It’s been a confusing start to the 2025-26 season for the Los Angeles Kings, and one you could classify as almost the opposite of last season so far. After a really rough first handful of games, they have found ways to come out on top in four straight, taking their road game to a whole other level. There have been mixed feelings about how the Kings’ season is going, 19 games in, with a level of uncertainty on how this roster will fare after 82 games, but there’s no doubt they are trending in the right direction.
The good, bad, and uncertainty continue as we head into the latest edition of LA Kings Notebook.
Kings Lock Up Kempe With Massive Extension
Yesterday afternoon, Sportsnet’s NHL insider Elliotte Friedman reported that the Kings and Adrian Kempe had agreed on an extension. This came after weeks without any progress or even discussions about it, as both parties had agreed to put a pause on any further discourse regarding Kempe’s future in Los Angeles.
This morning, the Kings officially announced that their superstar winger was in it for the long run. Kempe and the Kings agreed on an eight-year extension at an average annual value of $10.65 million.
The deal was a long time coming, something that was a major topic surrounding the Kings since the summer. For the longest time, it felt like it was going to get done before the season started, but with the cap rising, and then the market changing after Kirill Kaprizov and Connor McDavid’s awkward deal coming in and skewing it again, it makes sense as to why both parties took the time they did.
The question was more so what the deal would look like as opposed to whether or not Kempe would actually re-sign with the Kings, and given his value to the team, along with where the cap is now and is heading, this deal feels like a win for both sides.
“I’m very happy, it feels good […] once you get the call that everything’s agreed, you get very excited. I’m very happy, proud of myself and thankful for my teammates, fans, everybody that’s been around, and I’m excited to be here for another 8,” Kempe said. “This is my home and this is where I want to be.”
There was talk that the Kings wouldn’t be able to keep Kempe if they offered him anything lower than $11 million AAV, and based on where the market is at right now, there’s no doubt he could have gotten a contract in that $11-12 million range had he hit the open market.
Here’s the breakdown of the eight-year extension.
Kempe contract:
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) November 17, 2025
26-27: $1M salary, $11M signing bonus
27-28: $1M salary, $11M SB
28-29: $1M salary, $11 SB
29-30: $2.5M salary, $9.5M SB
30-31: $9.75M salary
31-32: $9.75M salary
32-33: $8.75M salary
33-34: $8.75M salary
SB total: $42.5M
Salary total: $42.5M
AAV: $10.625M
Selected 29th overall by the Kings in 2014, Kempe’s a homegrown talent, currently in his 10th season as a member of the Kings, and has hit a plethora of milestones during his time in LA. Hitting over 400 points and 200 goals in 649 games, he has continued his elite production this season, producing at a point-per-game pace with a team-leading 19 points.
Doughty Can’t Escape Injury Bug
Drew Doughty’s luck when it comes to injuries over the past two seasons has been awful. The 35-year-old defenseman faced another setback on Saturday in Ottawa.
Doughty suffered the injury during the second period against the Senators, in which he was hit on the left side of his foot by a shot by Senators’ defenseman Tyler Kleven. He did not return.
It was confirmed earlier today by Kings insider Zach Dooley that Doughty would be sidelined on a week-to-week basis with a lower-body injury, and that it was unrelated to the big ankle injury he suffered in the preseason last year. Good news there.
The Kings will be in a familiar situation from last season; the only difference is that the two individuals they were able to rely on are no longer there. It will be interesting to see how this new Kings D-core responds to the loss of their veteran teammate.
“We have gone through it before […] somebody else has to step up, probably other players will assume more minutes. The nice part about this is he’s week to week, not month to month,” head coach Jim Hiller said. “We can kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
With Jacob Moverare set as the next man up, questions arise as to how the Kings will situate their defensive group over the next two weeks. As of now, Hiller is opting to elevate Brian Dumoulin to the right side of Mikey Anderson, while Cody Ceci and Moverare will be a pairing. Brandt Clarke and Joel Edmundson have been the Kings’ best duo on the backend so far, and give them a level of familiarity and stability that Hiller will probably look to rely on and increase their minutes. Things could change depending on how this new formation looks against the Washington Capitals.
Moverare, who has played just one game so far this season, is no stranger to filling in when guys go down and there’s some relief from the Kings that he’s the next man up.
“He’s always bounced back from whatever time he’s been out, he’s in shape, he’s a good guy, he’s fun, the players enjoy being around him, and then when you put him out on the ice, he can do the job,” Hiller said. “It’s a perfect fit […] he’s there when called upon.”
Deja’Vu for Kuzmenko
Trends keep repeating themselves for Andrei Kuzmenko, who has now been met with the same fate in Vancouver, Calgary, and Los Angeles.
The past couple of weeks have seen Kuzmenko slowly drop in the lineup along with his ice time, eventually to the point of being a healthy scratch. He was taken off the first power-play unit, before being put back on it a couple of games later in a sort of final “prove yourself” scenario before being taken out of the lineup completely. The 29-year-old saw his average ice time of around 15-16 minutes a night rapidly decrease to around the seven-minute mark for two straight games before being scratched.
What most thought would be a one-time thing in order to give Kuzmenko a chance to reset turned into something more when he was listed as a scratch for the second game in a row. The Kings are playing some of their best hockey of the season right now, and that might make Hiller hesitant to willingly switch anything up.
“Kuzy was such an important addition for our team last year and brought us so much both 5-on-5 and on the power play, and this year it probably hasn’t gone as well as he or we had expected,” Hiller said. “It’s not a lack of effort, and it’s not that he hasn’t played well […] we have a lot of veteran guys now, so it makes it a difficult choice. He will be back in, I can’t tell you exactly when, and I expect him to be a big part of our team before it’s over.”
Kuzmenko’s start to the season hasn’t gone as the Kings envisioned it would after fitting in so well when he was acquired at the trade deadline last season. Regardless of what was envisioned by the Kings for the Russian winger when they re-signed him to a one-year extension, to say there wasn’t a decent chance this could happen would be false.
Kuzmenko had one helluva rookie season with the Canucks where he finished with 39 goals and over 70 points. The next season that production dropped, and he essentially became so much of a liability for Canucks former coach, Rick Tocchet, that he was banished to the press box and eventually dealt to the Calgary Flames. Kuzmenko’s start in Calgary was also pretty good, where he had 25 points in 29 games to finish off the 2023-24 season.
Once again, the following year, Kuzmenko played himself out of the lineup and eventually was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. There wasn’t enough of a sample size for Flyers Kuzy, who only suited up for seven games before joining the Kings. The same story has been on repeat since Kuzmenko’s NHL career started, and that trend played a big part in the Kings’ decision to only bring him back for one year.
Kuzmenko isn’t done in LA, and like Hiller mentioned, he will return to the lineup. He’s still very effective in certain areas; the problem is, he’s ineffective in more. If he’s not producing or pushing the power play to new heights, the level of impact he’s making is not quite enough to keep him in the lineup. Through the 17 games Kuzmenko has played, with most of them being alongside Kempe on the first line, he’s only recorded three goals and seven points.
For a player who was looked at as the team’s biggest addition in terms of offensive production, Kuzmenko’s start to the 2025-26 season has been reasonably disappointing.
The Kings are rolling and now look to pick up their fifth win in a row and their seventh straight road win tonight in D.C against the Capitals.
