Continuing the seasons in review on the backend with Cody Ceci’s first season in Los Angeles. Certainly not the debut that was envisioned, as Ceci became the poster child for the group’s overall shortcomings, which extended beyond just one player. The Kings, as a whole, doubled down on defense-first players on the blueline and that approach on the blueline was part of the reason why the team overall took a step back. A look at Ceci’s campaign below.
Cody Ceci
LAK Statline – 82 games played, 1 goals 8 assists, -10 rating, 16 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 4 games played, 0 goals, 0 assists, -2 rating, 2 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 51.3% (-2.6%), SCF% – 52.5% (-1.4%), HDCF% – 53.9% (+1.1%)
Trending Up – Going to start here with a similar opening to the story as I had with Brian Dumoulin. While they were each other’s most common partners this season, both players played substantially better apart than together. The Kings controlled more than 55 percent of high-danger chances at 5-on-5 with Ceci on the ice, playing with any partner besides Dumoulin. That would have led all Kings defensemen. Dumoulin’s numbers improved substantially in terms of actual goals for and against whereas with Ceci, it’s the underlying numbers that improve when playing on a different pair. If you can isolate Ceci apart from that pair, as was the case with Dumoulin, the profile gets a lot better. If both players are still on the team next season, everyone would probably be better served by a different approach.
Among Kings defensemen to play regularly on the penalty kill, Ceci was arguably the team’s most effective player. He posted the second-best goals against per/60 metric on the Kings blueline and led the team in several defensive categories. Per Sport LOGIQ, Ceci led all Kings defensemen with at least 100 shorthanded minutes in blocked shots per/60 and defensive-zone stick checks per/60. His defensive-zone denial rate while shorthanded was the fourth-best in the entire NHL among defensemen with at least 100 PK minutes and only two players in the league – Carolina’s Jaccob Slavin and New York’s Scott Mayfield – allowed a lower percentage of clean entries against. While shorthanded, Ceci was effective.
Trending Down – The problem with isolating Dumoulin and Ceci’s numbers apart is that they were each other’s most common partner this season, which hurt both players. They were on the ice together for 21 goals for and 36 against at 5-on-5 which was among the NHL’s worst splits among consistent pairs. There were 46 defensive pairs around the NHL this season with at least 500 minutes together and the Dumoulin/Ceci duo ranked fifth from the bottom in goal share and third from the bottom in goals for when on the ice together, both on a per/60 basis. It was a pairing that just didn’t work for the Kings, despite being acquired to play together in the offseason and being utilized together throughout the bulk of the season.
A big area in which Ceci struggled, by the numbers, was with regards to defending zone entries by the opposition and that came in a few different areas. Ceci’s denial rate on zone entries against was the lowest of all regular Kings defensemen at even strength and he ranked 201st of the 213 defensemen in the NHL to log at least 500 minutes last season in those situations. On dump-ins by opposing players, Ceci ranked 207th with the same parameters, with a successful zone exit on less than two thirds of dump-ins. His success rate on dump-outs was just over 50 percent, towards the bottom of the league as well. Think it was an area where the eye test and the numbers aligned when it came to those types of situations, which kept the Kings pinned in on opposing entries.
One big reason for the struggles in that area came down to passing accuracy. Looking at passes made from the defensive zone, Ceci ranked towards the bottom of the NHL in passing percentage both with outlet passes and stretch passes, ranking among the bottom 15 defensemen in the league in both categories. I don’t think that anyone was really looking for a ton of offense from Ceci, but as a whole, the Kings defensemen struggled to move the puck up ice effectively this season. In the two categories above, pairing the entries/retrievals with the first pass out, Ceci was the team’s least effective blueliner in those areas, struggling to move the puck up ice. It embodied the team’s struggles overall on the blueline, which lacked puck movement throughout the group, on a team overall that struggled to score goals.
2026-27 Status – Ceci has three seasons remaining on the four-year contract he signed with the Kings last summer. Year 1 of that contract was unsuccessful and the Kings have publicly stated that the makeup of their defense is a focal point this summer. Ceci’s contract might be a challenging one to move, with the term and dollar amount remaining, so there is a good possibility he is back with the Kings for Year 2. The Kings need more from him than they got last season, likely again in a third-pairing role, especially with a new head coach who prioritizes skating and two-way activation from his defensemen.
