The worst may be over for the Los Angeles Kings in their rebuild. Many key players have already moved on and now we’re going to start seeing new pieces replacing them. Here’s the first article of two, where I'll predict the Kings’ opening night lineup next season, with this one looking at the situation on defense, as well as in net.
GOALIES
I’ll keep this part short because it’s pretty straight forward. Jonathan Quick will be back with Cal Petersen taking on backup duties full-time. I think the question here is how much of the workload Petersen is able to take on and how he performs in a full NHL season. That said, I’d expect Quick to be playing two-thirds of the games next year.
DEFENSE
We can assume Drew Doughty, Matt Roy and Sean Walker will occupy the three spots on the right side but there’s uncertainty as to what the left side is going to look like. Ben Hutton and Joakim Ryan are both free agents and I don’t imagine Ryan will be re-signed, with the Kings looking to get younger. Whether Hutton is back is up in the air too but I imagine the Kings will look to re-sign him to another short-term deal for a low price. If they like the deal they can get with him, he’ll likely be back but if not, they’ll probably head to free agency to sign someone who can act as a stopgap.
As for the other spots, Kurtis MacDermid will be back but hopefully that’s as a spare. He had an extremely limited role with the Kings when he did play and isn’t going to be part of the team’s long-term future. Based on the role Mikey Anderson got upon being called up, he’s the most likely of Los Angeles’ young defensemen to stick in the NHL.
Then as for the last spot on the left side, it’ll probably end up coming down to Kale Clague or Tobias Bjornfot. It’s tough to tell who’s more likely to make the team, as Bjornfot is the better prospect and likely more NHL-ready but may benefit from a bit more time in the AHL rather than taking on a bottom-pairing role for the Kings. With Clague, on the other hand, it may be a good idea to try and ease him into the NHL on the bottom-pairing and see how he does, as he’ll be 22 years old and will need to make the jump sooner or later. My preference is probably to start Clague on the bottom-pairing then make the switch to Bjornfot later if needed, as next year will once again be more about transitioning young players rather than competing anyways.
Here’s my projection:
Hutton/Short-term UFA - Doughty
Anderson - Roy
Bjornfot/Clague - Walker
MacDermid
Quick
Petersen
Tomorrow, I’ll take a look at what the forward lineup could look like next season. Thanks for reading!
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted Sunday):
Who do you think is more likely to start next season in the NHL?
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