Anze Kopitar’s retirement has left the Kings with a hole that can’t be patched by signing one player or promoting one name into a bigger role. Peter Laviolette’s view is simpler than that, and maybe tougher: the answers have to come from inside the room.
In a recent sit-down with LA Kings Insider, Laviolette made it clear that Los Angeles is entering a stretch where leadership will have to be earned, not inherited. Kopitar wasn’t just the captain.
He was the benchmark for nearly two decades, the player the organization measured itself against, and the steady force at the center of everything the Kings did. Now that’s gone, and Laviolette knows there’s no direct replacement.
"This group's got to find a way to move forward," he said. "We've got to find the leadership. We've got to find the success that he helped drive this organization to find."
For Laviolette, that search starts with players who are already established enough to handle more, but not so settled that they should think they’ve reached their ceiling. Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere fit that description.
Neither is a rookie. Both have NHL mileage.
Byfield, especially, already has several seasons behind him. Still, Laviolette keeps coming back to the same idea: experience is not the finish line.
"I think it's important that they realize that, too, that experience doesn't necessarily mean that you've reached the top of what you can do," Laviolette said. "There's always more."
That line says a lot about how he sees the next phase for this roster. Byfield and Laferriere are no longer being asked just to learn the league.
The challenge now is bigger than surviving shifts and finding their footing. They have to help drive wins.
With Kopitar no longer carrying part of that load, the opening is there.
"As a guy like Anze moves off and into retirement, a door's open for others to try and step up, whoever that might be," Laviolette said.
Whoever that might be. That’s the key part.
Laviolette isn’t handing out a ready-made succession plan, and he doesn’t sound like a coach who wants the next captaincy to be automatic. If anything, he’s signaling that the leadership role should be claimed, not assigned.
He also sees the Kings’ transition as bigger than one locker-room question. Laviolette said the modern NHL has changed from the one he first coached in, when the structure was much more one-directional.
"There used to be a day when I started, where there was just one voice," he said. "Now it is about... back and forth."
That doesn’t mean the staff loses authority. Laviolette was careful to say everyone still has a job to do. But he also stressed that teams function better when players and coaches are actually talking through ideas instead of just receiving them.
"If there's no belief in it... you're beating your head against the wall trying to get something done," Laviolette said.
For the Kings, that matters because they’re not only adjusting to life without Kopitar. They’re trying to define what comes next. Laviolette’s message points toward a future built from the inside out, with younger players being pushed to take on more and the coaching staff working in closer step with them.
There are still external questions about what Los Angeles will do. But Laviolette’s comments put just as much weight on what’s already in the building.
The Kings have players who know the league. Now they need those players to become something more.
Kopitar’s retirement created the void. It also created the opening for Byfield, Laferriere and the rest of the young core to reshape who they are.
The Kings do not need another Anze Kopitar. They need players willing to grow into more than they’ve been.
And if the right voices emerge, the path forward might already be in the locker room. One name that fits that idea is Drew Doughty, who has spent his entire career with the Kings, is entering his 19th professional season, and was there for both of Los Angeles’ Stanley Cup championships.
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