If there is one part of the LA Kings roster this season that should be really exciting it’s the talent and depth on the wings. Looking at the top-end talent, combined with the number of NHL’ers in camp, the Kings haven’t had this kind of firepower on the wings in a long time.
Adding a full season of Artemi Panarin, Kevin Fiala’s return from injury and the newly signed Mats Zuccarello into a group that already included Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, the Kings have as good a top-six wingers as I can recall. With Joel Armia a quality depth piece, both in terms of his production and penalty-killing prowess, and depth behind him in the organization, the wings should be the strength of this season’s team. With an older group as a whole, having this group be this deep is important, as injuries occur throughout the course of a season.
For starters, I included Adrian Kempe in this section, because I believe he will begin the season on the wing. There is still the possibility of him playing center. Alex Turcotte was mentioned in the centers story, but could also be an option on the wings to begin camp. While Alex Laferriere played a good amount of center last season, my understanding is that the Kings see him as a winger at this time and going forward. Can always change, but from what I’ve heard, if a wing were to be moved to the middle, it would be Kempe not Laferriere at this time. For now, though, expecting both to start at their natural positions.
In total, the Kings have 17 wingers on NHL contracts coming to training camp, which offers a ton of depth for both the NHL and AHL rosters. A look at the group in full below.
NHL Contracted Wingers, Pro: Joel Armia, Martin Chromiak, Vojtech Cihar, Kevin Fiala, Cole Guttman, Aatu Jamsen, Jan Jenik, Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere, Andre Lee, Trevor Moore, Artemi Panarin, Corey Perry, Taylor Ward, Jared Wright, Koehn Ziemmer, Mats Zuccarello
NHL Contract Wingers, Junior: None
AHL Contracted Wingers: Jacob Doty, Kenta Isogai, Ryan O’Hara
Where They’re At
Artemi Panarin scored at over a point-per-game pace in his 26 games played with the Kings last season. Now in his first full year with the organization, he’ll reunite with Head Coach Peter Laviolette, after playing for him in two seasons under him in New York. Panarin had a career year with Laviolette in 2023-24, both in goals and points, and the two seem to gel nicely.
Kempe is coming off his fourth 35+ goal season in the last five years and his third consecutive season with at least 70 points. After Panarin joined the team, Kempe scored at over a 50-goal pace and was tied for sixth in the NHL with 25 5-on-5 goals last season. As productive as ever and he’s got an elite playmaker in Panarin to his left for a full season. Assuming he remains on the wing, Kempe has established a consistent statistical baseline he should be good for most years.
Fiala and Zuccarello reunite in Los Angeles after playing together previously in Minnesota. Fiala led the Kings in power-play points last season despite missing the final two and a half months of the regular season due to injury. Zuccarello was just shy of a point-per-game pace last season with the Wild and now joins the Kings on a one-year contract. While the two didn’t play together a ton at 5-on-5, they were quite productive together in Minnesota when they had the chance to in certain situations. Both players have shown their offensive capabilities throughout their careers and both come into training camp with something to prove.
Returning are Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, who were amongst he team’s best players down the stretch last year. It was an up and down season to that point, with Moore’s production lacking as he battled injuries and Laferriere shifting constantly between lines and positions. The Kings need a more consistent 82 but the finishes for both players last spring was strong and that carried over into a good postseason for both, two of the few who you can say that about. If healthy and in a consistent role, these are the kinds of players who can elevate the Kings from a depth perspective.
Looking at the fourth line, Joel Armia is back after a good first season and Corey Perry returns on a one-year contract. Armia was great on the penalty kill and there was a time when you wondered if he’d lead the Kings in goals. He was slowed by a back injury sustained at the Olympics but finished with 13 goals, despite playing mostly on the third or fourth lines. There was also a time when you wondered if Perry would lead the team in goals. He had 11 goals and 28 points in 50 games before he was traded to Tampa Bay, powered by two very productive stretches, sandwiching around a long scoring drought.
