LA Kings Forward Alignment? Thoughts On What We Could See, Based on Laviolette/Holland Offseason Comments

Let’s investigate, shall we?

The LA Kings added several forwards into the mix during free agency, as General Manager Ken Holland looked to re-work his team up front. The focus was on increasing offense, while adding depth at the center position, both of which remain priorities for the team both in the short and long term.

In looking at where the team sits from a salary-cap standpoint and a player-count standpoint, the moves up front feel like they have largely been made. That’s not to suggest there couldn’t be further change impacting the forwards, because there always could be. One thing about Holland is that the phone line is always open. He may not be actively looking at further changes in that area, but if something comes up, he’s not going to miss an opportunity to try and make the Kings better.

With that being said, the Kings now have an expansive collection of players who enter training camp vying for roster spots and spots within the lineup. Unlike years past, I think there is a ton of room for competition and experimentation, both in terms of where players might slot in and who exactly makes the team. In each of the last three seasons, we had a very good idea of what the roster was going to look like – specifically within the Top-9 – regardless of what happened in training camp. Looking back at we thought going into training camp versus what we saw in Game 1 over the last three seasons, there were only two changes, both in 2023-24. Viktor Arvidsson sustained a long-term injury during training camp and Arthur Kaliyev was suspended for a hit in the preseason. Otherwise, it would’ve been status quo.

This season is different. Who plays where is very much a question. Who makes the team is very much a question. So, we speculate a bit.

Speculation, though, doesn’t have to be without something to go off of. Certain things both Holland and Head Coach Peter Laviolette have said have stuck with me and they’ve led to a few different thoughts on how the roster could be constructed.

First, let’s start with a grain of salt here. It’s July 9. The roster on July 9 is exactly that. It does not mean this will be the roster when training camp begins in mid-September or the roster when the Kings begin the regular season a couple of weeks later. Laviolette was very up front about that.

“Before we get into too many conversations about that, because then it would lead to believe that I’ve already made a decision and I haven’t……there’s still time left in the summer and I’m not exactly sure who exactly will be at training camp. So, once I get those rostered players down, then we can make more talk and more decisions with regard to that.”

That is fair. Especially for Laviolette, who is in his first season in Los Angeles, he’s got to take the time to see the players on the ice, get a feel for certain things and see how it makes sense. He’s also correct in noting that until he knows his training camp roster, he’s got to hold off a bit on making larger-scale decisions.

With that being said, though, I think certain things that he and Holland detailed lead to some conversations.

For starters, here is Laviolette’s philosophy when it comes to construction of lines, from the standpoint of what the identities of certain lines could look like.

“I find that most teams now, they really have two top lines and it gets spread out a little bit between those two top lines. When you can have that, I think you get more balance in your lineup. When you have a third line that you can send over the boards and they can really chew up some time and they can take defensive-zone starts and play against other teams’ top lines and top players, that becomes a really important line. When you get a fourth line that can go out there and provide some size and some physicality and some energy, that can be a really good and important line as well. I think you need a balance of everything.”

There’s a lot in there. Here’s how I read it. I think that Laviolette wants to see some balance between those top two lines and it’s clear he sees both of those lines as being offensively-driven and expected to produce. Last season, the Kings did not have the depth during the playoffs to play it any other way, but the second forward line was also the matchup line and there really wasn’t much in terms of bottom-six production. The depth is far greater now than it was in Game 4 versus Colorado and I think that gives Laviolette and his staff a lot more to work with in terms of options.

In terms of offensively-minded players, the Kings have a wealth of wingers but really only one proven top-six center in Quinton Byfield. Holland shared after Day 1 of the NHL Draft that Laviolette had talked with Adrian Kempe about the possibility of playing center this season. Laviolette confirmed that he has had that conversation with Kempe, pointing to Kempe’s experience playing center as a younger player before he moved to the wing on Anze Kopitar’s line for the last several seasons.

“There was a conversation that we had internally, inside with management, the coaches, as to who could possibly take those steps if that’s the direction that we want to go. After talking with Kempe, it was easy to see that he had played there before. I think he said either two or three of his first seasons were down the middle and that he liked it and he had opportunity and some experience and then he got moved to the wing and then [playing center] kind of got pushed off to the side and he stayed there. He’s grown into a really good winger. I think a lot of these things will get solved as we move through the summer……there is still a bit of distance before training camp happens. Then, if need be, and Adrian needs to have more conversations, we can do that. There’s a training camp, there’s touch and go. I’ve been in other organizations where somebody’s never played the right wing, they’ve only played the left wing and just based on what we might need for that scenario, we made a move in camp and that player had his best year to that point, playing the right wing as opposed to the left wing. Sometimes it hits, sometimes it misses and we’ll sort those things out in training camp.”

There’s a lot of depth and detail in there and I appreciated Laviolette’s willingness to share it. First things first, as Laviolette said, Kempe liked playing center and it certainly seems as if he is open to playing center going forward, if that is the position he is asked to play. Secondly, as I asked Laviolette in a follow-up question, there’s an understanding that if you move Kempe to center, you are taking away a constant from your team and that is Adrian Kempe as your RW1. Third, Laviolette has experience in similar situations, more so moving a player across the ice, from one wing to the other, but he’s been willing to do that in the past.

