Just over half of the 2025-26 season has been completed, and the Los Angeles Kings are sporting an 18-14-10 record with 46 points, good enough for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Looking at that from an outside lens, most would come to the conclusion that sitting in a wild card spot at the halfway mark of the season is a positive sign and one that would equate to a successful season if the trend continued. But looking at what’s transpired with the Kings so far, while knowing what their aspirations were and the goals they set as soon as they were eliminated in Round 1 by the Edmonton Oilers for the fourth straight season, success and positivity aren’t the right words to describe the current state of the team.
Why the Kings Are Where They Are
It’s been a bumpy ride through 42 games played that have yet to see a Kings team string together any sort of momentum or consistency, aside from one four-game road win streak in the middle of November. It’s been a constant back and forth with no real trajectory or indication of what the ceiling is for this group, along with a copious amount of loser points that have kept them afloat in a division that is overshadowing their struggles and flaws.
Defensively, they remain one of the best teams in the league. Has Darcy Kuemper played a massive role in their success in keeping the puck out of their net? Yes, but this is also a team that has given up the sixth-lowest amount of shots on goal, they clear out rebounds, and they take pride in a structure that limits a lot to the outside. It’s offensively where this team has struggled. Despite bringing back the exact same top nine forwards and even improving their fourth line with the additions of Corey Perry and Joel Armia, the Kings have largely been challenged with creating enough offense to win games.
It’s been better over the past few games, and the Kings look more exciting in the way they are trying to create offense, but a large part of their flaws has been the inability of their back end to aid in creating those chances. Aside from Brandt Clarke, they do not have a defenseman who excels in moving the puck, connecting on stretch passes, or creating space individually to get the puck up the ice. Brian Dumoulin and Drew Doughty have flashes, but nothing that’s consistent. Even in the offensive zone, the mobility on the blue line is so minuscule that a lot of the time, the play dies with a blocked shot from the point.
It’s the overarching “issue” with the Kings and a large part of why they have struggled offensively, which has in turn resulted in several close games, relying on a “perfect” defense to hold one-goal leads, many overtime appearances, and a low margin for error.
Just when you think the Kings are getting closer to the breaking point and change is around the corner, they come back with a couple of games that ooze some hope back. It’s been an inconsistent and directionless season for the Kings so far, yet they remain in the thick of things at the halfway mark.
Standings Are Deceptive
Throughout a largely disappointing first half of the season, considering where this team pictured itself coming in, they remain in a playoff spot. That being said, no one should be fooled by where the Kings are in the standings. Their struggles and flaws are being overshadowed by a horrible division, one full of teams that can’t seem to figure it out long enough to make a mark in the standings. 46 points in the Eastern Conference would have the Kings as a bottom-four team, yet somehow, with 46 points in the Pacific Division, they are only four points out of first place. The Pacific Division is the only division in which the top three teams are all under 51 points.
It’s the fact that the Kings play in the Pacific that is probably the only reason why any major changes have yet to be made. For a team desperate to reach a level in which they can contend for a Cup, if the Kings were in any other division, it’s hard to imagine management being as calm as they currently are. With the goals this club had set, a firing of the coach or a big trade to shake things up wouldn’t have been surprising at all if it weren’t for the rest of the Pacific Division’s incompetence.
Kings general manager Ken Holland said it himself following the trade that sent Phillip Danault to the Montreal Canadiens, in which the Kings received a second-round pick in return, just before the holiday roster freeze.
“When I look at the rest of the other 13 teams (in the West minus COL, DAL, MIN), we’re all bunched up, we’re in the middle of that. We’re a couple of points out of second or third in our division,” he said. “If we’re in a malaise, 25 teams are in a malaise, the whole league is packed together.”
Related: Kings Plan to Fill Danault’s Role From Within For Now
Despite the inconsistencies, offensive struggles, immobile blue line, disappointing home record, and, quite frankly, a decent drop-off from last season, because the Kings are a few points out of a top two spot in an anemic division, there doesn’t seem to be much to worry about.
With the path the Kings have been on this season and the trends we are seeing from the teams in the Pacific, this is most likely a playoff team. They would have to have a pretty decent slide to miss the playoffs, just because of how inconsistent and mediocre every other team in this division is. The issue is what happens after game 82 is played and the Kings find themselves gearing up for another postseason.
This was supposed to be a year in which the Kings took the next step forward. This was supposed to be a season where they were undoubtedly better than last season and made the necessary improvements to be confident in their chances of making it past the first round. The reality is that they aren’t better than they were last year; they are on pace to finish with over 10 points less than they did last season, and truly don’t have a roster better suited to take down an Edmonton Oilers or Colorado Avalanche team in a seven-game series.
Making the playoffs wasn’t the goal; it was the expectation, but making noise in the playoffs was. Instead, in the worst division in the league, the Kings are barely surviving a playoff race that shouldn’t even be posing any difficulty with how underwhelming the competition has been.
If you can’t thrive in a division as bad as the Pacific, the odds of reaching the goal of making noise in the playoffs and going on a run don’t seem very good if everything remains the same.
The Kings are extremely light at the center position, and it’s a hole that can’t be filled easily. They need an upgrade on the back end, but have handcuffed themselves with the signings they made in the offseason. The only viable option before the trade deadline would be to trade for a scoring winger that can provide some offensive boost to a team that has been improving in that sense over the past few games.
This is a team that is going to need an addition before the end of the season because they have already established they intend to compete. With added cap space from the departure of Danault, decent prospect trade chips (rich in goaltending prospects), and their first-round pick in all of the next three years, the Kings have the means to make a move to give their roster a boost.
The next six games will tell us a lot about this Kings team and hopefully force them into a path that defines where this season will take them. This huge upcoming stretch the Kings will go through over the next week and a bit will feature teams in the Pacific in four of their next six games. They will play the Winnipeg Jets tonight, a team that has lost 11 straight, and then a date with the Edmonton Oilers in a back-to-back. The Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, and Anaheim Ducks twice follow with huge implications in the standings.
For now, the standings show a team that is still very much in it, but the reality is that the Pacific Division is disguising its shortcomings and keeping change away. If the Kings hope to achieve what they set out to do, namely being more than a playoff participant destined for another early exit, the next stretch of games could be a very good indication of what comes next for this team. Can they string together consistent play and solidify themselves in the standings? Or will management be forced to make a move? Remaining patient and calm because the division is allowing it could keep them competitive in the race for a playoff spot, but it won’t help them reach their goals of postseason success.
