Kyle Garcia 
If you think hockey season is approaching fast, your mind isn’t deceiving you. We are just over 24 hours away from the puck dropping on the LA Kings’ 2026-27 season. It’s a new year, faces, coaching staff, and captain (but familiar).
The Kings hired Peter Laviolette on June 8th, and the rest of the coaching staff got rounded out by the end of the month. Ken Holland did all his free-agent shopping within the first 24 hours, and the team named Drew Doughty team captain on September 16th.
Yesterday, the Kings announced the opening roster for their season, which begins Wednesday. The roster will consist of 22 players (13 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies), with Kevin Fiala still on injured reserve.
Like every year, an NHL team enters the season with strengths, concerns, and questions. The good for the Kings is getting a full season of Artemi Panarin. One of the Kings’ main concerns is how Fiala will look after returning from the gruesome leg injury he suffered at the Olympics. Obviously, it would be unfair to set high expectations for Fiala right away, but getting him back into the lineup would be a plus.
Fiala isn’t even in my top five concerns or question marks for this season; in fact, he wasn’t even on my radar. The Kings’ lofty expectations stood the same: compete for a Cup. However, when you dissect the assembled roster, several glaring question marks and weaknesses emerge.
Here are four things to watch for during the season:
1) Life after Anže Kopitar becomes now or never for Quinton Byfield
The Kings will experience life without Anže Kopitar for the first time since the 2005-06 season. Without their security blanket, Quinton Byfield is expected to step into that role. During training camp, he took line rushes with Artemi Panarin and Andrian Kempe.
Byfield will not be Kopitar; nobody will, but he will take on the tough matchups, possibly play a lot of minutes, and factor in on both special teams as the number-one center. If Byfield plays alongside Panarin and Kempe to start the season, there should be no excuses for lack of offensive production. It’s now or never for Byfield to step up.
2) Will the defensive core mesh with new head coach Peter Laviolette’s style of play?
Peter Laviolette will bring an up-tempo style that demands defensemen get involved on the rush and create offensive opportunities. Will that mesh well with the Kings’ defensive group? In years past, the Kings have prioritized building their on-ice product by keeping the puck out of the net. Four of the six everyday defenders aren’t known for their offense or have limitations there. The Kings finally have an offensive approach, but will the defensive core fit Laviolette’s style?
3) Alex Turcotte starting as the second-line center?
Strength down the middle used to be an advantage for the Kings. Now it looks like a hole in the lineup. Byfield is their only number-one center option right now, but after that, the options get limited. Will Alex Turcotte play center this season? The coaching staff appears to be giving him an opportunity with Mats Zuccarello and Alex Laferriere on his wings at the end of training camp. For the 2019 first-round pick, this could be his last opportunity, as he is in the final year of his three-year contract. If Turcotte doesn’t prove to be a viable second-line NHL centerman, the Kings will be in for a long season, given their limited options down the middle.
4) Will the goaltending hold up?
The Kings are running it back in goal, and based on Ken Holland’s press conference two weeks ago, they may carry three goalies. The finalized roster only saw them carry two, but that doesn’t mean they won’t carry three at some point. As of this writing, Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg are the starting and back-up goalies, and the number-three goalie will be Erik Portillo.
For Portillo, he needs starts. He needs to play. Unfortunately, he is stuck in no man’s land, with Kuemper and Forsberg being the 1A/1B goaltending tandem, and Carter George and Hampton Slukynsky needing reps in the AHL. I have no issue with him being the number-three goalie on the depth chart and getting the valuable practice and training with the NHL club, if the Kings opt to carry three goalies at some point.
That isn’t my goaltending concern.
My concern actually lies with Kuemper and Forsberg. Kuemper had a bounce-back campaign two seasons ago, and Forsberg took the starting job down the stretch of the final month and in the playoffs.
Kuemper provided solid play to start the year until a hit from Dallas Stars forward Mikko Rantanen in a November game, after which his play was subpar. The Kings will want the pre-injury Kuemper, but will they get him? Kuemper is 36 and hoping for a second bounce-back season in three years, with a goalie who has, unfortunately, dealt with a share of injuries, may be a tough ask.
Forsberg was a decent signing for the backup role two summers ago, but can he repeat his success? As we have seen in the past few years, the Kings have had a backup or journeyman have an outstanding season, but come back down to earth the following campaign. Not to mention, Forsberg has also had his share of injuries. With the season now up to 84 games instead of 82, finding a way to get Portillo starts wouldn’t be a bad idea, despite him having only one game of NHL experience.
Featured image credit: Gary A. Vasquez/NHLI via Getty Images