Kings load up on veterans in free agency, try to boost offense

The Los Angeles Kings needed goals and didn’t have much space under the NHL salary cap when the free agent market opened Wednesday.

“To try to add some offense, we had to be creative,” general manager Ken Holland said.

The solution was to sign veterans to short-term, cheap contracts.

Holland said Los Angeles signed 35-year-old center Erik Haula (two years, $3.6 million average annual value), 34-year-old defenseman Erik Gustafsson (one year, $1 million), 38-year-old forward Mats Zuccarello (one year, $1 million, plus bonuses) and 41-year-old forward Corey Perry (one year, $1 million, plus bonuses), while agreeing to bring back 32-year-old center Scott Laughton on a three-year contract ($3.5 million AAV).

The Kings hope it will make an impact, combined with a full season of forward Artemi Panarin, a healthy Kevin Fiala and a new coaching staff led by Peter Laviolette.

“They feel like they could play a little bit more offensive-minded at times,” Zuccarello said. “Hopefully, I can contribute with that.”

Los Angeles finished 29th in goals per game (2.68) and 28th on the power play (17.0 percent) last season while earning the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

The Kings scored five goals and went 3-for-16 (18.8 percent) on the power play when the Colorado Avalanche swept them in the first round.

Captain Anze Kopitar, their all-time leading scorer with 1,316 points (452 goals, 864 assists) in 1,521 games, retired after they were eliminated.

But the Kings had only 26 games in the regular season and four in the playoffs with Panarin, whom they acquired from the New York Rangers on Feb. 4. Fiala sustained a broken leg while playing for Team Switzerland at the Winter Olympics in Milan on Feb. 13 and missed the rest of the season.

Laviolette was hired June 9 to replace D.J. Smith, who took over on an interim basis after Jim Hiller was fired March 1.

“There has to be a plan to attack,” Laviolette said at his introductory news conference the next day, “and we’ll work on that.”

The Kings announced additions to the coaching staff Tuesday, including associate Phil Housley, who had 1,232 points (338 goals, 894 assists) in 1,495 games as an NHL defenseman from 1982-2003, and assistant Ray Whitney, who had 1,064 points (385 goals, 679 assists) in 1,330 games as an NHL forward from 1991-2014.

“‘Whit’ has got a high, high, high hockey IQ,” Holland said. “… Ultimately, he’s going to be the guy that runs our power play, and I know he’s going to get some help from Phil Housley. So, between Phil and Ray Whitney, and I think our power play’s in good hands.”

Los Angeles needed to address the center situation. Haula had 38 points (14 goals, 24 assists) in 81 games for the Nashville Predators last season. Laughton had eight points (five goals, three assists) in 21 games for the Kings after they acquired him from the Toronto Maple Leafs on March 6.

“With Kopitar retiring, trying to replace his minutes down the middle was a priority,” Holland said. “… Hopefully between those two guys down the middle, they make us deeper.”​

Zuccarello had 54 points (15 goals, 39 assists) in 59 games for the Minnesota Wild last season. Like Panarin, he distributes the puck like a center.

“I’m not sure what the coach has in mind in terms of putting people together, but with Panarin, with Zuccarello, we’ve added since the Olympic break two offensive-minded forwards that create scoring chances for their linemates and have been historically good on the power play,” Holland said.

Perry had 28 points (11 goals, 17 assists) in 50 games for the Kings last season before he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning on March 6. 

“He loved his time here last year,” Holland said. “He was a big part of our team until he left, especially I thought the first maybe 30 games. When we were really struggling to score, I thought he scored a lot of big goals for us, made some big plays.”

Holland said with Fiala, Haula, Laughton, Panarin, Perry, Zuccarello, Quinton Byfield, Adrian Kempe, Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore, the Kings hope they “can put two good scoring lines together and hopefully a third line that can produce some offense.”

Gustafsson played only two games in the NHL last season for the Detroit Red Wings, but he has 240 points (47 goals, 193 assists) in 517 games in the League from 2015-26 and has played for Laviolette before. He can run a second power play and will get a chance to compete for a role.

Zuccarello said he had a good talk with Laviolette.

“Obviously, he has a vision,” he said. “I’m not going to spill his vision. I’m sure he’s going to tell you guys how he feels. But a lot of the things we talked about is something that I really cherish in hockey as well, playing both ways, both sides of the puck, work hard and have fun every day and create a team that can work for each other and hopefully go all the way. That’s his goal, that’s my goal and hopefully we can create something here in L.A.”