Quinton Byfield doesn’t look like a player who should disappear in a crowd. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, he’s built to stand out. But in Los Angeles, that’s not how it works.
The Kings live in a city stacked with bigger lights and louder brands - the Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers, Rams, Chargers and a long list of others. In a market full of Shohei Ohtani, Luka Doncic and Puka Nacua, hockey players can get lost in the shuffle. Byfield says that suits him just fine.
“I am totally fine with it,” Byfield said with a hearty laugh, sitting with a small group of reporters at the NHL Player Media Tour in Las Vegas last month. “I feel like, for us, it’s good.
Obviously you promote yourself more when there’s more media. But it’s nice also just being able to…we’re not massive celebrities, but it’s just nice to go out to the grocery store, if you’re grabbing a drink, if you’re doing whatnot, not to be seen, not to be noticed.
You can just do what you want. Besides, when you’re in Toronto, Montreal, I feel like there’s a lot more attention on you.
You see videos of people taken. So there’s a little more, no stress for the media [in L.A.], and you’re able to just live.”
That low-profile comfort matters, because Byfield is no longer just another young piece in the Kings’ mix. The 24-year-old, drafted second overall in 2020, is moving into the stretch where the franchise expects him to become a true centerpiece.
He’s not Drew Doughty, Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown, Luc Robitaille or Anze Kopitar - at least not yet. But the path is opening for him to become the face of the team.
His development hasn’t been a straight climb. Like a lot of big, high-upside forwards, Byfield took time to settle in, and a fractured ankle at the start of his first full season in 2021-22 slowed him even more. The breakout came in 2023-24, when he was 21 and started looking like one of L.A.’s most dangerous forwards, flashing the kind of power moves that turn into highlight-reel goals.
Since then, the production has settled into a steadier lane: 20 goals, 50 points, usually from a second-line role. But the numbers only tell part of the story.
His underlying play has stayed strong, with a career-best individual expected goal rate at 5-on-5 last season. Hockey Stat Cards graded him as an 81st percentile offensive player and a 75th percentile defensive player.
And he did it while taking on huge responsibility, facing top competition all over the ice. The forward he saw most often was Connor McDavid.
Last season also marked the first time Byfield averaged more than 20 minutes of ice time. That kind of workload is the setup for the next leap, especially now that Kopitar’s spot as the Kings’ first-line center is open. Byfield and Kopitar remain connected, too, even after Kopitar’s retirement.
“Yeah, definitely, me and ‘Kopi’ were pretty tight and still shoot each other some texts,” Byfield told Daily Faceoff. “I was just texting some happy birthdays back and forth the other week.
So I feel like there’ll still be some communication. Might be hard with the time change that he has now [in his native Slovenia], but other than that, there’s still gonna be some communication.
When he comes back to L.A. for his jersey retirement, too, I’m sure we’ll catch up and get some dinner as well.”
The next step is bigger than filling a role, though. Kopitar was a high-end scorer in his prime, piling up 70 or more points nine times, 80 or more points twice and topping 90 once. The question hanging over Byfield now is whether he can reach that kind of offensive level while still bringing the two-way game the Kings need.
The setup for 2026-27 looks as favorable as it could be. Peter Laviolette’s up-tempo system has Byfield lined up between Artemi Panarin and Adrian Kempe, a pairing that gives him elite playmaking on one side and finishing on the other. If that sticks, Byfield should sail past his career-high 55 points.
And he’ll need to. The Kings have not won a playoff series since 2013-14, and they’ve been knocked out in the first round five straight times.
Their roster is also the oldest in the NHL by average age after GM Ken Holland added Corey Perry, Mats Zuccarello and Erik Haula in free agency. If this team is going to move forward, it will be because Byfield and defenseman Brandt Clarke become star-level players.
Byfield knows the pressure is there. He felt it last season while trying to make Kopitar’s final year in L.A. count, and he feels it now with Doughty in the final season of his contract. Still, he sounds more energized than burdened by what’s ahead.
“I feel like we have such a great group of guys, not just on the ice but off the ice,” Byfield said. “I feel like we might be, if not one of the tightest teams off the ice, we’re always hanging out, always doing stuff on the road or at home.
You look at our lineup too, we have some of the best winger depth in the league, forward depth in general. We’ve got a lot of veteran guys who’ve gone deep, who’ve won.
They know what’s needed to make the next step. So I feel like there’s a lot there for us to be a threat and make it deep, and we’re excited about it.”
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