Recapping 2025 – By The Numbers, Team Leaders, Leaguewide Honors

It’s always interesting to take a look at the numbers over a calendar year.

It is not particularly relevant. There’s nothing to be gained or lost by combining the 2025 portions of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. If you were to have done this exercise in April, the Kings would have been a Top-5 team in several categories, most importantly including wins. That stretch included their Dry January, which was a reoccurrence from the year prior, yet they still got results over those four months. This year, it’s been much more middling, which has seen the numbers fall from being in contention for the league’s best to the upper-middle of the pack. The bulk of their totals in 2025 matched what this team has been, which is a solid playoff team that hasn’t taken the next step forward. 12th in points and points percentage, 13th in wins. A steady playoff team but not a top-tier club. The defensive numbers were obviously excellent, close to the best in the league, while the goals for number took a step back from 2024, into the bottom half of the NHL, as the Kings scored 18 fewer in total.

All in all, it was an interesting year and certainly an eventful one. A year that saw the first change at the General Manager position since 2017, when Rob Blake eventually took over. It saw a few faces depart and a few new ones join the fray. 2025 was the year that Kings legend Anze Kopitar announced that he would retire from the NHL, with 2026 being the final calendar year we’ll have the opportunity to include Kopitar in stories like this. That’s…….a weird feeling. 2025 saw what I think were the highest of highs the Kings have felt in the playoffs since returning from a three-year absence, as well as what was most certainly the lowest of lows. March and April 2025 was the best stretch of regular-season Kings hockey we’ve seen since the Kings got back into the postseason. Didn’t quite carry over into the remainder of the calendar year.

2025, ultimately, will be remembered for the Kings as the year of what perhaps could have been. For me at least. As 2025 is finalized, it’s a year that will always leave me wondering what might have been possible if not for a couple of moments in time. 2026 is an open book. Begins in a couple of days. The flip of a calendar, as noted, isn’t all that relevant for a team in a season that spans two years. But it still feels like something new. We’ll see if it actually is.

2025 By The Numbers – Team
Games Played: 84 (T-7th)
Wins: 43 (T-13th)
Points: 99 (12th)
Points Percentage: .589 (12th)
Goals Scored: 234 (T-23rd)
Goals Scored, Per Game: 2.79 (25th)
Goals Against: 206 (2nd)
Goals Against, Per Game: 2.45 (2nd)
Power Play: 16.6% (28th)
Penalty Kill: 79.9% (11th)
Faceoff Percentage: 49.9% (T-16th)
Corsi For Percentage: 52.4% (6th)
Scoring Chances For Percentage: 52.1% (7th)
High-Danger Chances For Percentage: 50.7% (14th)

Generally speaking, the Kings ranked pretty similarly in 2025 as they did in 2024, just a tick lower in most categories. Similar breakdown, though. Defensively was naturally where the Kings shined brightest, as they allowed 206 goals in total last season, the second-fewest in the NHL behind only Colorado. Nothing to really question about the defensive performances. The offensive side of things took a step back from what we saw the year prior and on aper-game basis, ranked towards the bottom of the league. Feels like a good representation of where the Kings have been.

As they have been since 2021, the Kings were once again a top team in most possession metrics, finishing inside the NHL’s Top-10 in CF% and SCF%. That’s been a staple. They’ve gotten chances at a good rate and have not really given a ton up. While they really haven’t translated that into high-quality offensive production, they’ve controlled chances at a good rate. If they could ever just take that next step, turning chances into goals……what a conversation we might be having.

2025 By The Numbers – Individual
Goals
1. Kevin Fiala – 34
2. Adrian Kempe – 31
3. Quinton Byfield – 20

Assists
1. Adrian Kempe– 39
2. Quinton Byfield – 36
3. Anze Kopitar – 33

Points
1. Adrian Kempe – 70
2. Kevin Fiala – 63
3. Quinton Byfield – 56

Power-Play Goals
1. Kevin Fiala – 12
2. Adrian Kempe – 6
3. Anze Kopitar, Quinton Byfield, Andrei Kuzmenko – 4

