2025 Kings Seasons In Review – Mikey Anderson

Diving now into the season that was for defenseman Mikey Anderson, who many felt took a step forward, especially during the regular season. Anderson was tasked with more, with Drew Doughty out of the lineup, and was a rock for the Kings as they navigated obstacles early in the season.

Mikey Anderson
LAK Statline – 77 games played, 6 goals, 18 assists, +17 rating, 28 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 6 games played, 0 goals, 1 assist, -4 rating, 2 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 51.5% (-3.0%), SCF% – 53.3% (-0.1%), HDCF% – 57.7% (+4.3%)

Anderson saw his situation change in September, when Doughty went down with the ankle injury. In Game 5 of the regular season, it changed again, as Jim Hiller paired him with Vladislav Gavrikov on a shutdown, defensive pairing. Playing together, both Anderson and Gavrikov thrived, helping guide the Kings through the first four months of the season, before playing largely separately down the stretch. Anderson stepped up in the process and delivered some of his best hockey, with more on his season below.

Trending Up – Mikey Anderson remains one of the NHL’s best chance-suppression players, one of those situations where the eye test matches what the statistics are telling us. Of the 138 defensemen to log at least 1,000 minutes this season at 5-on-5, Anderson ranked third in goals against and sixth in high-danger chances against, both on a per/60 basis. It’s a simple formula for a player who plays a simple game. Anderson does a good job of preventing those high-quality, Grade-A chances and as such, he keeps the puck out of his own net as well as just about anyone around the league.

By the eye test, I can’t think of a defenseman who played 2-on-1’s better than Anderson this season. Had a running thread of it on social media where seemingly every other game, Anderson expertly defended a 2-on-1 rush. It can sometimes be difficult to truly quantify the defensive impact that a player like Anderson brings, but more advanced numbers and tracking allow us to do a better job of that today than in years past. One area the numbers said Anderson excelled was recovering pucks dumped into his own zone, collecting and exiting the zone cleanly, with possession, especially when under pressure. Per Sport Logiq, on pressured puck retrievals off dumps, Anderson ranked fourth in the league in both total successful zone exits (112) and percentage of successful exits (86.6 percent). Sometimes, part of being good defensively is relieving pressure and the numbers show that Anderson was great in that department.

I’d also like to highlight Anderson’s step forward this season, on two fronts.

First, with Doughty out, Anderson was forced to raise his level and I think he pretty clearly did that. Hard to quantify it, but we saw a different level to Anderson’s game over the first four months of the season when the Kings were shorthanded. He and Vladislav Gavrikov formed a true, shutdown pairing. Both players raised their games at the same time and both deserved consideration for the team’s most outstanding defenseman, which Gavrikov ultimately won. Secondly, Anderson and forward Adrian Kempe rotated as the team’s second alternate captain with Doughty out. The Kings have been pretty solidified with regards to letters but Anderson has been a vocal leader in the room dating back even to his first full season with the Kings. It takes a special individual from a character perspective to vocally step up as a younger player and Anderson has shown a willingness to do that from Day 1. As players eventually retire or move on, look for Anderson to eventually assume a letter with the Kings on a regular basis. Feels more a matter of when than if, with the leadership qualities he’s shown already in his career.

Trending Down – In the postseason, Anderson was on the ice for eight goals against at 5-on-5, tied with Doughty for the most on the Kings. In the role he was deployed in, his two most common opponents at 5-on-5 were Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and per Natural Stat Trick, Anderson started just seven percent of his shifts against McDavid in the offensive zone and just 13 against Draisaitl. Against those two players, with that usage, it’s a difficult assignment, but it’s the assignment that the Kings have a player like Anderson to handle. While I thought a couple of others struggled more than he did in the series, the goals against in those situations, on top of the dispersal of chances, show that he didn’t impact the series as much as the Kings needed him to defensively and that’s his bread and butter. So it’s a trending down on that front, certainly.

I’m not sure how much of this came down to situational usage in the regular season, but the Kings scored fewer goals with Anderson on the ice than in past seasons. His rates were a career high, meaning goals for versus against, but in strictly looking at goals scored, Anderson was a extremely low-event player this season. Among the 214 defensemen with at least 500 minutes played at 5-on-5, Anderson ranked 178th in terms of on-ice goals for, per/60. He was fifth in goals against with the same parameters. Anderson is a defense-first guy through and through, but it was noticeable to see that number drop a bit from seasons past.

2025-26 Status – Anderson is signed for six more seasons, with a salary-cap hit of $4,125,000. When Anderson originally signed his eight-year deal, it came at around 4.9 percent of the salary cap. In two years, that will be down to 3.6 percent. I think Anderson’s deal was a terrific one for the Kings even without the rising cap and with that number going up, it’ll only get better. He’s a proven top-four defenseman who excels defensively. An easy player to build around in that role going forward, throughout the duration of his contract.