INSIDER: 5 Takeaways From Ken Holland's End Of Season Interview
By
Zach Dooley
LAKings.com
Hear from Kings General Manager Ken Holland following his 2026 end-of-season availability.
Ken Holland offers a lot within his answers. It is appreciated from the standpoint of wanting to get his full scope of thoughts. It is challenging to quote him. Therefore, these takeaways include more paraphrasing and partial quotes than I would normally prefer to do. Without it, though, this would be 4,000 words long and there would be a lot of directions maneuvered. So, for ease, I went with fewer full-length quotes and more summarization, but included the full interview so that you can watch on your own and make your own determinations.
Coaching Search
The Kings will hold a search here in the coming weeks to find the team’s next Head Coach.
Holland shared that he wants to interview a list of “5-8 people” throughout his process. He expects that list to include both coaches with past head coaching experience in the NHL as well as potential first-time head coaches in the NHL, likely current assistant coaches in the league as well as perhaps 1-2 people outside of that. Kings Interim Head Coach D.J. Smith will be included in that mix as well.
“On a coaching standpoint, we’ll begin a search next week and take some time here to find it. DJ is going to be a candidate. He's going to be a candidate to be the coach for 26-27 but certainly going to talk to a number of people, do a search, do some interviews and make a decision on the next coach.”
Holland said that he doesn’t want to interview 20 people and drag out the process. He’s already begun work on a list of potential candidates and is looking to firm that up over the weekend, now that he is through meeting with the bulk of the team. Holland’s past three days have been spent meeting with players individually. He held those meetings Wednesday, Thursday and today, ending shortly before he addressed the media.
On Smith, he led the Kings to a record of 11-6-6, a .609 points percentage, which Holland gave him credit for. Over a longer stretch, that’s right around a 100-point pace. His performance, in my opinion, earns him a place in the discussion. With the season ending in four playoff games, however, a search is the right decision to assess several candidates and find the best way forward.
Regarding the future of assistant coaches behind the bench this year, Holland said that he will have that conversation with the team’s new head coach, once he gets to that point, and will go from there. No clarifications were asked for or given regarding the current contract status of anyone on the coaching staff, so it's kind of a wait and see situation.
Style Of Play
The Kings need to score more goals.
In his opening statement, Holland pointed to ranking 29th in the NHL in goals scored this season, 25 fewer than the team had last year. Even last year’s team was on a similar trajectory until the final 20 games, when things took off, and saying the Kings need to score more goals isn’t exactly a new thing. Over the last five years, all playoff seasons, the Kings rank 20th in the NHL in goals scored, averaging 3.00 goals per game.
For one of the first times that I can remember, Holland acknowledged the elephant in the room, which is questioning the team’s style of play.
“Are we too defensive? I’ve got to sort that out.”
He did speak about the team’s defensive accolades this season and you can't just stop playing defense and hope to succeed in the playoffs but he rarely mentioned the defensive numbers without also acknowledging the team’s offensive struggles. He pointed to just about all facets of the game as needing improvement. Included there is a power play that struggled to produce for the bulk of the season. He referenced offense from the backend and that needs to be brought up. The Kings were last in the NHL this season in goals by defensemen and 30th in points by defensemen. They were also last in Round 1 in points from the blueline, with just two in four games.
Then there’s the forwards, which is probably the most optimistic area. The Kings do have some players with either the potential to score more as they develop, such as Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere. They also have players that under produced, such as Trevor Moore and Andrei Kuzmenko. Then, there are positions capable of more over a full season, with Artemi Panarin and Kevin Fiala around, plus 1C and 3C spots that were well below the needed production this season.
Holland didn’t say the Kings are just going to open things up. He referenced Colorado as an example of a team with top-end talent that impresses just as much with the checking and defensive commitment as the goalscoring. Such is life, when you lead the team in both categories. The Kings are not Colorado, though. It’s hard to just add superstar players, but last summer, Holland the Kings doubled down on what was working, which left them exposed with what needed to get better. An acknowledgement of that, taking it “personally” is Step 1.
He called May a month of evaluation more than anything else. It's when he and his staff get in a room and sort out what needs to be done differently. The teams' new head coach will play a large part in those discussions, when the time comes. On the wings, the Kings haven't had this type of firepower in a long time. Getting the centers right to complement that will be important but so will establishing the way the Kings want to play. Perhaps they come out of those meetings without change. Maybe the moves made last summer have pigeonholed the team too deeply. Suppose we will find out.
Individual Evaluation
Holland was asked directly about a few players.
On Drew Doughty, Holland said that he had yet to meet individually with Doughty, so he did want to comment directly on him. Holland said that he will meet with both Doughty and forward Anze Kopitar next week, which is what he said he’s always done with those kinds of players.
Holland was familiar with Doughty’s own comments on Wednesday, during his exit interview with media, but felt he needed to sit down and talk with Doughty first and then figure all of those things out. He understood the answer felt like a deflection, but wanted to talk face-to-face with Doughty before commenting, so fair enough.
