After a “roller coaster” start, Kevin Fiala is on the upswing, playing his best hockey of the season at a key time

It’s been, in his own words, a roller coaster of a season for Kings forward Kevin Fiala.

It’s not the first time he’s had ups and downs as a professional. It won’t be the last. Make one thing certain, though. He won’t let the downs keep him down for too long.

“I’ve had roller coasters before in my career, but I’ve always come back.”

Fiala has been arguably the team’s best player over the last stretch of games. He has multiple points in three of his last four games and 13 points (7-6-13) over his last 12 games in total. While there was some justified criticism early in the season, there isn’t much to be distributed right now. Fiala is playing at as high of a level as we’ve seen from him in some time.

Since the Kings were shutout in Edmonton on January 13, Fiala has collected 10 points at 5-on-5, one shy of the NHL lead in that stretch. His six goals are also one behind the league leader. Fiala has been more willing to shoot the puck, averaging 3.8 shots-on-goal per game in that span, up from 2.8 per game in his first 40 games of the season, with more shots coming from dangerous areas on the ice as well. He’s playing direct and with intensity. That’s driven a very successful stretch for the Swiss winger.

“When I’m playing my best, I’m intense, I’m not scared from anybody, from any situation, I just go in there,” Fiala said. “I don’t think too much, just play spontaneous, play with my speed and especially don’t overthink. I just play with speed, hunger, determination, use my body and just step on the gas.”

Perhaps no goal better embodied that mindset than his goal against the Dallas Stars.

Fiala is one of the most creative players on the Kings and one of not all that many who are capable of creating highlight-reels plays both off the rush and in the offensive zone, without a ton of space to operate. We saw the former in Carolina, when Fiala twice created an individual moment of magic to defeat one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference. Against the Stars, Fiala saw the game slow down for him in tight, dancing his way to an open lane through the legs of a defenseman who had dropped his stick. It was a play few would think to make, let alone execute. When Fiala is on his game, as he is right now, he’s capable of creating plays like that.

KEVIN FIALA ARE YOU SERIOUS pic.twitter.com/VFpsICZjWh

— LA Kings (@LAKings) February 8, 2025

Confidence can be a fickle beast, though.

We’re seeing right now what a confident player can do. We also don’t have to go back all that far to see the same player going in the other direction.

In the 2024 portion of this season, Fiala was a minus player in each month, collecting points at a slower pace than he had over his first two years here. It’s not fair to expect that a player will be at his best for 82 games in a row, right out of the gates, but Fiala knew that his start to the season wasn’t what he wanted it to be and that start lasted longer than just a season-opening slump.

Jim Hiller noticed it too.

While publicly he maintained his confidence in Fiala, privately, the two had several conversations in a 1-on-1 setting. That’s been Hiller’s approach. He’s willing to devote his time individually to players in that way. Hiller is a player’s coach in that he’s in their corner. Players have also said that Hiller is willing to hold them accountable, even veteran players, when it’s needed. With Fiala over the season’s first few months, it sounds like he got more time than most.

“This year in particular has been a real process for Kevin, internally,” Hiller said. “We’ve talked a lot and I would like to think mostly good conversations, but there have been some uncomfortable conversations between us. I just really believe he’s matured as a person and I think that’s led to him maturing as a player and I think he feels really good about where he’s at, both personally and professionally right now.”

Fiala said that conversations, for good or for bad, have been helpful for him. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t seeing the same things that Hiller was, admitting he was having conversations with himself at home, reflecting on what was happening and trying to fix it.

It’s nice to hear the praise when things are going well but being held accountable, the “kick in the butt” conversations are both helpful and necessary for him as well. To understand that says something. To have a coach who is willing to do both says something as well.

When you have a player like Fiala, you have to get the best out of him. That responsibility falls on the player to perform but it’s also on the coaching staff to set him up for success. He’s a special talent and with the assets given up to acquire him – and the contract that he commanded – Fiala has to deliver, especially for a team that is not among the league leaders in offensive production. Early in the season, he wasn’t and when the points weren’t there, neither was the impactful play.

Hiller was willing to talk through that with him and Fiala appreciated it. Now that things are trending extremely well, he appreciates that the conversations have continued.

“I am a guy who wants to have a close relationship with [Hiller] and that means positive and negative,” he said. “I don’t get hurt when he kicks me in the butt, I think I need that sometimes, of course, but on the other side, also, it’s nice when you hear positive stuff. It’s got to be a mix, everybody’s different, but I’m like that. I think now we’re getting the connection, which we which we needed, and I’m looking forward for a good stretch now.”

Photo by Jaylynn Nash/Getty Images

The proof seems to be in the pudding, doesn’t it?

With all of those things straightened out, Fiala is thriving.

Part of it has been a coach putting a player in the right position to be successful. Hiller shared that Fiala came to him and said he believes he is able to go up against the top offensive players on the other side when asked. For a team in the Kings that values defending first, having that mindset is key.

Hiller told him that he doesn’t want that burden weighing him down. He wants Fiala to play “free and dangerous.” To play with creativity. To take well-timed risks, even if it means that those risks could go either way. He said he’s willing to live with turnovers in pursuit of Fiala doing what makes him special, he just doesn’t want that to come against the players most capable of making him pay for it. It’s not that Hiller doesn’t trust Fiala, because he does. Earlier in the season, perhaps not, but it’s clear the belief is there right now. If you can put Fiala in position to be himself, while others help with the shutdown responsibilities, the ceiling of the team becomes higher.

“I think with those two things kind of solid, I think now he’s just freeing himself to let himself play and use his talent,” Hiller added. “I’m really happy for him with that. I think he’s enjoying the game now as much as he has all season and you’re seeing the results.”

With the Kings recently mired in an offensive rut, Fiala was one of the main men to help pull them out of it. After the Kings scored four goals over four games on the road, Fiala had three straight multi-point games, all Kings victories, to help the team get back on the right track.

While there are number of different reasons for it, Fiala has felt Hiller’s support through the lows of his season and coming out the other side, the highs are higher than they might’ve been before. Fiala is confident. He feels trusted and he feels believed in. He knows the way that he’s playing is the right way and he’s better off for it.

“When you have a coach who stands behind you, has your back, believes in you no matter what happens, that’s the nicest thing,” Fiala said. “Confidence sometimes is higher than other days, but at the end of today, you just have to ask yourself where you’re at. If you would tell me when I was 10 years old I’d have this life, what I have, I wouldn’t believe it. At the end of today, I think I’m doing good. It was just a very good conversation with Jimmy and we go from there now. I think there’s way more to go.”

Where he’s at right now is not the ceiling, in Fiala’s mind.

While he is playing not just his best hockey of the season, but arguably his best hockey as a member of the LA Kings, Fiala believes that we haven’t even seen the best that he has to offer. If there’s more to give, man, that’s an exciting thought.

“I think I have way more to go,” Fiala said. “I think the last two years have been good but I still feel like I have another level, which I think I’ve showed now, but that doesn’t mean anything. I just have to go from there and get better and better.”

Sky is the limit, for one of the most talented players in black and white in along time. With big games coming out of the break, here’s to hoping he keeps it going.

Photo by Juan Ocampo/NHLI via Getty Images