As the holiday season approaches, PHR will be taking a look at what teams are thankful for in 2023-24. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. We’ll examine what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Los Angeles Kings.
Who are the Kings thankful for?
Playing on his sixth different team in as many seasons, the journeyman netminder signed on with Los Angeles as an unrestricted free agent on a one-year, $1MM contract. Believing at the time that Talbot would likely serve as a 1A or a 1B to fellow netminder, Pheonix Copley, Talbot has completely taken over the net for the Kings.
In 20 games played, Talbot holds a 13-5-2 record, as well as a .926 SV% and a 2.02 GAA. Furthermore, 12 of his 19 starts have been registered as Quality Starts according to HockeyReference, meaning he is beating the league average in save percentage in over 60% of his starts.
Last year, with an assortment of goaltenders including Copley, Jonathan Quick, Calvin Petersen, and Joonas Korpisalo, Los Angeles goaltenders were only able to achieve a collective save percentage of .892, before completely bottoming out in the 2022-23 Stanley Cup playoffs. Now with a steady presence between the pipes this season, Talbot has made a case for being the best-value contract signed this past summer.
What are the Kings thankful for?
Patience.
Although it feels more recent, the Kings are now a decade removed from their last Stanley Cup run and still retain two of their aging stars Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, as well as Quick as recent as last season. Going through some lean seasons since then, Los Angeles has done a great job stockpiling young talent, to go on another run with their franchise legends. 
In the 2020 NHL Draft, the Kings selected forward Quinton Byfield as the second overall selection in the draft, and although he made his NHL debut a year later, Los Angeles demonstrated tremendous patience with Byfield’s development. From 2020-2023, Byfield played in a total of 99 games for the Kings, scoring eight goals and 33 points over that stretch.
Now, and still only 21 years old, Byfield is nearly a point-per-game player, scoring eight goals and 23 points in 27 games, nearly doubling his career totals in about a third of the number of games. Aside from Byfield, Los Angeles is using a similar method with Arthur Kaliyev, Jordan Spence, and Brandt Clarke, hoping to make the most out of every one of their draft selections.
What would the Kings be even more thankful for?
For Father Time to stay away.
As previously mentioned, the Kings are beginning to reap the benefits of many solid draft choices, and demonstrating the patience required to build a winning team through the draft. However, even all these years later, the team still primarily beats to the drum of Kopitar and Doughty.
Even though both franchise icons are in their mid-to-late 30s, Kopitar continues to lead the team in scoring, and Doughty leads all defensemen in scoring within the organization. Unfortunately, for the most part throughout the league and sports in general, Father Time remains undefeated and will ultimately claim Kopitar and Doughty as its victims.
When these two future Hall of Famers decide to call it quits, given their draft and prospect capital accrued over the last several years, Los Angeles should be pretty well set up for the future of the organization. Nevertheless, they would undoubtedly benefit from having these two as long as possible.
What should be on the Kings holiday wish list?
A potential coaching change.
During the Todd McLellan era of Kings history over the last five seasons, Los Angeles has only made the playoffs, losing in the first round each time. This season, with the team currently fifth in goals for per game, and the best team in goals against per game, this Kings team is the most well set up to get the job done this spring.
Reasonably assuming that Los Angeles will eventually make the playoffs for the third time in a row this spring if they are unable to make it out of the first round, there should be serious questions raised about the future of McLellan within the organization.
In 15 seasons spent as a head coach in the National Hockey League before this year, McLellan has coached his team to the playoffs in nine of those seasons, making it as far as the Western Conference Finals twice with the San Jose Sharks back in 2010 and 2011. This season, if they are going to make it to the Stanley Cup, they will most likely have to go through the defending Champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The Kings should be thankful that there goaltending hasn’t emploded yet, It will soon!
‘their’ goaltending…
And we are, and it won’t. Cheers, bubby.
Emplode? Really? You are now making up words to go with your amusing takes on hockey? Seems about right.
You mentioned ‘coaching change’, who would be available if they did fire Todd this year?
I don’t necessarily think it will come this season, just given how much of a well-oiled machine Los Angeles has been up to this point. But like I said in the article, McLellan’s resume isn’t full of postseason success, and if the Kings can’t get out of the first round this spring, I wouldn’t be surprised if the team makes a change. At that point, there could be a ton of candidates available. My ‘pie in the sky’ choice would probably have to be Mike Sullivan if he becomes available. His voice appears a little stale in Pittsburgh at the moment and he did really well with a good mix of veterans and younger players during his initial start with the Penguins.
