4 players the Los Angeles Kings need to bounce back in 2024-25
The season is quickly approaching for the Los Angeles Kings as the Rookie Faceoff wrapped up on Monday and training camp is finally kicking off. The Kings are once again going to be looking to make a run at the franchise's third Stanley Cup but it is undoubtedly going to be tough.
If the Kings want to be the last team celebrating at the end of the year, these are four players who are going to need to have a bounce-back season after taking a step backward last year.
4 Los Angeles Kings who need to bounce back in 2024-25
Arthur Kaliyev
The first player is one who is not guranteed to even be on the roster this season in restricted free agent Arthur Kaliyev. He currently is unsigned and it is probably coin flip if he gets traded or returns to the Kings.
If he does return, Kaliyev will need to put last season behind him where he had only 15 points after scoring double digit goals each of the past two seasons. In the right situation, Kaliyev could be a big part of this offense and if he get backs to playing like he did in 2021 and 2022, this would be a tremendous boost to the Kings offense.
Adrian Kempe
Adrian Kempe would end up leading the Los Angeles Kings in points with 75, which was a career-high. This was due to a career-high in assists with 47, which was over 20 more than his next highest total.
However, something that took a big step backward was goal-scoring as he finished with only 28 goals, a significant decrease from the 41 he had in 2022-23 or the 35 he had in 2021-22. The reason for such a sharp decline was in his shot percentage as he had a shot percentage of only 11.4%, down from 16.4% in 2022-23 and 14.2% in 2021-22.
The Kings last year had only one player finish with more than 30 goals, Trevor Moore, and this season the offense is going to need someone to really establish themselves as the main threat to put the puck in the net. If Kempe can do that, return to 35 goals (or even get to 40), this will help this offense in a big way.
Phillip Danault
Another player who has been trending in the wrong direction for a few seasons now is Phillip Danault after a great first season with the Los Angeles Kings. In 2021-22, Danault would set a career-high in goals (27) and had back-to-back seasons with 50 or more points.
However, last year he would finish with only 17 goals and 30 assists for only 47 points and similar to Kempe, the shot percentage has continued to drop year over year from 13.9% in 2021-22 to 10.7% last season.
The biggest question for Danault is where he will be lining up this season as the center on the second or third line with Quinton Byfield now being a part of this offense. Hopefully, Danault can get back to being a 50+ point player this season.
Darcy Kuemper
The final player is one who wasn't even with the Los Angeles Kings last season but they are going to be relying on him this season. The Kings would trade for goalie Darcy Kuemper as part of the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade but Kuemper has been trending in the wrong direction.
In his two seasons with the Capitals, he would go 35-40-10 in 86 starts with a save percentage of .902 and a goals against average of 3.03. Last season would be the first time in his career that he had a goals against average over three.
Kuemper is entering this season as the presumed number one goalie, however that is far from a guarantee with David Rittich on the roster. However, even if he doesn't win the job he should still see plenty of time this season as part of the rotation. The Kings are going to need him to step up and get back to a save percentage over .900 and a goals against average under 2.5.
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