Season Preview: LA Kings

LA Kings


Last Season's standings: record- 42-35-5 for 89 points. The Kings finished last season 10th in the Western Conference, 4th in the Pacific Division.

In: Patrick O'Sullivan F (via trade w/ Minnesota Wild); Dan Cloutier G (via trade w/ Vancouver Canucks); Rob Blake D (prev. team: Colorado Avalanche); Scott Thorton F (prev. team: San Jose Sharks); Brian Willsie F (prev. team: Washington Capitals); Kevin Dallman D (prev. team: St. Louis Blues); Brendan Buckley D (prev. team: Pittsburgh Penguins); Raitis Ivanans F (prev. team: Montreal Canadiens); Mathieu Garon G; Eric Belanger F; Sean Avery F; Mike Cammalleri F; Marc Crawford HC; Mike Johnston AC

Out: Pavol Demitra F (via trade w/ Minnesota Wild); Joe Corvo D (new team: Ottawa Senators); Mark Parrish F (new team: Minnesota Wild); Jeremy Roenik F (new team: Phoenix Coyotes); Nathan Dempsey D (new team: Boston Bruins)

Season Outlook: Poor. The Kings are a young team full of rookies and sophomores. They have a starting goalie who is looking to bounce back after major knee surgery in Cloutier. Brent Sopel is a defenseman with a bad reputation of throwing the puck up the middle in ill-advised situations. Their forwards are largely unproven outside of Luc Robitaille, Pavol Demitra Jeremy Roenik and Craig Conroy. Frolov is showing promise but he needs to get stronger. Thorton needs to prove he can be healthy and not take bad penalties to put his team down a man. Rob Blake and Mattius Norstrom will play the bulk of the minutes on defense, but they need other players to step up and eat up the minutes these guys aren't on the ice. This team is going to struggle this season as Crawford is going to deploy a completely different style than the previous coach at the helm (I forget his name).

Season Prediction: The Kings are going to struggle to a basement finish (5th) in the Pacific and a 12th place finish in the Western Conference.