The Los Angeles Kings have seen a number of great forwards play for their franchise in their history. It certainly is tough to narrow it down to four but recently Lyle Richardson tried to do just that with the best four forwards since the 1990-91 season for each NHL team that would create their Mount Rushmore.
For the Kings, Richardson selected current team captain Anze Kopitar along with Dustin Brown, Luc Robitaille, and The Great One Wayne Gretzky. There is no question that all four have had great careers as all four rank in the Top 7 in points, Top 8 in goals as well as assists.
These four have also been key leaders for the Los Angeles Kings as one of these four has been the Kings' captain in 24 of the past 36 seasons.
Was there any snubs for the Los Angeles Kings on the Mount Rushmore?
When looking at the franchise history as a whole, there are certainly players like Marcel Dionne, who is the franchise leader in points, or Bernie Nicholls, who is sixth in points, that have a strong case over Dustin Brown. However, based on the fact that this only goes back to the 1990-91 season neither would qualify.
One player worth noting is Dave Taylor, who played 17 seasons with the Los Angeles Kings and was the franchise leader in games prior to Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown, and Drew Doughty having passed him recently. He played from the 1977-78 season through the 1993-94 season so he would have technically qualified based on these rules but was not the same player in the 1990s compared to earlier in his career.
In his final three seasons, he scored only 20 goals and had 51 points. However, similar to the other players on the Mount Rushmore he was the Kings' captain for a number of seasons, four in total from the 1985-86 season through the 1988-89 season
When looking at the Mount Rushmore put together by Bleacher Report, it is hard to argue with their picks but if the Los Angeles Kings total franchise history is taken into account, it probably looks a little different.