Kings add Panarin; not interested in rebuild

LOS ANGELES — Questions have arisen surrounding the Los Angeles Kings’ future with their captain, Anže Kopitar, retiring at the end of the season and a poor prospect pool being paired with a middling brand of hockey. 

General manager Ken Holland answered these questions with a blockbuster trade ahead of the Olympic roster freeze deadline on Wednesday morning. 

The Kings acquired star forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers for prospect forward Liam Greentree, a 2026 third-round conditional draft pick and a 2026 fourth-round conditional draft pick. Panarin and the Kings agreed to a two-year extension with an average annual value of $11 million after the trade was complete. 

“You either compete, or you're going to this long-term rebuild,” Holland said. “We're not interested in a long-term rebuild. I'm not interested in a long-term rebuild. I think some of the people that we signed are not interested in that, so we're trying to compete.

“The team's made the playoffs four straight years in a row. When I look at our division, there's six teams from 64 to 58, so nobody's really running away. It's a tight division. We made the move today to make our team better, try to create, get some more goals, put a little pop into power play and try to play our way into the playoffs, and once you get in, everybody wants to make noise in the playoffs.”

With an average age of 31, the Kings possess the oldest roster in hockey. They also possess a weak prospect pool that no longer has its top prospect after this trade. 

The Kings’ window to win is now, and it’s only shrinking by the day. Acquiring a player of Panarin’s caliber obviously helps their chances of winning now, but he also fits the competitive window. 

At 34 years old, Panarin has notched 57 points in 52 games played this season. He’s on pace for 88 points, and he’s eclipsed the 90-point plateau four times in his career. This is his ninth season in a row of producing at over a point-per-game pace. He has 927 points in 804 career games.

Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala are the only Kings players with 40 or more points this season.

On paper, this is seemingly a perfect fit. 

Panarin’s talent will help an offensively starved Kings team that is fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot. Following the Kings’ 4-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken Wednesday night, the Kings are 23-18-14 and sit three points out of the last wild card spot. 

The Kings have scored the fifth-fewest goals per game in hockey despite being in the middle of the road in expected goals per 60 minutes, which means they are getting more scoring chances than you would think, but they lack scoring talent to convert on those opportunities. 

As a team, the Kings have a 9.4% shooting percentage, which is the third lowest in hockey. Panarin is shooting at a 12% clip this year, and his career average is 14.5%. 

Panarin’s 17 points on the power play this season will also provide much-needed help to the seventh-worst power play unit in the league. 

The offensive woes are the reason why the Kings are currently on the outside looking in the playoff picture. A team with the fourth-fewest goals allowed per game and the sixth-highest team save percentage should be comfortably in the playoffs, but that isn’t a reality for the Kings. 

“We've lost 14 games in extra time, I think we had 23 overtime games, so we're competitive, we just need an extra goal here and there to win a few more games,” Holland said. “We believe that Panarin's going to come in and give us a little pop, help the (power play). When we go into overtime, certainly he can play in the extra time; those points are critical.”

The Kings are tied with the Vegas Golden Knights for the league lead in overtime losses. Panarin’s offensive prowess will undoubtedly make a difference on a team that routinely finds itself one goal away. 

“He's so slippery,” defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “He's so creative with the puck, and he's just a phenomenal, phenomenal player.”

What makes Panarin such a threat offensively is his creativity. He isn’t this structured, north-south type of player. He thrives using his offensive IQ to make plays and set up his teammates with scoring chances. Panarin also has a great set of hands to stick-handle his way out of trouble and a quick release to make him a scoring threat.

“He obviously plays on his offhand,” head coach Jim Hiller said. “He likes somebody on the other side who plays on his offhand because he feeds a lot of cross-ice passes for one-timers. He's just a dangerous offensive player. Somebody, clearly, that we've been missing and will be a real boost, I think, for our team.”

Despite being on the wrong side of 30 years old, Panarin is showing no signs of slowing down soon. He doesn't play a physically demanding game, as he normally tries to find the soft parts of the ice instead of grinding along the boards. He also has no prior injury history, so he can be counted on to play full seasons. 

It will be interesting to see how Panarin fits on the team, though. On paper, it’s a great fit, but the Kings are a very structured team, and Panarin is not. 

“We're not going to change the system, but my feeling is when you get into the (offensive) zone, for the most part, players like Panarin, he's going to have the freedom to do what he wants to do,” Holland said. “But when you don't have the puck, you've got to defend. I think that's the same for all 32 teams. We don't score or haven't scored as much as some other teams, so we have to make sure that we're good on the defensive side.”

With the Olympic break beginning on February 6, Panarin will not make his Kings’ debut until play resumes on February 25. Holland said Panarin will fly in and begin practicing with the team on February 18, which is when teams are allowed to practice again. He will have 10 days to practice with the Kings to get familiar with the systems and try to build chemistry with different linemates so he can hit the ground running for the home stretch of the season. 

“He does play a little bit of a different style of game,” Hiller said. “It might take somebody a little time to adjust, but he's going to be somebody that we're going to lean on a lot. 

“We check. We do all the right things that way. We just need somebody to help us find the back of the net a little more often.”

The Kings will travel to Las Vegas to play the Golden Knights on Thursday night to conclude play before the Olympic break. Once they return to action at the end of the month, the Kings will have 26 games remaining to right the ship and make the playoffs, and hopefully win their first playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014. 

The clock is ticking on the Kings’ competitive window. Kopitar is retiring at the end of the season, Drew Doughty only has one more year after this season left on his contract and the rest of the team isn’t getting any younger either. 

Needless to say, the Kings are impatiently waiting for Panarin to make an impact on this team.

“We're obviously thrilled,” Clarke said. “He's a phenomenal player. You see the highlights. You see what he does with the puck, the patience he has, the shot he has, and it seems like he wanted to come here. He wanted to be an L.A. King, and we have a bunch of guys on this team that want to be L.A. Kings and want to contribute to this organization. To add another guy like that with that mentality, it's awesome to hear, and we're really looking forward to getting him in here.”