Since committing to a rebuild, the Los Angeles Kings have made drastic changes to their lineup, shipping out veterans for future assets. Gone are Alec Martinez, Jake Muzzin, Tyler Toffoli and others and coming to Los Angeles were Carl Grundstrom and Tyler Madden, to name a couple players, along with a whole lot of draft picks.
But at this point, there’s not much more the Kings can really do to speed up the process. They’re likely done selling off pieces for now (with Alex Iafallo as the one potential exception), as most of their aging veterans are gone, while those remaining are on contracts that would be hard to move. On the other hand, the team isn't far enough along to be adding any pieces to compete either. As a result, the Kings likely won’t be very active in free agency and probably won’t be making many significant trades for the next little while. If they were going to make a trade, it could be to take on a bad contract or two but first, we’ll need to see whether or not compliance buyouts become a reality.
Of course, coaching and management will have the role of scouting and making good selections with the picks they've accumulated but that's the same with every team. Player development will be the key focus now, rather than trades. Once the roster is set for next season, for the next year or two that follows, the Kings are likely to steer clear from adding or subtracting many pieces, with most big changes likely coming internally, when prospects are ready to make the jump to the NHL. In net, you can bet that Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen will be the tandem for the next couple seasons. On defense, the right side is set, while the left side will now be populated by younger prospects making the jump. Up front, we’ll start to see prospects eased into the lineup while veterans slowly take a back seat.
For now, the Kings are in a spot where it’ll be a lot of waiting to see how their prospects turn out and trying to give them the best opportunity to succeed. It’s certainly not a bad place to be and in fact, it means the majority of the work has already been done. But I wouldn’t expect to see many more major trades or signings made for the next little while.
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted this weekend):
Are you happy with how much progress the Kings have made in their rebuild thus far?
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