Continuing on with the seasons in review on the blueline with a look at Mikey Anderson’s 2025-26 campaign. Anderson had established himself as one of the most consistent parts of the Kings organization, with a place on the top defensive pairing year-over-year. Anderson did some of the same things he’s always done, though as a whole, the Kings took a step back on the blueline and that impacted Anderson as well.
Mikey Anderson
LAK Statline – 82 games played, 4 goals, 16 assists, +8 rating, 20 penalty minutes
LAK Playoff Statline – 4 games played, 0 goals, 0 assists, -3 rating, 2 penalty minutes
NHL Possession Metrics (Relative To Kings) – CF% – 50.5% (-2.6%), SCF% – 51.4% (-1.4%), HDCF% – 54.0% (+1.1%)
Trending Up – Here’s one for you to start things off. The list of defensemen who:
– Played at least 500 minutes played at 5-on-5
– Were on the ice for 2.0 or fewer goals against per/60
– Started less than 40 percent of their shifts in the offensive zone
……is six names long. Mikey Anderson is on that list. Each stat, independent, isn’t necessarily all that impressive. The combination is. Anderson plays for the Kings, who were a low-event team by nature, but his usage by the team was skewed towards defensive-zone starts, more than most players in the NHL. That seemed to go even more so under D.J. Smith, who prioritized offensive-zone starts for Brandt Clarke, pairing him regularly with Artemi Panarin. For the bulk of the season, Anderson’s matchups were typically that of top-end offensive players. That he took that combination of assignments – both in terms of quality of opponent and zone usage – and largely kept the puck out of his net was impressive.
On an individual side, Anderson continues to be an effective defender in many situations. Per SportLOGIQ, Anderson comfortably led the Kings in defensive plays in the defensive zone this season, which is an accumulation of successful pass blocks, shot blocks, stick checks and body checks. Anderson ranked eighth in the NHL in that category, ranking alongside players who are widely thought of as top-end defensive defensemen. Anderson specifically ranked as a Top-15 player in stick checks and pass blocks in the defensive zone. When playing defensively, Mikey Anderson continues to be among the best in the NHL at breaking things up, through a variety of different methods, in one form or another. He’s an effective in-zone defender and will likely continue to be moving forward.
Additionally, I felt that Anderson was one of the team’s best playoff performers versus the Avalanche. His stat line is not going to reflect anything crazy, with a -3 rating and no points in four games. But if you really watched the games, especially the two played in Colorado, Anderson was probably the team’s best defenseman and really elevated his game to keep a high-powered Colorado team to four goals in two games played in Denver. There were years where Anderson’s game didn’t really elevate in April. This season it did and that’s a positive for him to take forward into the summer.
Trending Down – It’s not that Anderson had a bad season, overall, but his numbers took a step back from what we’ve seen from him in the past. His percentage of on-ice shot attempts for was his lowest in a single season since 2020-21, his first full season in the NHL. Same goes for percentage of scoring chances controlled. His goal share at 5-on-5 was his lowest since the 2021-22 season. His 47 goals against were the most he was on the ice for since 2022-23. By the standards of other players, Anderson’s numbers were in line. However, compared to the standard that he has set since he’s become an NHL regular and for the standards of a player getting top-pairing minutes, his numbers took a step back this season in multiple areas.
Anderson was also a part of a Kings penalty-killing unit that struggled for the bulk of the season. He was on the ice for 37 power-play goals against, the most on the team and the eighth most in the NHL. When you look at it from a per/60 standpoint, which removes time on ice as a factor, Anderson ranked 158th out of the 162 defensemen to play at least 50 shorthanded minutes this season when looking at goals against. Very little worked for Los Angeles on the penalty kill this season and as the team’s second most used blueliner in those situations, that has to show up in his trending down section here.
Lastly, Anderson is not a player who you judge by his offensive game, but on a team that ranked towards the bottom in scoring from the backend, he saw his shot attempts and shots on goal fall from where he’s been at. On a per/60 basis, Anderson’s shot attempts and shots on goal were at the lowest rates for a single season in his career since his rookie campaign in 2020-21. The Kings, as has been shared, ranked 32nd in the NHL in goals from defensemen and 30th in points.
2026-27 Status – Anderson has the most term remaining on his contract of any Kings defenseman and he continues to be a good value with a salary cap of just over $4 million per season. I think that the makeup of this season’s group of blueliners hurt Anderson as much as anyone and yet, his season really was still pretty solid, it just wasn’t at the level we’ve seen from him during other seasons in his career. Anderson has logged tough matchups and held his own throughout his time here. With a differently constructed blueline, with more diversity in the makeup of the defensemen, I think we’d see Anderson back where he’s been.
