LA Kings: Second line is critical to team scoring more goals
The LA Kings will be relying on these three guys to score more goals in the 2020-2021 season.
With free agency nearly wrapped up, minus a few small signings, and the LA Kings roster set as well, it’s full steam ahead toward the 2020-2021 season. The league pushed the tentative start date back to January 1, from December 1, and we can only hope that’s the last time it’s moved. The Kings haven’t played since the middle of March, and the league is reportedly going to organize a minicamp for the seven teams who failed to make the playoff bubble.
Regardless of when the season gets underway, one thing is for certain. The Kings need to score more goals next season. The team finished with 177 goals last year, second-fewest in the league. Anze Kopitar led the way with 21 goals. He’s two years removed from a 35-goal season, and LA is hoping he can return to that version of himself.
The combination of Alex Iafallo, Dustin Brown, and Jeff Carter each scored 17 goals. For Iafallo, it was a career-year. For Carter, it was a year cut short due to injury. Brown will be 36 when the season begins, and there’s a chance that he could be moved down to the second line at some point this season. But for now, he remains on the first line.
If the Kings want to have any chance at a wild card spot in the playoffs, they’ll need these three players to score more goals in the 2020-2021 season.
Adrian Kempe
The definition of Adrian Kempe‘s career to this point is “inconsistent.” As a former first-round pick, he hasn’t lived up to expectations, and time is running out for the 24-year-old. Especially as the prospect pool pushes for NHL playing time. At times, Kempe has looked brilliant, and others…well, he’s flat out disappeared. He didn’t score his first goal of the 2019-2020 season until October 30.
The Swedish forward hit a hot streak in December, scoring goals in four out of seven games, including three straight on the tail end. And then, it was more of the same—a few games with no points. Two goals here, one assist there, another long scoreless streak. You get the picture.
He’s proven capable of scoring 15+ goals and with 20+ assists in the 2017-2018 season. And that was playing an average of 13:20 on-ice time. This past season, he saw a career-high 16:01 on-ice time and failed to take the next step.
The Kings need him closer to the 20 goals, 25 assists range this season.
Gabe Vilardi
Another first-round pick. Gabe Vilardi was taken with the 11th overall pick in 2017, four picks behind the newly acquired Lias Andersson. He’s been limited by injuries but returned to Ontario in November last season.
In the A, Vilardi scored 9 goals with 16 assists for 25 points in 32 games. He also scored 4 goals on the man advantage. Once he got the NHL call, it was instant productivity, scoring 7 points (3G, 4A) in 10 games before the shutdown.
He’s expected to see a bump in minutes from the 12:51 average on-ice time last season. Vilardi is a key member of the Kings’ prospect pool, and he’ll be expected to be a major contributor on the second line.
Hopefully, 15 goals and 20 assists aren’t out of the realm of possibility.
Martin Frk
A big reason why Gabe Vilardi was so successful in the small sample size was that he was on the same line with Martin Frk. The duo played together in Ontario, so it naturally made sense to put them on the same line with the Kings.
The former second-round pick of the 2012 Draft got a long look with Detroit in 2017-2018, tallying 11 goals with 14 assists in 68 games. Now 27, he has the hardest shot record at the AHL All-Star game and not a heckuva lot of NHL time since his time in Detroit.
He played a couple of games at the end of December, one in January, before becoming a regular in the middle of February. In his first game with the Kings, he tallied two goals and finished with 6 goals and 2 assists in 17 games.
Frk has gone on record that he desires to score 30 goals next season, which would obviously be huge for the Kings. He won’t provide much in the defensive zone, so LA will need all they can get from Frk offensively. That means scoring in 5v5 situations and the power play.
I see a more realistic 20-goal, 12-ish assist season in store for Frk.
Conclusion
So among the three, we’re looking at a combined 55 goals and 57 assists from the second line, if all pan out to their projections. And for what it’s worth, those numbers are what the Kings’ first line put up in a COVID-shortened season last year.