Center Samuel Helenius had experience playing with the Los Angeles Kings and the minor league AHL affiliate Ontario Reign this past season. Helenius impressed in training camp and early this past regular season for head coach Jim Hiller and the Kings.
His size and physicality that he showed in training camp and the preseason last fall earned him a spot on the Kings' roster early in the regular season. Helenius impressed right from the get-go, notching a point while going a perfect 3-of-3 on faceoffs and finishing with a positive plus/minus rating in a convincing 5-2 win for the Kings over the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Despite the impressive showing in training camp and the preseason, Helenius still spent much of the early part of the 2024-25 season with the Reign in the AHL in Ontario. He scored a couple of goals and six points with the Reign in 20 games played this past season in the AHL.
Samuel Helenius 2024-25 Los Angeles Kings player season recap
2024-25 season stats: 50 games played, 4 goals, 3 assists, 7 points, +1
2024-25 advanced stats: 13.8 shooting %, 7.3 5-on-5 shooting %, 1.0 points/60, 0.4 point shares, 0.1 WAR
2024-25 possession metrics (with Kings): 47.6 CF%, 51.0 SCF%, 101.9 PDO, 51.2 HDCF%
Late in the regular season in the 2024-25 campaign, Helenius earned himself more of a full-time spot on the Kings roster down the stretch. He was a regular on the bottom-six forward lines for Hiller and the Kings in the regular season's final two months.
Helenius scored three goals and one assist in the season's final two months for the Kings. He also gave the Kings a physical edge on the forward lines, ranking third among the team's forwards in hits in the season's final two months in March and April.
He capped the regular season with an exclamation mark, scoring two goals, including the game-winning goal, in a big 6-5 clutch win for the Kings over the Seattle Kraken.
Helenius played all six games for the Kings as the fourth-line center in the first-round playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers.
Samuel Helenius 2025-26 Los Angeles Kings season preview
Since Helenius only has one year remaining on his entry-level contract with the Kings for this upcoming season, he'll need to prove himself in training camp for Hiller and LA to prove he deserves a spot on the roster at the center position.
He is expected to compete with fellow Kings center Alex Turcotte for a spot on the LA roster as the fourth-line center going into the upcoming season.