The Los Angeles Kings now know the shape of their first 84-game regular season in more than 30 years, and the early read is clear: this is not a soft landing.
The NHL released every team’s 2026-27 schedule on Thursday morning, July 16, and for the Kings, the calendar immediately throws them into the fire. Their opener comes Sept. 30 on the road against the defending Presidents Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche, in a nationally televised TNT game. That matchup is part of the first night of live TNT coverage, with the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers opening the broadcast slate in the East.
From there, the test keeps coming. The Kings will hit Pacific Division road games in early October against the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights before returning home for their Oct. 6 opener at Crypto Arena against the Florida Panthers.
That opening run matters because it tells you a lot about how the Kings and Laviolette are going to handle the start of this season. Facing two legitimate Stanley Cup contenders right out of the gate is a blunt way to find out where this group stands.
The new 84-game format also changes the stakes inside the division. With the expanded schedule, the Kings will now play every Pacific rival four times, instead of having two of those opponents come up only three times. That extra layer of divisional games gives every head-to-head meeting more weight, especially when it comes to playoff seeding and home-ice advantage in the Pacific race.
And then there’s the stretch that could loom over the season: a nearly three-week road trip out East from Jan. 23 through Feb. 9.
The All-Star Break falls right in the middle of it, which is a big reason the trip runs so long. The Kings will have to navigate tough stops against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Dallas Stars, Panthers and defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes away from home.
By the time that trip arrives, the standings should be tightening up, and those points could matter a lot. The Kings won’t have their season defined by the schedule alone, but the first 84-game campaign gives fans a pretty good map of where the biggest hurdles - and opportunities - are going to be.
In Other News...
Kings New Jersey Numbers Are Already Fueling Camp Debate
The Kings early camp chatter has already moved beyond line combinations and into something as basic as jersey numbers, with the club laying out what several players will wear when the new season gets going. Scott Laughton will take 21, Mats Zuccarello 36, Erik Haula 56, Corey Perry 90 and Erik Gustafsson 64, while other names across the roster and depth chart have been assigned or are expected to settle into their own numbers as camp approaches.
Scott Perunovichs choice of 7 is the one that stands out most in that group, because it can be read as a small but telling sign of where he sits in the competition for a job. The rest of the list has a similar feel, with Lane Pederson, Jan Jenik, Taylor Ward, Jared Wright and Francesco Pinelli all tied to specific numbers as they try to turn September into something more permanent, and the number assignments themselves are already giving the first hints of how the Kings are sorting through the roster. [Read more 🡒]
Ranking The Last Five Kings Seasons Reveals One Brutal Missed Chance
The last five Kings seasons tell a familiar story of progress that kept running into the same wall. The 2026 group had the weakest offense and special teams of the bunch and never found a foothold against Colorado, while the 2024 and 2023 teams were more dangerous with the puck but still wound up in the same place against Edmonton. Even the 2022 club, which came closest to breaking through, could not turn its better overall profile into a series win.
What makes the 2025 season stand out is how much promise it carried compared with the rest of the stretch. It is the one year that can be framed as the best chance at a deep playoff run, the version of the Kings that looked ready to do real damage before the whole thing slipped away. The ranking leaves that argument hanging, which is probably the point, because the frustrating part is not just how often the Kings have been good enough to matter, but how one of those chances still feels like the one that got away. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Offseason Is Already Getting Questioned With Bobrovsky Front And Center
The Maple Leafs offseason is drawing praise in a few places, but the goaltending and coaching choices are already inviting second-guessing. After adding pieces such as Gavin McKenna, Nick Paul and Darren Raddysh, Toronto still managed to put Sergei Bobrovsky front and center in the conversation, and the fit is being scrutinized because his recent performance metrics have trended the wrong way.
Jim Hillers arrival behind the bench is getting the same treatment, especially from anyone who watched his time with the Kings. His stint in Los Angeles ended with more questions than answers, and the criticism now circling Toronto is that the Leafs may have traded one set of concerns for another by betting on a coach whose previous stop left plenty unresolved. [Read more 🡒]