Quinton Byfield is walking into the 2026-27 season with the spotlight turned all the way up.
For the Los Angeles Kings, the post-Anźe Kopitar era is here, and Byfield is the player most likely to inherit the biggest job on the roster. The 6-foot-5 Canadian forward has spent years climbing, but the next step is no longer about promise. It’s about delivery.
Byfield’s 2025-26 line - 24 goals and 49 points in 79 games - gave the Kings another 20-goal season from him, his third straight. Even so, the year still came with the same frustrating theme that has followed him at times: stretches where the offense simply dried up.
The talent is obvious. The consistency hasn’t fully caught up.
That’s what makes this season different. The Kings drafted Byfield in 2020 with the belief he could grow into a franchise centerpiece.
Six seasons later, the toolkit is still there: high hockey IQ, strong puck-handling ability, and the kind of size-speed blend that makes him tough to handle when he’s rolling. But the breakout that many expected still hasn’t fully arrived.
His best point total came in 2023-24, when he finished with 55, and the bar for this season is much higher, somewhere in the 70-80 range.
The pressure isn’t just about production, either. It’s about responsibility.
With the organization moving into a new era and leaning on its young core, Byfield is the player under the most scrutiny. If he can become the reliable difference-maker the Kings need, he has a real chance to establish himself as the face of the franchise.
There’s also the matter of the contract. Byfield signed a five-year extension on July 15, 2024, with an average annual value of $6.25 million.
That kind of commitment raises the stakes. The Kings made their investment in him during the 2020 NHL Draft, and now they need to see that investment start paying off in a bigger way.
The challenge for Byfield has never been raw ability. It’s been holding that level over the grind of a full season. If he can take another step as both a scorer and a playmaker, he won’t just strengthen the Kings’ top line - he could become the player who defines this next chapter.
And that’s the real test here. Los Angeles needs someone to lead the transition from one generation to the next, and Byfield has the chance to be that guy. If he finds the consistency that has eluded him before, he could grow into one of the league’s top two-way centers and give the Kings a better shot at getting past the first round and into the conversation in the Western Conference.
In Other News...
Kings Report Card Shows Sammy Helenius Is Becoming Part Of The Plan
Sammy Helenius first full push into the Kings lineup gave the club a clearer picture of what it has in the young center. In 2025-26, he played a career-high 53 games and settled in as a dependable fourth-line option, bringing the kind of physical edge and defensive steadiness that coaches tend to trust when the games tighten up.
There is still room for his game to grow, especially in the faceoff circle and on the offensive side, but the bigger takeaway is that he has moved from depth piece to part of the plan. The Kings rewarded that progress with a two-year extension, and all signs point to Helenius opening 2026-27 right where he finished last season, anchoring the fourth line and trying to add a little more to his role. [Read more 🡒]
Former Kings Forward Just Took A Step Fans Saw Coming
Jeff Malotts move out of the Kings organization and into a new Southern California stop was the kind of transaction that fit the path he had been on for a while. The 29-year-old winger had spent most of his time in the AHL while also getting NHL looks with Los Angeles, carving out the profile of a depth forward teams keep around for size, energy and a willingness to do the harder work in the lineup.
Now he has a longer runway to do that elsewhere, with Anaheim bringing him in on a three-year contract at the start of free agency. For the Kings, it is another reminder of how quickly the bottom of the roster can shift, especially for players whose value lives in the margins, and Malotts next opportunity looks set to come in a role built around those same traits rather than any big offensive expectations. [Read more 🡒]