When you factor in that Laviolette’s preference is to load up two scoring lines, along with a conversation he had with Kempe, broaching the subject of potentially playing in the middle, I think it leads me towards the thought process that Kempe and Byfield could be the team’s top two centers entering camp. I think that it could also be Byfield and free-agent signing Erik Haula, who isn’t an offensive slouch by any means. You want my hunch today, though, and I think that Kempe + Byfield is a legitimate possibility.

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So then who plays with who?

If Kempe and Byfield play center, that leaves five wingers who I think you could see in the Top-6: Artemi Panarin, Kevin Fiala, Alex Laferriere, Trevor Moore and Mats Zuccarello. All five have played in the Top-6 before, all six have had seasons when they have produced in that role and there are some instances with chemistry between various players in the mix.

I then think about something Ken Holland said during his media availability after his signings in free agency on July 1.

“Mats Zuccarello, for his entire career, he’s provided offense, high hockey IQ, distributes the puck, plays a lot like a centerman in the o-zone, in terms of what does a centerman do, he distributes the puck, creates scoring chances for his linemates, a lot like Panarin. I’m not sure what the coach has in mind in terms of putting people together, but with Panarin, with Zuccarello, we’ve added, since the Olympic break, two offensive-minded forwards that create scoring chances for their linemates and have been historically good on the power play.”

What I took from that sentence is that Holland sees Panarin and Zuccarello as potentially filling the same role on different lines, meaning that we could see Panarin on one line and Zuccarello on another.

With all of that information, I think of where that potentially leaves the top six. To move forward, we’ve got to take a shot at filling in some of the blanks. If we look at Panarin and Kempe as a pairing, as they were last season, I believe they need a forechecking player as the third member of the line. While those two players with Anze Kopitar at center had some success in the regular season, that success did not continue at 5-on-5 in the playoffs. From what I heard internally, the lack of that go-getter hurt Kempe specifically. Someone who gets to the net effectively. Someone like Alex Laferriere. That would leave Zuccarello and Byfield together and while they were rarely linemates in Minnesota, Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala were teammates and are friends. They are also both, on paper, not really players who fit Laviolette’s description of a potential third line.

So, for discussion, how about this?

Panarin – Kempe – Laferriere
Zuccarello – Byfield – Fiala

Then, I think about the bottom six. Trevor Moore, if he does not factor into the Top-6, should be a lock for line three. He’s a middle-six forward all day on any NHL team. He has the offensive talent when healthy to compliment skill players and the responsible nature to play on a third line, with speed that helps him in both situations. Playing with Moore, I see three players who make sense to me to fill the final two spots on that line – Haula, Laughton and Joel Armia. Moore/Haula/Armia or Moore/Laughton/Haula would both make sense as options on that line, if the direction is indeed to put together a line that can weather defensive-zone faceoffs and challenging matchups, while also chipping in with some offense the other way.

That leaves either Laughton or Armia to play on the fourth line and I don’t see a world, barring an injury, where either player isn’t among the 12 for Opening Night. The Kings also signed Corey Perry to another one-year contract and you’d imagine they envision him playing in Game 1, likely filling a similar role to the one he played pretty effectively a season ago.

Also under contract, with NHL games played last season?

Taylor Ward, Jared Wright, Kenny Connors, Samuel Helenius, Alex Turcotte, Andre Lee and Lane Pederson

That’s a lot of options. Laviolette used three words to describe what he might want his fourth line to look like – size, physicality and energy.

I think that Connors and Weight specifically are players who need to play. For their long-term development, top-six minutes in the AHL are more valuable than being the 13th forward in the NHL. Both project to be NHL players in the long run and they need to play every night at this stage in their career. If that’s in the NHL, based on winning a spot, amazing. If not, they are exempt from waivers and would start in large roles at the AHL level, before being options later in the season.

With the rest of that group, Ward and Turcotte have the energy element, Helenius and Lee the physicality element. Pederson is more of an unknown here, having signed from the Flyers organization, but he’s an effective AHL player who has played a handful of NHL games. How those players factor into the NHL mix should be part of the fun during training camp.

I think that we should be prepared to see several looks, numerous options throughout training camp and even into the regular season. Everything I’m talking about goes out the window with one roster move or one injury. The Kings have to start camp one way, though. Need to make that call and go from there. My best guess, based on all of the above, on what that starting point could look like?

Panarin – Kempe – Laferriere
Zuccarello – Byfield – Fiala
Moore – Haula – Laughton
Armia – Turcotte – Perry
Wright – Helenius – Ward

Would I be surprised if, one Day 1 of camp, Kempe is on the wing and the centers are Byfield, Haula, Laughton and one of Turcotte or Helenius? No, I would not be surprised. But hey, it’s July 9 and we’ve got very little to talk about. So let’s open the floor.

Opening Night is tomorrow, how are you configuring the forwards? Throw it in the comments, let’s see what everyone things.

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