“I really don’t think you can win with young players.”
That’s an interesting quote, isn’t it? Especially unattributed.
The person who said it does not play for or coach for the LA Kings. It came from Colorado Avalanche captain Nathan MacKinnon, after last season’s trade deadline, when asked about the experienced players the team added. MacKinnon is, in fact, one of the NHL’s elite players, coming off his third-consecutive 100+ point season. He’s also a winner, as the best player on Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup roster.
There are two ways to add experienced players to your team.
One is easy – acquire older players. The Kings did that this summer. That’s been covered and will be covered in more depth in future stories.
There’s another way to do it, though, and it's something that gets talked about far, far less. Because it’s not as simple as signing or trading for players who have played in the league and won in the league. But it’s arguably more impactful. It’s when your young players become experienced players. When your young guys aren’t young anymore. That’s when you add experience from within and that is how you begin to measure internal growth in a way that is truly impacting wins and losses.
The 2025-26 LA Kings were often spoken about in the light of the players they did or did not bring in during the summer. And that’s what the summer is for. But if you ask Jim Hiller, while he values what was added, it’s that other type of experience that he actually believes is the greater key in pushing this team forward.
“As much as we feel the additions have really made us stronger, I think what can get us over the top is the improvement of all the young players,” Hiller said. “They're still young, they're younger than the other guys but they're no longer at the stage where you're thinking they’re going to be in one night, then out, sometimes have a good game. Those guys have to be a secondary engine on the team. They're that far along.”
I think that’s exactly what MacKinnon, one of the NHL’s best players, is talking about.
He’s not saying that players of a certain age can’t win. He’s saying that it’s hard to win when you are relying on players right now who are still gaining experience, still trying to find their footing, during a window of contention. That Colorado team had players who were young by age but only a couple - playing in depth roles - who you’d consider to be young by experience.
Quinton Byfield enters the 2025-26 season as a 23-year-old player. On a Kings team that trends a bit older, he’s one of the youngest players on the team. Still. As he has been for years. But he’s not a rookie finding his way. He’s got two seasons with 50+ points and he’s played in 19 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Byfield is the most prominent player in a group of younger players the Kings want to see take that step forward. While he stopped short of saying he feels like a veteran player, he used the word comfortable to describe how he feels now. He’s not a veteran in the way that Anze Kopitar is, but it’s different for him today than it was two years ago.
“I feel more comfortable this year, I’m still young, I’m still 23, but I feel more comfortable, I’ll say that,” Byfield said. “I think there are a lot of vets here that I still look up to, to help with my game and hopefully in a leadership role [for me] in the future, but I’m just more comfortable [than I was a couple years ago].”
Alex Laferriere put it very similarly.
He spoke about how his first training camp in 2023, he was simply trying to survive. He came into camp not knowing if he’d play one exhibition game or five, understanding that he could be assigned to the AHL at any point. Turns out, he never was. Last year, his focus was on solidifying his role, moving from a guy who played 81 games to a guy who delivered more of an impact.
Now he’s solidified. And he’s played in two playoff series. And it’s time to him to bring even more.
“I think this year, I look at it where I have my role and I’ve thrived with that role,” Laferriere said. “I’m obviously trying to do some stuff a little bit better and then maybe [add] special teams, if I earn that, then try and stay on that and trythrive in that. I think I have the mentality where I have my role now and at this point, I just kind of try and surpass that.”
On the blueline, the same goes for defenseman Brandt Clarke. Clarke has now played NHL games in three consecutive seasons, including his first full campaign in 2024-25.
A lot gets made of Clarke’s game. He’s a highly skilled player who wants the big moment. Speaking shortly before camp, Clarke talked about wanting to earn the opportunity to be on the ice in bigger moments. The Kings are very hopeful he'll take that step this season and Clarke wants the same. He's been impressive early in the preseason and all signs point to an increase on the 16 minutes and change he averaged a season ago.
While there are a lot of misconceptions out there about how Clarke is viewed by the coaching staff, his usage was great than all but a few defensemen of his age range around the NHL when you look at players who are playing on playoff teams. After last night's game in Anaheim, Jim Hiller did not mince his words with how he feels about Clarke entering this season.
"We talked the other day, I had a hope and an expectation that he would be here [pointing in the middle] and for me, what he’s shown is he’s here [pointing higher]," Hiller said. "Coming into this camp, I was hoping he was here and he showed me he’s here [pointing higher] and that’s both ways. One of the great things about coaching is winning, but the other one is to see a guy like Brandt, with all that talent and promise and emotion come in and see him in 12 months to see where he is today. It’s really, really cool to see, really see him mature and confident and understanding the game at a high level and the details defensively and we know he’s just going to go [up] offensively, but it’s just really impressive, and it’s a fun part of the job when it goes that way."
Then there's Alex Turcotte, who played his first full season in the NHL last year as he logged a career-high 68 games.
Turcotte is expected to begin the 2025-26 season on the fourth line. It's likely a fourth line we see a bit more of than we did last year, but it's still the fourth line. While Turcotte accepts his role, he's not content with it. And that's a shift for him. He's not talking about coming into camp and just competing for a spot. Because he's earned that spot. Now, he's trying to earn more and more, however he can get it, to help the team and be more of a difference maker than he was a season ago.
“I just want to do my best, play my game, keep showing why I belong and keep building the coach’s trust,” Turcotte said. “Everything is just building on top of what I’ve done previously you don’t want to be content, I’m not content, I want more obviously. That was my mindset and I have that confidence going into the season.”
Those four players, age and experience wise, are still towards the bottom of the Kings roster in those areas. And you can't change something like a birthday. But these players are more experience than they were last year, than they were in the 2023-24 season. These are no longer players we're talking about as young players, as rookies, as guys cutting their teeth. And that's important for the Kings.
Because for the Kings to get to where they need to get to, they need these guys to be, as Hiller put it, a "secondary engine" the team. In Anze Kopitar's final season, it could be an opportunity for the pieces to be put into place while he's still here. If Byfield can push in that way, with Laferriere, Clarke and Turcotte pushing in their own ways, it only makes the team as a whole better. They've got that in them. After all, they're not all that young anymore. So, if you believe that you don't win with young players, as Nathan MacKinnon does, perhaps it's about time for the Kings to show they're not that young anymore.
