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Perhaps the most notable addition of the offseason for the Los Angeles Kings was Phillip Danault, who signed with the team in free agency.

Danault is 28 years old and has gained recognition as one of the best defensive centers in the league. He played a key role in the Montreal Canadiens’ deep playoff run and should be a pretty huge addition to the Kings’ forward group.



Though Danault’s production has been quite strong over the last few seasons, he did see a dip this past year. Here are his goals, points and shots per 82 game averages over the last three seasons.

2018-19: 12 G/82, 54 P/82, 134 S/82
2019-20: 15 G/82, 54 P/82, 151 S/82
2020-21: 8 G/82, 37 P/72, 113 S/82

Danault’s production is really secondary to his defensive reliability and it’ll be important to temper expectations for him, in terms of production. Even though both his shooting percentage and shots per 82 average were down last season and his ice time was lower by about two minutes per game from the 2019-20 season, his career shooting percentage is only 8.6 per cent and his shots per 82 average is also quite low. So while we can expect his production to be a bit higher than it was last season, it’s unlikely that he’ll consistently be up around 15 goals and 55 points from year to year with the Kings.

With the Canadiens, Danault was both used in by far the most defensive role of any forward and he, as well as Brendan Gallagher, faced the highest quality of competition of any of the team’s forwards. We can expect the same role for Danault with the Kings, likely acting as the team’s second-line center. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Danault shifted to a third-line role in the coming years, once some of the organization’s top prospects adjust to the NHL.

So for the coming season, we can expect Danault to be slotted in as the team’s second line center, facing tough matchups and likely also playing a large role on the team’s penalty kill. In terms of production, we could see Danault somewhere around 12 goals and 45 points.



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QuizMaker
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