4 Big Questions for the Los Angeles Kings in 2020-21

The Los Angeles Kings are a team with a lot of questions.

The Los Angeles Kings are in a funny place heading into the 2020-21 NHL season.

A half-decade removed from the belle of the Pacific Division’s ball, having won two Stanley Cups in a three-year span from 2011-14, the Kings have missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and haven’t advanced past the first round since winning the cup in 2013-14.

With a “farm system” evacuated of talent at an alarming rate during that win-now fast break towards the cup, the Kings have slowly but steadily worked their way back into a bright future in no small part due to picking in the top-5 in each of the last two NHL Entry Drafts.

Will these plucky young upstarts be able to get the NHL sooner rather than later, or should Kings fans the world over pack it in for a few more back years before playoff hockey returns for another long-term run of playoff-bound seasons returns to Staples?

With that being said, there are still a few reasons to be excited about the Kings moving forward and a few notable questions that could ultimately define the franchise’s future as we push even further into the second decade of the 21st century.

4. When will the Kings’ reverse retro jerseys make their on-ice debut?

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This one isn’t so much of a “Big Question” as it is a point of genuine excitement around the franchise heading into the forthcoming season: The return of the

purple

‘forum blue’ and gold, Lakers-esque Los Angeles Kings uniforms.

Now back as part of the NHL’s exemplary reverse retro initiative where teams get to reimagine their uniforms in fun and imaginative ways, the Kings will get to wear these fantastic new/old looks for an undefined number of games, presumably without a single fan in attendance to celebrate their triumphant return.

Ideal? Not so much, but in the 2020-21 NHL season, what really is?

Whether worn for one game, two games, four, or even more, the (re)introduction of the Kings’ classic look – worn from 1967 until Wayne Gretzky/LA Raiders mania came to town in the late-80s  – will surely bring some excitement, energy, and intrigue to a season that is both abbreviated and all but surely lacking in a postseason payoff.

3. Can players like Alex Iafallo take a step forward?

While the Los Angeles Kings are pretty firmly separated into two camps – the remnants of their title runs and their new guys barely old enough to buy alcohol – there are a few players who made their debut/were drafted between 2014-18 who are kind of stuck in between.

Sure, some of these players have without a doubt proven that they can play in the NHL, like 2017 UDFA Alex Iafallo, 2015 seventh-round pick Matt Roy, and 2014 first-round pick Adrian Kempe have all become fixtures of the Kings’ top-two offensive and defensive lines, while others like Michael Amadio, Austin Wagner, and Michael Eyssimont haven’t been so lucky.

Can any of these players take a significant step forward in 2021?

Even if players like Quinton Byfield and Alex Turcotte (more on them later) are the Kings’ future, cementing another star out of one of the team’s mid-20s performers would go a long way in providing Los Angeles with a firm nucleus to build around well into the future.

Sure, the Kings still have players like captain Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, and to a lesser extent Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick who are collective living legends in Los Angeles hockey and should serve as valuable resources for this new crop of 22-and-under princes(?) to learn from, but eventually those players will move on either via free agency, retirement, or trade. If, however, a player like Iafallo – I’m really banking on Iafallo here, I really think he has something – can cement his place as the next Anze Kopitar, it’ll be huge for the longevity of the next Kings dynasty.

Let’s just say when the last time any team drafted a player who has amassed more than 42 goals over his career was back in 2012 – Tanner Pearson, in case you didn’t know – developing a single homegrown prospect into a household name would be a welcomed addition.

2. Is this the year the Kings sell big at the deadline?

At the 2020 NHL trade deadline, the Los Angeles Kings traded away life-long franchise stalwart Alec Martinez to the Vegas Golden Knights for a 2020 second-round pick – eventually used to select Brock Faber in a roundabout way- and a 2021 second-round pick via St. Louis.

Now at the time, this move was bittersweet, but in hindsight, the Kings won the deal by a pretty considerable margin – especially since Vegas is reportedly shopping Martinez yet again.

Now in a vacuum, this sort of deal isn’t particularly indicative of any sort of major line shift – VGK came heavy with a massive overpay offer, and Kings GM Rob Blake happily accepted it – but could the day eventually come where even the most well-loved Kings – you know the ones – will be playing in a more colorful uniform in somewhere other than Figueroa Street?

With only five players currently under contract for the 2022-23 season, the Kings could conceivably move pretty much any player not on a rookie deal at this year’s deadline, and it wouldn’t do much to their future but free up some additional playing time for young players.

Heck, even the three players the Kings currently have signed to contracts with either modified or fully-fledged no-trade clauses could agree to end their extended stays in Downtown LA for a chance to compete for another title as a member of, say, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

If some team is willing to give up a pick for Jonathan Quick, Jeff Carter, or even Dustin Brown – and their expensive contracts – I imagine the Kings would at the very least consider it, if not outright accept the deal.

Make no mistake about it; there will eventually come a day where the Kings hand over the reins from their old guard to a new, younger crop of players, and for that to happen, even the most popular players – I’m looking at you, Drew Doughty – will eventually have to say goodbye to the fans who’ve welcomed them with open arms.