@Brennan — I think this sentence is missing some “stuff” — “During the Todd McLellan era of Kings history over the last five seasons, Los Angeles has only made the playoffs, losing in the first round each time.” He’s taken them to the playoffs twice in the last four years, as this is his fifth, which isn’t finished yet. So far, EDM has been the bugaboo for the Kings, not unlike BOS is to TOR or TBL is to TOR. Look at how long it took CGY to win in ANA. Could they change it up if there’s another first round exit? Sure, this is the NHL we’re talking about. While I hope Sully won’t be let go in PIT, it looks more and more like they’ve tuned him out. As long as he’s on a list ahead of Babs (as in, well ahead), I’d be happy for the Kings if he landed there. But, don’t forget about one Marco Sturm lurking in Ontario.
Thanks for the response. It’s nice to see I’m not the only one (I know fans like me discuss it) that’s thought about it. Rob Blake only extended McLellan one year after this one, so I think Kings need to get beyond the first round to keep Todd around.
Don’t forget the great P L D,
@Cla23 — OK, we’ll try not to, but no promises. ;) (10th in goals, 9th in points, and the worst +/- on the team right now? That trade is really looking bad at the moment, isn’t it?)
Not gonna lie, it could be better. However, he’s playing a lot better than the numbers indicate. Enough to save the trade? Maybe not yet, but there’s time. GMRB has preached patience throughout this rebuild and it has paid off far more than it hasn’t (Kempe, Byfield, Kaliyev, Grundstrom,) so I’m willing to continue riding it out for now.
Quite disappointed in him so far.
Odd wording that we should be wishing for a coaching change…. Does that mean we should be wishing for a quick exit from the playoffs?
I will say, maybe it’s apples to oranges, but there was a certain coach with the initials D.S. who was saddled with the ‘Can’t take a team all the way’ reputation until, well, he wasn’t. Could history repeat itself? I hope so!
@J.H. — Remember, that coach emphasized shot quantity over shot quality. Razor, in Dallas, likes to call that “Belly button Bingo”, which rarely lights the lamp. That, and the Keenan-like anti-motivation techniques, and refusal to play the kids. He seems to have forgotten that the NHL is the final stage of development. He would often have something funny to say in the postgame scrums, but that only goes so far.
Heh, Razor is great. Funny as hell too. Thirty years back, when he was assigned to Springfield but on the injured list, he and then-fellow minor league goalie Jim Ralph did a regular feature for the AHL’s Rinkside program. One of their skits stuck in my head, where Razor said he made the decision about what position to play after his big sister repeatedly slammed a window onto his head. He then said in a robotic monotone: “I – be – goalie. You – be – shooter.”
In theory, McLellan’s teams should do well in the playoffs. The Kings play a disciplined game and especially in the playoffs, the team that makes the fewest mistakes tends to win more often. It’s a tough league – you’d think coaches like Montgomery and Brind’Amour would win more in the playoffs.
@Jess the trip — At least he’s trending up in the last couple of years. As long as they don’t get derailed by the “i” word, I could see them surprising some teams. But, that’s 55 games away right now. They will be interesting to track the rest of the season.
@Nha Trang — While I haven’t found that on YT yet, I have to keep looking now, just for that description. Hearing Razor and Bogo on the Sirius/XM feed via NHL.com is worth double the price of admission. :)
In the preseason this year, Ralphie talked about a game in Minni against the North Stars. He said they forgot to put his equipment on the bus, so he had two choices. One, either don’t play that night, or they would get some gear at a local sporting goods store. He chose the latter. He said the pads at that time were so stiff, it could take two years to break in, and that he thought he got called for icing after making a kick save.
Mm, I’ve found bits of the old Rinkside on YouTube, but only bits, not complete programs: it was over thirty years ago, weekly half-hour shows produced by the AHL, and I don’t now remember where I saw it — ESPN? Regional cable? I’d think the best way to find it now is to write the AHL offices for information.
@Nha Trang — I’d better check my previous posts for anything critical of Scott Howson, first. ;)
Oh, I don’t disagree that he has a very short shelf life with a franchise, but there’s no arguing what he did in L.A. Two cups in three years and then it was quickly obvious it had run its course by the end of year four.
@J.H. — He did get the Cups, but as the saying goes, “that was then, this is now.” His coaching philosophy is still stuck in the past, not unlike Tippett and Hitch.
You’re not wrong, I believe it was a matter of right place, right time. Something that will probably not ever happen again for him.
I am thankful for Talbot’s season thus far; I’d be more thankful if Dubois showed up once in a while.