After a season where the Los Angeles Kings finished the regular season on top of the Western Conference with 121 points and the third best record in SHL history one would think the team was on to something special, especially with the whole team being under contract going forward aswell.

A first round exit to the 8th seed Chicago Blackhawks changed all that and the early days of the off season has seen major changes to the LA Kings roster and coaching staff.

“Well, I suppose this says something about the level of excellence that we expect from our team year in an year out” GM Tarnstedt told the assembled media. “A first round exit for the third straight year after winning the Cup in 2017 simply isn’t acceptable.

That’s why this off season we decided to go all in and put the best team on the ice that we could possibly muster. We have mortgaged the future to do this, we are aware of that, but the window to win is now for this team.

So, we went out and targeted players that we felt could fill the holes that we had. On paper we now have a team with no glaring holes and with an offensive fire power that should be fun to watch as a fan.

I can also tell you that today we have let Mike Babcock go as head coach of the LA Kings. We thank Mike for his services and wish him all the best going forward.

We felt that we needed a fresh voice behind the bench and we are extremely pleased to announce that as of today the new head coach of the Los Angeles Kings is Gerard Gallant. In our interviewing process we have made it clear to Gerard that we expect the team to be an all out offensive power house this season”.
“This is a make or break year for the Kings” GM Tarnstedt said. “We are going for the Cup, no reason to undersell that. Either we reach that goal, or there is a strong possibility we will blow up the team and start over from scratch”.

So, what moves have been made so far this offseason, in addition the coaching change?

  • The first major move was bringing in one of the elite wingers in the league in Mark Stone to play alongside Connor McDavid. Sent out was a package of draft picks (LA 1 2021, ANA 2 2021, LA 7 2021), Mathieu Joseph and 2.2 million dollars.
  • The second trade saw two of the all time greats and LA Kings legends in Jordan Staal and Johnny Gaudreau along with 6 million dollars get traded for Neal Pionk and Kevin Hayes.This move in itself speaks to the seriousness with which management is viewing this offseason as Jordan Staal has won 2 cups with the Kings and is the franchise leader in games played, goals, assists and points while Johnny Gaudreau was a member of the 2017 Cup team and is 4th in franchise history in games played, goals, assists and points. The deal however gave the Kings the top pairing offensive defender that they were lacking going into the offseason in Neal Pionk and a scoring threat with size and grit for the third line in Hayes.
  •  The last few days the Kings also traded for Ryan Strome who had a break out season last year for a package of draft picks (LA 1 2020 and LA 6 2020).
  • Finally, the last glaring hole to be filled was the backup goaltender, where Aaron Dell was brought in, in exchange for Erik Gustafsson and a draft pick (LA 5 2020).

“It is never easy to move players that have played significant roles for our franchise before, but we think these moves has made our team better and into a contending team in the league for next season” GM Tarnstedt concluded.

As far as how the lineup will look going into next season, early indications are that it will be balanced out as follows:

Teuvo Teravainen (75) – Connor McDavid (83) – Mark Stone (78)
Artemi Panarin (78) – Jonathan Toews (77) – Ryan Strome (73)
James van Riemsdyk (69) – Kevin Hayes (70) – Jeff Carter (72)
Rocco Grimaldi (65) – Nick Bonino (69) – Jordan Martinook (65)

Patrik Nemeth (70) – Neal Pionk (76)
Dmitri Orlov (73) – Adam Larsson (71)
Jonas Siegenthaler (65) – Brett Pesce (68)

Andrei Vasilevskiy (79)
Aaron Dell (70)

The rest of the off season looks to be a very quiet one for the Kings as they have few (if any) picks at all in the 2020 Draft and don’t look to be very active in free agency.

“We are set” GM Tarnstedt said in closing to the assemlbled press. “Let’s drop the puck already and begin the 20/21 season where the only goal we have in mind is to lift the Cup once again!”