EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Even if they were won more than 10 years ago, two Stanley Cup championships in a three-year span pretty much remove the Los Angeles Kings’ faithful from the seemingly unending suffering of some other fan bases.
It’s true that 2014 is now a long time ago, but it isn’t 1994 (New York Rangers), 1990 (Edmonton Oilers), 1975 (Philadelphia Flyers) or 1967 (Toronto Maple Leafs). And it isn’t never (we’ll leave those 10 teams for you to figure out).
There are levels to pain and disappointment, and the Kings aren’t in the same league as some other teams. But there is also the absence of hope.
It has been more than a decade since the Kings won a single playoff series. That wouldn’t be a huge problem if they were in the teeth of a rebuilding stage and stockpiling assets for the future. Fans can be patient and understanding, even when success isn’t guaranteed. Except for the Kings, rebuilding goes by the name of ‘been there, done that.’
And that’s the problem as another underwhelming trade deadline passed Friday with the Kings making mercurial winger Andrei Kuzmenko the key move to improve their chances at getting out of the first round — which could mean, in what would be a fourth straight year, getting past the Oilers.
General Manager Rob Blake spoke to the media following the conclusion of the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline 👇@Iron_Bow | #MediaMoments pic.twitter.com/1VnnZvivSw
— LA Kings (@LAKings) March 7, 2025
Kings general manager Rob Blake, who is operating on an expiring contract and stated Friday that his future will be addressed after the season, didn’t mortgage the future to improve now. So, young players Quinton Byfield, Brandt Clarke, Jordan Spence and Alex Turcotte weren’t sacrificed. Liam Greentree, the Kings’ promising power forward prospect who’s tearing up the Ontario Hockey League, wasn’t included in the kind of desperate job-saving trade that could haunt the franchise for years.
But in only adding Kuzmenko to tackle their erratic offensive attack and woefully disappointing power play, the Kings’ path to playoff success is difficult to see. This isn’t like bringing in Marian Gaborik to strengthen their ultimately successful bid to win a second Cup in 2014. Not even close.
The best in the Western Conference loaded up and the Kings remain a level or two below.
Yes, barring a collapse that’s unlikely because their defense and goaltending is good enough to prevent a dramatic slide, they’ll be in the playoffs. But the chances of ending their drought didn’t improve. And that leads to the absence of hope.
When asked about their place in the West and trying to get into the arms race that saw Dallas make a huge splash in a trade-and-sign for Mikko Rantanen, Colorado beef up with Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle along with smaller moves by Winnipeg, Vegas and Edmonton to address their depth, Blake talked about high acquisition costs.
“We have to balance those costs at all times,” he said. “I don’t think that changes when we see other teams do different things. There’s certain costs that come along with acquiring these top players.”
Blake wasn’t willing to potentially sacrifice the Kings’ future in Byfield or by giving up the talent that is Clarke — even if he hasn’t earned the full trust of Kings coach Jim Hiller and shown that he’s ready to step into Drew Doughty’s massive shoes. There is a chance Clarke may never do that, but they weren’t keen on seeing the 22-year-old bloom elsewhere.
“It wasn’t young players for something that may be here for a month or so,” Blake said. “For us, it was more targeted. If we’re going to help the team or try to add to the team, we’ll do it in a draft-pick type. Which we did.” And on any willingness to put Clarke in a trade, he said, “There never was.”
All that was surrendered to get Kuzmenko was a third-round pick in the 2027 draft. And the Kings did get the Flyers to retain 50 percent of Kuzmenko’s $5.5 million salary cap number. It’s not a bad play if you look at it in a vacuum.
But there’s a reason that Kuzmenko can be acquired for a reasonable price. The 29-year-old might be the definition of inconsistency.
Are the Kings getting the winger who scored 39 goals for Vancouver after coming over from the KHL? Are they getting the scorer who potted 14 goals in just 29 games after moving to Calgary? Or are they getting the player who quickly fell out of favor with Canucks coach Rick Tocchet and lost his scoring touch with the Flames to start this season?
In his stops, Kuzmenko has shown that there aren’t a ton of other elements to his game when he doesn’t score. He did find the net twice and had three assists in his short seven-game stopover with the Flyers, but Blake knows full well he’s taking a shot on someone with warts in his game.
“That’s the work Jim will have to do there,” Blake said. “The consistency part, yeah, we’ve got to work with that.”
They’re trying to get Kuzmenko to Los Angeles in time to play Saturday night against St. Louis and utilize his shot. “Give him the puck on the power play and say, ‘Go score,’” Blake cracked in amusement, citing that there will time later to familiarize Kuzmenko with their system.
As to where he’ll play in the lineup, Blake deferred to the coach.
“I’ll leave that stuff to Jimmy,” he said. “I could target a spot right now, but you’ve seen Jim coach, right? Give it a couple minutes. They’re going to be all moved all over. But specifically in offensive roles, power play and different things in that type.”
Looking at the Kings’ lineup, it’s conceivable that Kuzmenko will get a look with Kevin Fiala and Byfield, with Alex Laferriere possibly moving to left wing and playing with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe.
Who knows what they’ll get from him? If the Kings catch lightning in a bottle and Kuzmenko scores 10 times over the final 22 games, rejuvenates their flagging power play and gives them another dangerous threat to finish plays in the postseason, it’ll be looked upon as a brilliant move. But how often do you catch lightning in a bottle?
Doing so might be the Kings’ best hope of finally advancing in the playoffs. Fortunately, they’re not in the Central Division and don’t have to deal with Dallas or Colorado — who could meet in a riveting first-round matchup — but holding off Vancouver or Calgary in the standings only means tussling with the Oilers and trying once again to find an answer for Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the latter being the potential Hart Trophy winner.
This year’s Oilers might be more vulnerable than the group that lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Some of their key players around McDavid and Draisaitl — Zach Hyman, Evan Bouchard and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — haven’t played at as high a level and goaltender Stuart Skinner can still be a roll of the dice at times.
But that just makes what the Kings haven’t achieved in their attempts to build up over the last few years even more discouraging. How much has the horrific extension for Cal Petersen or the trade for Fiala or the disastrous deal for PL Dubois and all the domino moves to recover from those deals left an impact on what they could do to improve this year’s group? The meager cap space they’ve often had to work with, the quality players they’ve had to deal away, the once highly rated prospect pool that’s now depleted and maybe was never as high-end in quality as it was hyped? These are all factors.
It couldn’t have been easy to see Brad Marchand go to the defending champion Florida Panthers for a conditional second-round pick. (Granted, that could become a first-round choice for Boston and maybe Marchand had some say in where he’d go). To the point of efforts to land a bigger name, Blake wouldn’t speak about specific players.
“We were in on a lot of conversations, especially around the offensive side of the game,” he said.
Still, the Kings weren’t armed with enough to put together a can’t-turn-it-down package without including any of their best young players or giving up a first-round pick.
Now they’re left with extracting more out of their current group. First thing on the agenda is snapping out of an 0-3-2 funk. It helps that they have a ton of home games remaining.
Blake expressed dismay at the Kings’ recent play, but pointed to them being a top-10 team in points percentage until last week.
There’s no doubting that the Kings are highly competitive. But that’s not the goal. Only one thing will determine if this season is a success.
“Luc (Robitaille) and I are on the same page there,” Blake said, referring to the Kings’ president. “We know we get in the playoffs and we got to start winning.”
Truer words were never spoken. The problem lies with what the Kings are and what little they did to improve their odds in a seven-game series. Hope is a little tougher to find.
(Photo of Rob Blake at last year’s draft: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
