edmundson delivered exactly what the Kings were looking for and perhaps more. He was durable and reliable all season long and proved to be a pretty solid fit as a free-agent signing.

Trending Up – Let’s start with an easy one and I don’t think very many people would have constructed this sentence before the season started. Joel Edmundson was on the ice for more goals for at 5-on-5 than any other Kings player. I’m not a huge proponent of the plus/minus statistic, but the guy was +25, alongside the goals scored metric. Goals for/against is rarely a stat that you should make predictions on, season-over-season, but in a reflective way, it shows that Edmundson had a pretty good year.

Edmundson came to the Kings with the reputation of being an effective penalty killer and during the 2024-25 season, he was one of the NHL’s best defensemen in shorthanded situations. Of the 107 defensemen to play at least 100 minutes while shorthanded, Edmundson ranked ninth in goals against per/60 and 12th in expected goals against. Similar is good. Per NHL Edge data, Edmundson ranked in the 92nd percentile in terms of percentage of time spent in the defensive zone while shorthanded, meaning he spent substantially less time defending in PK-situations than the average defenseman. As the Kings revamped their penalty killing unit, Edmundson proved to be an important and effective part of that process.

When the Kings signed Edmundson, it was not with Games 1-82 in mind, but rather Game 83 and beyond. In the postseason, I thought Edmundson was the team’s best defenseman throughout the six-game series. Of the top four to play the bulk of the minutes, Edmundson was the only one on the positive side of the ledger at 5-on-5, on the ice for seven goals for compared to five against. In terms of limiting chances against, Edmundson also led the team in scoring chances against on a per/60 basis and was the team’s best defenseman, statistically, at denying controlled zone entries. He also led the Kings with 17 blocked shots. While others didn’t have their best series, Edmundson was one who played pretty effectively.

I also want to acknowledge the willing role that Edmundson played as a leader and a mentor for Brandt Clarke. The two were paired together for much of the season and right from the start, Edmundson was a willing mentor. Clarke mentioned numerous times the support system he had in Edmundson and while stylistically, they are very different players, having that rock to lean on with an experienced veteran leader was influential and helpful for a player navigating his first full season in the NHL.

Trending Down – Okay, so the trending up section started a certain way and so will the trending down section. Joel Edmundson was on the ice for more goals against at 5-on-5 than any other Kings player. Edmundson doesn’t really give high event vibes but that’s what his season looked like from a statistical profile. The number here is substantially lower than the one listed above (62 For, 47 Against), but that 47 led the team nonetheless.

A big reason behind the goals against would be the number of chances allowed with Edmundson on the ice. Edmundson’s on-ice metrics for high-danger chances against were the highest among regular Kings defensemen this season, while the same goes for scoring chances. The relative numbers at the top of this article show that the chances against came at a higher clip with Edmundson on the ice than without. These were not drastic numbers, but on a Kings team that placed among the NHL’s best defensively, they allowed more chances in certain situations with Edmundson on the ice, as opposed to other blueliners. That’s an area of concern and one to monitor heading into next season.

Involved in those numbers was a relatively sheltered set of zone starts, with only Clarke starting a higher percentage of his shifts in the offensive zone. I think part of that is to be expected, right? Edmundson is working to help protect a younger, offensively-gifted defenseman in Clarke and it would make sense to give that pairing more offensive-zone starts. That’s not weird or questioned. But it does mean that situational usage was more favorable, yet the chances and goals against still came, which is what’s being recognized here.

2025-26 Status – Edmundson is under contract for three more seasons at a salary-cap hit of $3,850,000. It’s a number that will age better throughout the course of his contract, as it counted for 4.4 percent of the cap this season, compared to 4.0 percent this season and 3.4 percent by contract’s end. Edmundson will likely begin in a similar role, skating as either the LD2 or the LD3 depending on how the Kings deploy their pairings. Jim Hiller liked the Edmundson/Clarke duo and, depending on how things shake out, that’s where I’d expect both players deployed entering next season as of this writing.