The start of the 2025-26 regular season for head coach Jim Hiller and the Los Angeles Kings is a little over one month away, which means the start of the upcoming campaign is right around the corner. Training camp and the preseason begin in roughly two and a half weeks for Hiller and the Kings staff this fall.
Candidates for Los Angeles Kings players to rebound in a big way in the 2025-26 season
New general manager Ken Holland and the Kings had a busy offseason this past free agent cycle to boost the roster with more physical edge and proven winners going into this season in the Western Conference.
The Kings are expected to contend for a spot in the postseason in the playoffs this upcoming season from West. LA is looking to get over the postseason hump in the first round of the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers.
If the Kings are going to be able to make a deeper postseason push in the playoffs and finally get past the Oilers in the Western Conference, more players (especially the younger and more promising players on the team) will have to rise to the occasion this upcoming season.
Here are three Kings players who must bounce back for LA for the upcoming 2025-26 regular season in the Pacific Division.
Trevor Moore, LW
Going into the preseason last fall, the expectations were sky-high for left winger Trevor Moore. After he scored over 30 goals and nearly 60 total points for the first time in his career in the 2023-24 season with the Kings and Hiller, Moore came back down to earth with his scoring production for LA this past season in the 2024-25 campaign.
A slow start to the last regular season for the Kings quashed Moore's momentum, scoring the puck for LA. Moore scored just one goal in the regular season's first dozen games last year. Nagging injury issues also kept Moore from reaching the 20-goal mark for the Kings this past season in the West.
Given that Moore is in the back end of the five-year contract he signed a few years ago, worth an average annual value of around $4 million, this upcoming season is a critical one for the Kings' bottom-six winger with the power play unit in 2025-26.
Drew Doughty, D
The Kings had a gaping hole to fill on the blue line in the first half of this past regular season in 2024-25 after losing veteran cornerstone defenseman Drew Doughty to an ankle injury in the preseason last fall. Doughty's ankle injury forced other younger defensmen for the Kings, like Mikey Anderson and Vladislav Gavrikov, to step up in the top four on the blue line last regular season.
Doughty struggled with heavier games in terms of average ice time down the stretch in this past regular season for LA. He averaged under 25 minutes in average time on ice for the first time in over a decade for the Kings.
Since he has a full offseason to rest and recover the ankle injury, Doughty should be closer to 100 percent for the Kings going into the upcoming season.
Phillip Danault, C
Phillip Danault is going into his fifth season as a two-way versatile center for the Kings in the bottom-six forward lines for the upcoming 2025-26 campaign. Kings fans know what they're getting from Danault at this point in his run over the past half-decade in LA with the team.
This past season, Danault scored single-digit goals for the first time in five years (since the 2020-21 season with the Montreal Canadiens in the East). It would be ideal for the Kings to have Danault get back to form, scoring the puck around the net, on the 15 or 20-goal consistent pace he was at over the past few years with LA.