The 2025 NHL offseason was a great opportunity for new general manager Ken Holland and the LA Kings to make some serious upgrades and ultimately get younger, but a summer of puzzling free agency moves and trades suggests the Kings may have taken a step back rather than progress and improve. Re-signing the likes of Andrei Kuzmenko and Alex Laferriere to solid deals was exactly the right moves they needed to make during the summer, however some of the later moves they went on to make doesn't reflect what the Kings are trying to build in LA.
As some of their key pieces to their success last season were pending free agents, letting both Tanner Jeannot and Vladislav Gavrikov leave probably wasn't the smartest move given how important they both were in their individual roles last season, and given the following free agency moves they went on to make, letting these two go has still left a pretty big hole in the team.
Signing 34-year-old Brian Dumoulin to a three year, $4 million a year deal, and 31-year-old Cody Ceci on a four year, $4.5 million a year deal could seem like a good deal on paper getting two veteran defensemen for what they would have paid Gavrikov, but is two aging and rather unproductive D-men the right move in a market full of young opportunities?
But what makes the Ceci and Dumoulin deals even worse was trading 24-year-old star defenseman Jordan Spence to the Ottawa Senators in return for some not so valuable draft capital, losing one of their brightest looking defensemen. For a team who is currently struggling with an old defensive core, moving on from Spence is probably going to be a mistake Holland ends up regretting, and swapping future defensive depth for a temporary fix probably isn't the answer the Kings are looking for.
Given that the Kings are one of the older teams in the NHL on average, their other free agency signings didnt really spark up any conversation, and as a whole really didnt make any sort of statement. Signing 40-year-old Corey Perry, and 32-year-old Joel Armia isn't exactly the young exciting signings the Kings fanbase would have expected this offseason, and with the news breaking that Perry is sidelined for the opening month of the season with a knee injury doesn't help their cause too much. Perry had a couple of good seasons with the Oilers, but his move to the Kings doesn't seem to make too much sense, and as an impact player who can really elevate the franchise, it definitely wasn't the right move.
On top of all the aging signings the team made, and the trades which all suggest they have taken a step back this offseason, long-time captain Anze Kopitar retiring doesn't make their situation any better, and a bleak season could be on the horizon for LA. No surge of young talent to add some speed and rawness to the team, too much age on the blueline, and sacrificing some of your best young talent all suggests that the new front office in LA have done nothing but take some big steps back down the championship ladder, and who knows what direction the Kings are headed in for the next few seasons.