The Los Angeles Kings may keep showing up in the postseason, but that hasn’t done much to ease the pressure around the front office.
In The Athletic’s latest NHL front office confidence rankings for 2026, the Kings landed 29th out of 32 teams, a clear sign that the media and fan base are still far from sold on where this team is headed going into the 2026-27 season.
The disconnect is easy to see. Los Angeles has made the playoffs five straight years, yet each trip has ended in the first round.
That includes last spring’s sweep at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche. Before that, the Edmonton Oilers had eliminated the Kings in four straight first-round matchups.
That kind of pattern can keep a team relevant in the standings while still draining belief in the long-term plan. The Kings aren’t being treated like one of the league’s worst clubs, but the confidence issue is bigger than wins and losses in the regular season. It’s about whether this front office can turn a steady playoff team into a genuine Stanley Cup threat.
Ken Holland is part of that conversation, even if the timing complicates it a bit. He has been the Kings’ general manager since May 2025, when he replaced Rob Blake this past offseason. Some of the frustration attached to the rankings still traces back to decisions that came before Holland arrived.
Still, Holland has had time to make an imprint. Over the last eight months, he has hired Peter Laviolette as head coach, traded for star forward Artemi Panarin, and opened a path for Quinton Byfield to become the No. 1 center.
Even with those moves, the concerns haven’t gone away. The Kings are the oldest team in the NHL heading into 2026-27, and that age profile raises obvious questions about how long key players can keep this level going. The blue line has also drawn criticism for its depth and for bad contracts, and the prospect pipeline has been thin enough to make the future look murky.
That leaves Los Angeles in a tough spot. The team is too good to call a rebuilding project, but not talented enough to be viewed as a true contender right now.
The biggest issue isn’t one trade, one contract, or one draft pick. It’s whether the Kings have a real path from annual playoff participant to a team that can finally break through in the Western Conference and reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
For now, the Kings are stuck in that awkward middle ground: good enough to get in, not complete enough to be trusted to go much farther.
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Kings Overhauled Plenty But One Question Still Hangs Over This Team
After a season in which the Kings scored less, gave up more and settled for a lower division finish before another first-round playoff exit, the offseason brought a clear message: the front office was not treating last spring as an isolated disappointment. Los Angeles went veteran-heavy up front, adding Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula and Corey Perry while bringing back Scott Laughton, and it also turned to Peter Laviolette behind the bench in hopes of squeezing more cohesion out of the offense and giving the special teams a cleaner edge.
What still determines whether any of it matters is how the Kings core responds. Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke remain the players most likely to tilt the teams ceiling, and the changes around them were designed to make that support structure sturdier. The roster looks different now, but the real question hanging over the club is whether those upgrades are enough to change the same familiar ending. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Prospect Now Has A Clearer Development Path After Latest Move
After spending another year in Slovakia, Adam Goljer is set to take the next step in his development by joining OHL Kingston, giving the Kings a clearer sense of how his game will be tested closer to North American hockey. For a Los Angeles organization that has leaned on patient prospect development, the move matters because it shifts Goljer into a league where the pace, schedule and physical demands should tell the team a lot more about where he fits long term.
The timing also gives the Kings a useful marker in a system that has been built around finding upside without rushing it. Goljer was one of the younger players in Los Angeles recent draft class, and his arrival in Kingston should make him far easier to track over the coming season. If he adapts quickly, it will only strengthen the case that his path is moving in the right direction, even if the real payoff remains a ways off. [Read more 🡒]
Trevor Moore Faces A Big Kings Question Entering 2026-27
Trevor Moores 2025-26 season ended up looking like a little bit of everything the Kings have come to expect from him: useful offense, steady two-way work and, at times, a lineup that had to cope without him. He appeared in 69 games, dealt with injury absences along the way and found a better rhythm after the coaching change in March, which helped settle his game down as the year went on.
Now the bigger question is how that translates into 2026-27, when the Kings are trying to sort out where Moore fits in a forward group that needs reliable depth scoring and some defensive bite. His versatility has long made him an easy player to trust in different situations, and the way he responded late last season only adds to the sense that he could have an important role again if the pieces around him fall into place. [Read more 🡒]