2025 Training Camp Primer – Day 1

Training Camp, Day 1!

The LA Kings have hit the ice for the first time as a group for the first day of training camp, 2025 edition. Practices over the first three days will be broken down into four different skates.

Today’s practice begins with Group A on the ice for a 9:30 AM practice. For that group of players, their day ends after the first practice session of training camp. Then, Group B hits the ice at 10:30 AM for their practice, which will be followed by a scrimmage session between Group B and Group C at 11:15 AM. The last skate of the day will be Group C’s practice session at 12:30 PM, following the scrimmage. Such will be the structure for today, tomorrow and Saturday, with the Kings working 58 different players into these groups on the ice.

For today, here’s how the groups are aligned –

Group A
Forwards (12) – Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar, Alex Turcotte, Jeff Malott, Joel Armia, Jacob Doty, Jimmy Lombardi, Jack Hughes, Liam Greentree, Cole Guttman, Logan Brown, Andrei Kuzmenko

Defensemen (8) – Cody Ceci, Joel Edmundson, Joe Hicketts, Parker Berge, Otto Salin, Nate Corbet, Kirill Kirsanov, Jared Woolley

Goaltenders (2) – Erik Portillo, Carter George

Group B
Forwards (10) – Alex Laferriere, Kevin Fiala, Kenta Isogai, Taylor Ward, Jared Wright, Quinton Byfield, Francesco Pinelli, Aatu Jamsen, Jan Chovan, Kaleb Lawrence

Defensemen (6) – Brian Dumoulin, Kyle Burroughs, Jacob Moverare, Jack Millar, Angus Booth, Brandt Clarke

Goaltenders (2) – Pheonix Copley, Anton Forsberg

Group C
Forwards (10) – Trevor Moore, Phillip Danault, Akil Thomas, Kenny Connors, Warren Foegele, Martin Chromiak, Andre Lee, Glenn Gawdin, Samuel Helenius, Koehn Ziemmer

Defensemen (6) – Drew Doughty, Mikey Anderson, Tim Rego, Jakub Dvorak, Samuel Bolduc, Henry Brzustewicz

Goaltenders (2) – Isaiah Saville, Darcy Kuemper

Impressions
Few things to be gained here.

First things first, here’s what I think you can deduce as your “camp-opening lineup” if Game 1 of the regular season was tomorrow.

Kuzmenko – Kopitar – Kempe
Fiala – Byfield – Laferriere
Foegele – Danault – Moore
Malott – Turcotte – Armia

Anderson – Doughty
Dumoulin – Clarke
Edmundson – Ceci

Kuemper / Forsberg

That is SO far down the line, though. Regular-season Game 1 is not tomorrow or even remotely tomorrow. But in looking at the lines above, while it’s no guarantee, those are the combinations I see forming from players being in certain groups. So many practices and games to change that and ample players who are not in that group of 20 who are here to change someone’s mind and earn their place in the lineup. So, take that for what it is.

Secondly, the structure of this camp will be different than what we have seen here in years past. In past years, the Kings loaded up Groups A and B, with Group C either consisting of players likely bound for the AHL or players in need of a lighter workload. In this year’s camp, the groups are much more spread out. The team’s top three centers – Kopitar, Byfield and Danault – are all in separate groups. The groups scrimmaging each have 10 forwards and six defensemen, while the group that is not scrimmaging has 12 forwards and six defensemen. It’s a change in approach and one that’s worth asking Jim Hiller about later on today.

Of the 59 players on the training-camp roster, 58 are expected to be on the ice for Day 1 of training camp. The lone exception is forward Corey Perry, who will miss the entirety of training camp with a knee injury. Perry is on a 6-8 week recovery timeline from Friday, so he’s out for a bit. Perry’s absence opens the door a bit wider for several players who were on the roster bubble. Players like Jeff Malott, Andre Lee, Akil Thomas, perhaps even Liam Greentree up front. Also opens the door for the Kings to potentially carry eight defensemen, which would mean both Jacob Moverare and Kyle Burroughs making the team. Lots of options and that’s what camp is for.

The groups above are just for today and I’d expect at least a few tweaks to the alignment for Day 2 tomorrow. I would think that Kopitar, Kempe and Kuzmenko get into scrimmages maybe tomorrow, and the scrimmage groups only have 10 forwards and 6 defensemen, so there will likely be some shuffling around as Group A will be involved in the scrimmage on Friday. The change from seasons past is that the non-scrimmaging group is skating before the other two groups, not after. It’s the smallest of the three groups as the Kings don’t have enough players in camp to field three full lineups, but in past years, that group skated in the early-afternoon, after the main two groups.

There’s really not all that much surprise with the Day 1 alignment, in terms of forecasting. The Top 9 from last season up is split up to where it would appear as if they are staying the same way. On the blueline, Anderson/Doughty is the holdover pairing from last season, though Clarke and Edmundson in separate groups is a bit of a surprise, but also nothing crazy. Beyond those lines are a lot of players vying for their opportunity to impress and have a chance at making the Kings. There’s always a player who enters camp off that radar who impresses and works his way into that mix. Someone we’re not talking about who will be with the team longer than expected. See Alex Laferriere in 2023 and Andre Lee in 2024. Happens just about every year and you have to expect it to happen again……just can’t expect it to be any one player in particular.

We’ve arrived, Insiders. Training Camp officially gets underway this morning! Excited to see it come together.