Based on the free agent moves this offseason, the lines seem pretty well set at this point for the Los Angeles Kings or at the very least who is going to be in the Top 12 among the forwards and Top 6 among the defenseman. The biggest question is those three skater spots on the roster after that.
When looking at who is currently under contract, there is realistically seven skaters that will be competing for those three spots. Let's take a quick look at each of those players and their chances at this point of winning a spot.
Samuel Helenius
Of the players on this list, Samuel Helenius seems like one who feels as close to a lock as this group has. Helenius played in 50 games this past season and had four goals and three assists with an average of 8:39 of ice time.
He did a good job bringing some physicality to that fourth line as he finished second on the team in hits with 150. This is one of the reasons he has a good chance of being on the roster again as the Kings lost a lot of that of their roster with Tanner Jeannot leaving in free agency.
Even if Helenius is not a consistently active, having him on the roster gives Jim Hiller a player in games when he needs it.
Akil Thomas
Akil Thomas spent the entire season with the LA Kings but didn't see much ice time as he was active for only 25 games, with a majority of those games in the first three months, with 16 games played. In addition to the increase in games early in the season, he saw more ice time with around 11 minutes per game the first two months.
However, he fell out of the rotation and saw the ice time decrease when active as the season went along and finished with an average of 9:55 ice time per game. He would only have one goal and two assists after four points in seven games the season prior.
Thomas is in a weird spot where he needs to have a strong camp to justify getting another roster spot this season. It was clear that Hiller didn't think Thomas could help them and with a deeper roster, a path to ice time gets even harder.
if he doesn't show Hiller enough improvement, the Kings may look to another player for this spot.