Filling out the camp roster are several players with NHL experience who will come in looking to win a job. Taylor Ward and Jared Wright both played in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Ward was an energy guy on the fourth line for a lot of last season and didn’t look out of place in doing so, earning himself a new contract in the process. Wright’s speed is already NHL caliber and he could be an effective penalty killer as well but he’s also got areas of his game with the puck to round out (4 points in 27 games). Still, he impressed in his time with the Kings and is seen as a long-term fit at the NHL level. Andre Lee has rarely looked out of place in his NHL callups and should force his way into the picture with a strong camp. He scored a career-best 26 goals last season in the AHL and has taken strides.
Cole Guttman and Martin Chromiak were both key offensive players in the AHL last season, with Guttman earning a callup as a depth option. Chromiak led the Reign with 28 goals, his best AHL season to date, while Guttman is an established AHL scorer with NHL experience from Chicago. Jan Jenik has scored in the AHL in past stops while Aatu Jamsen and Koehn Ziemmer look to take the next steps in their development process as Kings draft picks.
Lastly, Vojtech Cihar enters camp with an entry-level contract and a myriad of options as to where he could play this season. He was the 2026 World Juniors MVP and his stock has risen over the last 12 months. Interested to see how he stacks up during his first Rookie Camp and NHL Training Camp in a couple of weeks, coming off a productive stint in the WHL with Kelowna.
Cihar could make the Kings straight up. He could play in the NHL. He could return to the WHL with Kelowna. He could go back overseas to play professionally in Europe. Lots of options in play there, but it was a strong first season as a draft player for Cihar.
What To Look For
As we stand here today, I think that we will see the following pairs of wingers during training camp, at least to begin – Panarin/Kempe, Fiala/Zuccarello, Moore/Laferriere. Things could change, things could be experimented with and the pairs we see on Day 1 might not be the pairs we see on Day 2. However, I think those feel like the pairs we might see on Day 1.
Panarin and Kempe clicked last season. I used these numbers earlier in the summer and even earlier in this article but Kempe scored at a 51-goal pace when playing with Panarin and Panarin assisted on 11 of Kempe’s 16 goals during the 25-game stretch where they played as teammates. That’s high, high production and assuming Kempe begins on the wing, that pairing feels close to a lock. Over 82 games, if things click, especially with Quinton Byfield as the center, the ceiling is numbers we haven’t seen in Los Angeles in a long time.
Beyond that, I think you could structure the lines a few different ways, but Laviolette has said he likes to load up a second scoring line and that would point to Fiala and Zuccarello playing together. The sample size is skewed by special teams time and, frankly, not enough data, but Fiala’s production when he is on the ice with Zuccarello is staggeringly good. If you took those collective numbers and placed them into last season’s NHL scoring leaders, he’d trail only McDavid, Kucherov and MacKinnon in points per/60. Will it work longer term? Probably not at that rate. But, it’s worth a go. The two seem excited to play together and could be quite exciting.
That leaves Moore and Laferriere, who played well together last season with Byfield as the center. That was the team’s best line down the stretch and into the playoffs. Laferriere’s underlying numbers remain outstanding and Moore looked like a different player after the midseason coaching change. Both players have had up and down production but if that’s your fifth and sixth wingers you’ve got a good thing going. Hard pressed to find many teams in the NHL with better “third-line wingers” than Moore and Laferriere, who have both played higher in the lineup for a lot of their time here.
If Armia can replicate what he did last season, he’s an outstanding depth option, especially if he’s the seventh winger on the depth chart. Assuming he is healthy, he’ll play on Opening Night. Perry offers what he offers and I think that’ll feel relatively similar to last season, even if he doesn’t play 82 games. No risk in that contract and he won’t need an adjustment period, having played here last season. Wright, Ward and Lee will be aggressively pushing for roster spots but that battle is much harder without 7 games to impress. It’ll take quite the showing but I think you’ll see at least one of those three make a decision very, very difficult.
Whoever doesn’t make the NHL group should make for part of a deep group in Ontario as well, with a number of options for Andrew Lord and his staff when that time comes.
Looking Ahead
That’s all she wrote for the camp previews. Next week? Actual games! The rookies will hit the ice in El Segundo towards the end of the week before heading off to San Jose on Friday. LAKI will have on-site coverage from the entire Rookie Faceoff, with game previews and recaps + feature content from along the way as players look to make an early impression.
