Exit Interviews Schedule – Players Wednesday, Ken Holland Friday + Jared Wright Loaned to AHL-Ontario

The LA Kings will hold their end-of-season exit interviews with players on Wednesday, April 29 at Toyota Sports Performance Center beginning around 10 AM. Kings Vice President and General Manager Ken Holland will speak to the media on Friday, May 1 around 1 PM.

Will have full coverage here of each interview, sharing audio, video and key takeaways from what is said.

In the couple days following the season, I’ve found the words hard to come by. The Kings fell short of the expectations that they set publicly in the summer. The Kings had 15 fewer points in 2025-26 than they did in 2024-25, a team that internally they felt and said had been improved. Regardless of the circumstances you look at, those are black and white numbers, on top of the first series sweep since 2018, a series that was competitive in each game but was ultimately never really in doubt. I thought Anze Kopitar phrased it succinctly in his final interview as a player after Game 4.

“I thought we were a good team but that’s a championship-contending team in Colorado.”

That is indeed the gap. Ultimately, the playoff series was the expected result against a true championship contender. You can talk yourself into anything when the series is 0-0 – I certainly did – and when you watch a pair of 2-1 hockey games in Denver, with very thin margins, it’s still pretty easy to do. I was encouraged by what we saw in Games 1 and 2 and felt the Kings were in the series and had a real chance at getting back into it. At the end of the day, the Kings battled and competed hard but they had to do that, 100 percent in, just to lose by a goal or two. Therein lies the issue. The Kings are not a bad team but they are not, as the captain said in his final interview, in that contending conversation either. They find themselves somewhere in the middle, entering a summer without a clearly defined path forward. With so many unknowns heading into the summer, it’s hard to talk about what comes next because minus the departure of Kopitar, there are very few certainties on what is ahead. See if the next three days offer any clarity, as players and Ken Holland speak on the season that was.

Additionally, this isn’t new information, but forward Jared Wright will not be among the exit interviews, as he will join the Ontario Reign for their 2026 playoff push.

Wright was called up to the NHL at the start of March and played in each of the final 23 games of the regular season, in addition to all four games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Wright showed well of himself in a depth role, showcasing the speed and forechecking ability to play at the NHL level, though his lack of production in third-line minutes shows that he is still an unfinished product. Wright was tracking towards upwards of 20 goals and 40 points in his first professional season at the AHL level and he’ll now get the chance to continue to play meaningful games down the stretch with the Reign. I think Wright will have a good chance at making the NHL club heading into next season but that shouldn’t be a guarantee. Loaning him back sends the right message and is the right decision for his development. Look for Wright to play a pretty sizable role in Ontario on a team that won the Pacific Division with 99 points.

More on Ontario’s upcoming series HERE. The Kings have 14 drafted players on the Ontario playoff roster who played AHL games this season, with several expected to play key roles on that team. That doesn’t include the projected starting goaltender, Erik Portillo, who was acquired via trade from Buffalo and is hopefully beyond the injuries that cost him a lot of time over the past two seasons. Wright is joined by Kenny Connors, Angus Booth and Andre Lee as players to play for both the Kings and Reign this season who will be in the Ontario / Coachella Valley series beginning tomorrow.