The LA Kings had one clear objective this offseason and that was to add depth to their roster, specifically players who have playoff experience. The additions of Corey Perry, Joel Armia, Brian Dumoulin, and Cody Ceci certainly helped with that.
However, in the process of adding experience they might have actually hurt their playoff chances as they lost a lot of younger players on their roster. The average of those four players entering this season is going to be 34.25 with Perry being the oldest at 40.
Meanwhile, the departure of Vladislav Gavrikov, Jordan Spence, and Tanner Jeannot had an average age of only 27.
That is why it isn't overly surprising that the LA Kings are going to have the third oldest roster in the NHL with an average age of 30.2 years old, according to Puckpedia, when also taking into account Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty already being on the roster.
Did the Los Angeles Kings actually get too old to compete for a Stanley Cup?
Prior to last season, Nick Haydon with The Hockey Writers took a look at the average age of Stanley Cup winning teams over the past 10 seasons. Of those teams, none had an average age over 30 and only four had an average age over 29 for their regular season rosters.
This article was written prior to the latest Stanley Cup winner, the Florida Panthers, and that trend continued as their average was only 28.3 years old. In fact, the first Stanley Cup the Panthers won in 2024 was the oldest of all the teams that Haydon looked at, with an average age of 29.5 years old.
It was clear that Ken Holland wanted to add some more veterans to the roster and adding one or two would have made perfect sense. However, the fact that the youngest free agent signed was 31 years old was a sign that the Kings leaned in way too much into their desire for veteran experience.