Power-Play Points
1. Kevin Fiala – 24
2. Anze Kopitar – 18
3. Adrian Kempe – 17

Points By Defensemen
T1. Drew Doughty – 30
T1. Brandt Clarke – 30
3. Joel Edmundson – 24

Plus/Minus
T1. Drew Doughty – +20
T1. Warren Foegele – +20
T1. Phillip Danault – +20

If you’ve watched the Kings, there won’t be a ton of surprises here. The Kings didn’t score a ton of goals in the 2025 calendar year, as noted above, so seeing just one player hit the 70-point mark isn’t all that surprising. It is also unsurprising to see that Adrian Kempe is that player. Kempe is a star player and he’s locked in for the foreseeable future. Certainly the closest guy the Kings have to an upper-echelon player in the NHL. Another good calendar year, as he exceeded 30 goals and led the Kings in assists and points.

For Kevin Fiala, he was right around where he was last calendar year in terms of goals scored. He led the Kings last year with 35 goals and finished just one shy this time around with 34. Fiala is lauded more for his playmaking but that’s two consecutive calendar years he has led the Kings in goals and power-play goals. He’s elevated his game over the last couple of seasons as a scorer. Certainly welcomed.

Quinton Byfield also put together his strongest calendar year as an NHL player with 20 goals and 56 points. He hasn’t hit the heights Kings fans have hoped he would, as a second-overall draft pick, but he has developed into an effective NHL player and there’s clearly still more upside to come. The production is steadily increasing and seeing him show up here on a couple of categories is a nice representation of that.

Leaguewide Honors
Mikey Anderson
4th in shorthanded time on ice (246:40)
5th in shorthanded time on ice per game (3:07)

Joel Armia
T-1st in shorthanded goals (6 – 4 w/ LAK, 2 w/ MTL)
T-2nd in shorthanded points (7 – 5 w/ LAK, 2 w/ MTL)
T-8th in takeaways per/60 (1.65 – Split between LAK and MTL)
Selected to represent Team Finland at 2025 4 Nations Faceoff

Quinton Byfield
5th in penalties drawn (35)
T-7th in overtime goals (3)

Drew Doughty
Selected to represent Team Canada at 2025 4 Nations Faceoff
Won Gold at 2025 4 Nations Faceoff

Kevin Fiala
T-13th in power-play goals (12)

Adrian Kempe
T-2nd in overtime goals (4)
T-3rd in game-winning goals (10)
Selected to represent Team Sweden at 2025 4 Nations Faceoff

Anze Kopitar
4th in faceoffs won (865)
5th in faceoffs taken (1,411)
7th in FOW%, minimum 500 FO Taken (58.3%)

Alex Laferriere
4th in 5-on-5 scoring chances (205)

Adrian Kempe was one of the NHL’s best players in overtime over the 2025 calendar year and with that, plus the rest of his goalscoring prowess, 10 of his 32 goals were game winners. Pretty good percentage. Has scored a ton of important ones, certainly.

Anze Kopitar remains one of the NHL’s best faceoff men and one of the most relied upon. Kopitar was once again a Top-5 player in the league in faceoffs won and faceoffs taken and he finished the year at just shy of 60 percent in the dot. In his final season, Kopitar has stood the test of time when it comes to winning draws. He’ll go out as one of the best.

A stat I found interesting was Quinton Byfield’s 35 penalties drawn. His combination of size and speed is hard to handle and it’s led to a ton of infractions against him. Right around one every other game. Byfield has done a nice job of drawing penalties through hard work. The Kings haven’t exactly taken advantage, with a struggling power play, but he’s set his team up for those opportunities as well as just about anyone in the NHL.

In terms of shorthanded numbers, Mikey Anderson was one of the NHL’s most relied upon players, on a unit that has been pretty successful. Joel Armia, who joined the Kings for just the 2025-26 part of the calendar year, was among the most productive shorthanded players. He leads the NHL in shorthanded goals this season and when you factor in his time in Montreal as well, he was the leader for the calendar year as well.

That’s a wrap on 2025 from a game perspective. A day off today, following a very late arrival from Colorado. One more practice to finish things off tomorrow before the Kings play their first game of 2026 against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena.