The 2025-26 season is quickly approaching, and the Los Angeles Kings will be returning to the ice to end the frustrating streak of four straight seasons ending in a first-round exit. This will be general manager Ken Holland's first season with the team, and he has tried to transform the roster with veteran experience by adding players like Corey Perry, Cody Ceci, and Brian Dumoulin.
Only time will tell if these moves will pay off, but in the meantime, let's make some player predictions for the Kings based on the current roster with less than two months to go before they drop the puck against the Colorado Avalanche.
Bold predictions for the LA Kings two months before 2025-26 season
Adrian Kempe will break 80 points
This season is a pivotal one for Adrian Kempe, and he should be motivated to put together his best season of his career. Kempe is entering the final year of his contract, and if he doesn't get a new deal, he will want to set himself up to cash in next summer during free agency.
If he does get a new contract from the Kings, he will want to prove that he is worth that new deal. This may not be that bold of a prediction, for Kempe to break 80 points, because the past two seasons he has been close with 75 and 73, respectively.
However, it has been a while since the Kings have had any player reach this mark since Anze Kopitar had 92 points in the 2017-18 season. That streak should end this season with Adrian Kempe having a career season.
Quinton Byfield leads the team in assists
For over a decade now, Anze Kopitar has been the Kings' top center and ranked near the top of the team in terms of assists. However, Kopitar is getting towards the end of his career, and the Kings are going to need a new player to emerge for this role.
That player should be Quinton Byfield, who showed flashes of it last season, and this year should be able to put it all together. Last season, Byfield had 31 assists and will need to increase that total by 15 or more assists to lead the team in the category, realistically.
The reason that he should be able to do that is based on the way he finished the season, as 19 of his 31 assists were in the final 32 games. If he keeps that average of .59 assists per game over an 82-game season, he will finish with 49 assists and probably will be more than Kopitar has this season.
Andrei Kuzmenko has over 60 points
Another player who finished the season really well was Andrei Kuzmenko after the Kings traded with the Philadelphia Flyers for him. The Kings saw enough to bring him back this summer on a one-year deal, and the hope, for both sides, is that a full season in this system can help Kuzmenko have one of the better seasons of his career.
Kuzmenko looked like he was going to be one of the top players after a rookie season where he had 74 points. However, he struggled to maintain that production and played for four teams over two seasons.
With the Kings, though, he looked more like that player from his rookie season and averaged .77 points per game. If he can do that over a full season, he would finish with 63 points, and that isn't unrealistic for what he did for this offense at the end of the regular season and into the playoffs.
Drew Doughty returns to being the top defenseman for the LA Kngs
The Los Angeles Kings were faced with one of their biggest challenges early last season when Drew Doughty suffered an ankle injury in the preseason that would cost him half the season. He would return at the end of January, but the injury seemed to impact him after he returned.
Doughty didn't play at the same level that fans have come to expect, but with a full offseason to rest, he should have a bounce-back season. The Kings are going to need that after losing Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence this summer.
It wouldn't be surprising with a full season that Doughty doesn't get close to 50 points, which he was able to do in the two seasons prior to the injury.