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 three articles in this series, which you can read here:
In today’s article, we’ll focus on a comparison between the Kings and the San Jose Sharks.
FORWARDS
While the Kings can count on Anze Kopitar to lead their offense, the Sharks have Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane and Timo Meier. Even though the Kings do have depth in the form of Andreas Athanasiou, Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, Alex Iafallo and others, the Sharks added Ryan Donato and Patrick Marleau in the offseason, while Kevin Labanc’s production could bounce back up this season as well. The Kings may very well end up having the stronger bottom-six but San Jose’s top forwards give them the edge over the Kings up front.
Advantage: Sharks
DEFENSE
San Jose’s defense struggled last season, which was largely a result of Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson’s down year.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic was underwhelming as well but if the three veteran defenders can recover, even if not fully, it would be a massive help. Mario Ferraro and Radim Simek provide depth but if Burns, Karlsson and Vlasic don’t recover, it doesn’t matter what San Jose’s depth defensemen do.
Like San Jose’s top defenders, Drew Doughty’s performance greatly affects his team. He’s counted on the face the toughest matchups, while Matt Roy and Sean Walker draw the more favourable ones. Olli Maatta could provide some help, though he’ll likely be forced into quite a large role, with one or even two rookies potentially behind him on the left side. Both teams have a defense group with the potential to succeed but right now, each has questions heading into the season.
Advantage: N/A
GOALTENDING
San Jose’s goaltending has been poor over the last two seasons but Martin Jones is likely to bounce back to an extent at some point and Devan Dubnyk provides a secondary option for the team. Jonathan Quick hasn’t been strong over the last two seasons either, however, while Cal Petersen has played a total of just 19 NHL games. As a result, the goaltending matchup ends up looking fairly even.
Advantage: N/A
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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 Sharks in the standings this season?
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