The Los Angeles Kings spent much of the early summer attacking their roster needs in free agency, with general manager Ken Holland bringing in veteran help as the team tries to build a more complete contender in the Western Conference.
Even after that flurry of moves, a few names still stand out as players who could have fit what the Kings were trying to do. These were the kinds of veterans who might have slid neatly into the lineup and given Los Angeles another layer of reliability. Instead, they signed elsewhere.
One of the clearest examples is Claude Giroux.
The Ottawa Senators center checked a lot of boxes for a Kings team looking for immediate help from experienced players. Giroux is a veteran two-way forward who can take on tough defensive work, win important faceoffs late in games in the third period, and still provide offense. That blend of responsibility and production would have made him a strong match for what Holland was trying to add this offseason.
There’s also a familiar connection in the mix. Giroux and new Kings head coach Peter Laviolette previously worked together with the Philadelphia Flyers earlier in Giroux’s NHL career, when Giroux was a key playmaker on those Flyers teams in the early 2010s. That history would have made the fit feel even more natural for Los Angeles, especially given Holland’s roster-building approach and Laviolette’s system.
Giroux wasn’t the only free-agent possibility who made sense for the Kings, but he was certainly one of the most obvious names left on the table.
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