Over the next few weeks and before the start of the upcoming preseason in the NHL, the Los Angeles Kings and various other teams around the league are looking to fill out their projected rosters for the upcoming regular season. Key veterans have been signed to professional tryout deals with multiple teams around the NHL in the league in the past few weeks.
The Los Angeles Kings reportedly contacted former Oilers forward Klim Kostin, he said in an interview this summer in the 2025 offseason
The Kings still have some room left on the projected salary cap sheet for the upcoming 2025-26 season to add more depth to the blue line and the bottom-six forward core. New general manager Ken Holland and the Kings' front office added multiple impactful veteran forwards and to the blue line group with the defensive lines for the upcoming season to be more physical and proven in the postseason next spring.
Familiarity and proven experience have been two very consistent themes Holland and the Kings' noticed in free agency earlier this summer. The Kings signed multiple former Oilers players to the forward lines and the defensive group on the blue line in free agency this offseason, including veteran winger Corey Perry and defenseman Cody Ceci.
Another former Oilers player with some level of familiarity with Holland from his time with the front office in Edmonton a couple of years ago that the Kings could target in free agency for the upcoming season in the West for a professional tryout signing agreement is forward Klim Kostin.
The former Oilers, San Jose Sharks, and St. Louis Blues forward Kostin reportedly had talked with the Kings' front office and Holland in free agency earlier this offseason in the summer.
Kostin said in a recent interview this summer that the Kings had reached out to him before the start of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
The NHL forward veteran and 26-year-old Kostin played with Holland and the Oilers, scoring double-digit goals and 21 total points in the 2022-23 regular season in the Pacific Division for Edmonton. Kostin also played in a dozen postseason games for Holland and the Oilers in the West a couple of years ago in the 2023 playoffs, scoring three goals and five points for Edmonton.