The Los Angeles Kings will be competing in a slightly altered division for the season, with three new teams entering their division. Leading up to the start of the season, I’ll be looking at how the Kings’ roster compares to each team in the West Division.
We’ve already released two articles in this series, which you can read here:
In today’s article, we’ll focus on a comparison between the Kings and the Colorado Avalanche.
FORWARDS
Up front, it’s not really close. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen are two of the league’s top forwards, while Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky and Brandon Saad give them quite a few other talented options to work with. Their bottom-six is very strong as well and also comes with quite a bit of NHL experience.
For the Kings, Anze Kopitar will be counted on in a large role but after him, the Kings don’t have many players to match up against Colorado’s top forwards. Los Angeles should have depth scoring but won’t have enough key players at the top of their lineup.
Advantage: Avalanche
DEFENSE
Drew Doughty will still face tough matchups on a nightly basis and while the Kings are developing a strong defense group, they’re not quite there yet. Prospects like Mikey Anderson, Tobias Bjornfot and Kale Clague should see action, while Matt Roy and Sean Walker could get increased roles, however, there’s still a lack of experience. Olli Maatta was a decent addition but we still need to see how he’ll fare with the Kings.
The Avalanche, on the other hand, have a good mix of youth and experience. Ian Cole and Erik Johnson are solid veteran defensemen but Samuel Girard and Cale Makar will play key roles on Colorado’s blue line. In addition, the team added Devon Toews and still has Ryan Graves as solid depth.
Advantage: Avalanche
GOALTENDING
Colorado had one of the league’s best tandems last season, while the Kings could still face some uncertainty with their duo. Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz led the Avalanche to the sixth-fewest goals against per game of any team in the league, while Jonathan Quick stumbled through a good stretch of the season and Cal Petersen still lacks experience.
Advantage: Avalanche
Unfortunately for the Kings, one of the NHL’s best teams just moved into their division. Right now, Los Angeles probably won’t be able to keep up.
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Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted in a future article):
Do you think the Kings will finish ahead of the Avalanche in this year's standings?
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