Regarding additional player evaluations, players who he felt did not perform this season, he gave more of a blanket statement. The question was asked with regard to defenseman Cody Ceci, though Holland expanded his answer to include others as well.
“I've never been one to get into hanging people out to dry, so I have 1-on-1 conversations [with those players]. I would say this to you, I think there's some people in that room that didn't play as well this year as I know they can or as they have. I have had those conversations with a few of them. I think there are some players in there that had a really good year and the ones that didn't have heard it from me and know that what my expectations are for them heading into next year.”
The Kings roster will likely look different than it did this past season. In some ways, it certainly will, considering Kopitar’s departure. But very rarely does a team regress by 15 points and just run it back, so to speak.
I respect that Holland prefers to keep 1-on-1 conversations private and it also wouldn’t really benefit him to potentially speak negatively on players if he were pursuing a trade over the summer. Why devalue your own assets? So, while I think that we're left from that answer wanting more, I also think that he gave the answer he gave for a reason.
Franchise Direction
Regarding the future direction of the Kings, Holland certainly seemed like he will look into changes, but that will not involve a drastic redirection of the course he feels the team is on.
TLDR – The Kings are not rebuilding.
He referenced the Kings being one of six teams in the league to qualify for the postseason five years running and the tightness of the Pacific Division this season. It wasn’t a good division, but it was close, even as the Kings struggled to 90 point sand “squeaked in” as Holland put it, with reference to the playoffs.
At the same time, Holland did say that the Kings narrowly got into the playoffs. He said he isn’t happy with how the season went and acknowledged the disparity between Colorado and Los Angeles, along with his job of improving the team heading into next season.
“Going forward here over the next couple of months, we’ve got to make the team better.”
I think a lot of attention will be drawn to one particular line from Holland – “I don’t think I got anything wrong” when it came to the moves made last summer.
The attention is fair, because the team is not as good today as it was 12 months ago and the team had 15 fewer points than it did in 2024-25. I didn’t really agree with his reasoning, which pointed to other teams like Anaheim and San Jose improving, which narrowed the gap within the Pacific Division, meaning that points that were probably easier over the last few seasons were not as easy this season. While that is true, Calgary and Vancouver also regressed by a larger margin than Anaheim and San Jose improved, so I think that kind of negates that. The Kings dropped six points against the Flames and Canucks, which was the gap between Wild Card 2 and a Pacific Division title. The Kings dropped five points against Anaheim and San Jose.
To just focus only on that line, though, does ignore what was an acknowledgement that the team wasn’t where it needed to be. It’s just a matter of what comes next.
He also spoke about the team’s first-round draft pick and said that as of this moment, he plans on keeping that pick and drafting a prospect in the first round of the draft. He also pointed to trades this season leaving the Kings with two additional second-round picks at their disposal, one in 2026 and one in 2028.
He left the door open to a potential move that could come down the road, which would likely be centered around a very high-end player on the other end, someone who makes the Kings better both now and long term. He said he would not trade that pick to “throw a band aid at the team” to try and be good for one season. Nothing he’s explored to this point included that pick. If something came up that has not been explored just yet, that would include that pick, he’d be open to it with a long-term lens on improving the club.
So, in terms of what actually does come next, things were kept fairly close to the vest. The Kings won't be rebuilding. They also won't be trading top future assets for rentals or players that don't improve the team both short and long term.
Contracts & Discussions
Holland essentially confirmed the timeline that Brandt Clarke shared about his own restricted free agency when he spoke on Wednesday.
The Kings and Clarke's representation had "a number of conversations" during the season, which halted at the deadline. Holland said that his personal philosophies with teams in the playoff mix is to not negotiate during a playoff push. Clarke said that he felt the same way. The two sides did not reach an agreement before that point but Clarke is a restricted free agent, so the deadline is not what it is with an unrestricted free agent.
Holland said that during May, as noted above, he does not plan to address those contracts yet, because he feels that the larger team issues such as the next head coach and assessing what is currently in place are more important priorities. With a coach hired, with the style of play determined, a plan in place, after meeting as a group, Holland then said he would reach out to the agents for players like Scott Laughton and Andrei Kuzmenko to assess whether or not it makes sense for both sides. The Kings have until July 1 with exclusive negotiating right with both players.
Again, regarding Doughty, Holland did not comment, as he had yet to meet with number eight.
There is honestly way more to dissect in the availability than these bullets, so the full video is embedded above. What I shared were the more black and white details or areas I felt were more pressing. There were things Holland said that I agreed with and others I did not. As I listened back, I don't think there's much to be said to really sway opinions. If you think the Kings should blow up the current core, rebuild and start over, you aren't going to like what you heard anyways. I think for me, I picked up on certain things going through it, but they were smaller soundbites, sentences within paragraphs, that gave me optimism. Think it comes down to what you were listening for.
