Last season ended less than a week ago with the Florida Panthers winning a Stanley Cup for the second straight season over the Edmonton Oilers. However, the Los Angeles Kings have been focused on next season for much longer, and the division is already shaping up to be much tougher with recent moves by division rivals.
In fact, this month there have already been five trades in the NHL, and three of them have included teams in the Pacific Division. The first was the Ducks trading with the New York Rangers for Chris Kreider, along with a fourth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft for Carey Terrance and a 2025 third-round pick.
Meanwhile, the last two trades have included the Seattle Kraken as they acquired Mason Marchment from the Dallas Stars for two mid-round draft picks. Marchment is an excellent player, and the Stars had to trade him to help create cap space for them to make moves this offseason.
They would also add Joe Veleno from the Chicago Blackhawks for Andre Burakovsky.
LA Kings will face tougher road to finishing near the top of the Pacific Division
On top of the trades, the San Jose Sharks have the most cap space in the NHL followed by the Anaheim Ducks with the third most and the Calgary Flames with the sixth most. These three teams finished near the bottom of the divisoin but all have the money to drastically improve their roster this offseason.
The LA Kings finished second in the Pacific Division last season and tied a franchise record in points with 105. However, with the improvements already made by the Ducks and the Kraken and the expected improvements from the Sharks and Flames, while factoring in teams like the Golden Knights and Oilers remaining some of the best teams in the NHL, this Pacific Division is shaping up to be really tough next season.
For the Kings, general manager Ken Holland is going to have to be aggressive to make sure that the Kings at the very least keep pace with the rest of the division and the improvements they have made.