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. First up: the Anaheim Ducks.
FORWARDS
Both teams lack star power up front and neither has an overly strong forward group. For the Kings, Anze Kopitar is the top forward on either roster and Alex Iafallo is coming off a strong season. The Kings also have veterans in Dustin Brown and Jeff Carter along with younger middle-six players in Adrian Kempe and Blake Lizotte. Gabriel Vilardi should also take on a permanent role with the Kings this season, while Andreas Athanasiou was a quality addition.
Having said that, the Ducks may have the better group of forwards at the top of their lineup, with Ryan Getzlaf, Danton Heinen, Adam Henrique, Rickard Rakell and Jakob Silfverberg on the roster. Younger players like Max Comtois, Sonny Milano, Sam Steel and Troy Terry could also have success with a larger role this season.
I think this one is pretty hard to evaluate, even though we are looking at two fairly weak forward groups. Both teams have veterans in their lineup but are also working to integrate younger players. We don’t know which young players will continue to develop and will reach a new level this season, making it difficult to say which forward group is stronger. For now, I’ll say neither team has a distinct advantage here.
Advantage: N/A
DEFENSE
The Kings rely heavily on Drew Doughty and while both Matt Roy and Sean Walker performed well this past season, we don’t know if either is capable of taking on a larger role yet. On the left side, Olli Maatta will likely play big minutes for the Kings and it’s tough to predict whether he’ll be up to the task. We can also expect the Kings could use one, if not two rookies in their defense group, with Mikey Anderson and potentially either Tobias Bjornfot or Kale Clague likely to join the lineup. The group has potential but there is a lack of experience right now.
The Ducks, on the other hand, do have two very solid defensemen in Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson. Cam Fowler can also be very effective in a somewhat sheltered role and the team added Kevin Shattenkirk to round out the top-four group. The Ducks also have about five defensemen who will be competing for spots on the bottom pairing and the sheer number of options they have is likely to create some solid depth for the defense group as well.
It’s tough to say how the Kings’ relatively inexperienced defense group will perform this year and while there’s also some uncertainty in whether Anaheim’s defense can rebound this year, the Ducks seem to have an advantage here.
Advantage: Ducks
GOALTENDING
The goaltending advantage has to go to Anaheim. Despite a down year, John Gibson is still one of the league’s best goalies and Ryan Miller also provides a solid backup option for the Ducks. While Jonathan Quick was significantly better in the back half of the 2019-20 season and Cal Petersen has shown promise, the Kings don’t have as strong of a setup in net.
Advantage: Ducks
While the Kings may have the better prospect pool, the Ducks are a better team right now, as currently constructed.
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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 Ducks in the standings this season?
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