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. Yesterday, we looked at how the Ducks could fare against the Anaheim Ducks, which you can read here.
In today’s article, we’ll focus on a comparison between the Kings and the Arizona Coyotes.
FORWARDS
Neither team is overly strong up front. Both Clayton Keller and Phil Kessel were fairly disappointing last season and if neither can rebound, the Coyotes are going to lack scoring at the top of their lineup, especially after the departure of Taylor Hall. Nick Schmaltz is a solid top-six forward but his ceiling may not be much higher than what we’ve seen, while the likes of Lawson Crouse, Christian Dvorak and Conor Garland don’t necessarily have huge offensive upside. In addition, none of Arizona’s offseason additions are likely to provide anything more than depth options.
The Kings are in a fairly similar situation. Anze Kopitar is a key piece but there’s a pretty huge drop-off in offensive ability after him. Alex Iafallo had a strong 2019-20 season but it was also the first time he’s passed 35 points in a year. After after that, there’s a lot of middle-six level talent, between new addition Andreas Athanasiou, along with Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, Martin Frk, Adrian Kempe, Blake Lizotte and others. Overall, it is a fairly even matchup between the two forward groups.
Advantage: N/A
DEFENSE
The Coyotes still have Oliver Ekman-Larsson, while Jakob Chychrun took a step in his development last season and Alex Goligoski can still be counted on to play key minutes.
Niklas Hjalmarsson is still very solid defensively, while Jason Demers and Jordan Oesterle provide solid depth for Arizona.
For the Kings, Drew Doughty still plays very tough minutes and the team did acquire Olli Maatta in the offseason, but there’s still a lack of experience in Los Angeles’ defense group. Matt Roy has played less than 100 career NHL games, while Sean Walker just passed that mark and the Kings are likely to use two rookie defensemen as well this season.
Advantage: Coyotes
GOALTENDING
Arizona has the advantage here. Darcy Kuemper and Antti Raanta were one of the league’s best goaltending tandems last year and with both returning for the 2021 season, the Coyotes should be set in net. The Kings, on the other hand, still have some uncertainty as to exactly what kind of goaltending they’re going to get. Jonathan Quick is on the decline and Cal Petersen has limited NHL experience and while both could certainly step up to the challenge this year, there aren’t any questions about what kind of goaltending Arizona’s going to get.
Advantage: Coyotes
Despite losing Taylor Hall in the offseason, the Coyotes may not be as poor as many are predicting. Their lineup, as currently constructed, still looks stronger than the Kings’ lineup.
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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 Coyotes in the standings this season?
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