By Bobby Berger
The Los Angeles Kings decided to stand pat at the trade deadline. The Kings put out a few feelers to upgrade their 6th dman slot, but based on the ask of returns the Kings viewed upgrading that slot to not be worth sacrificing any more of their future. The Kings earlier this season acquired Carl Hagelin in a big trade with the Seattle Kraken in exchange for Liam Ohgren. Ohgren had been in the Kings long term plans, so having sacrificed that very real asset to try and win this year, the Kings felt they had pushed all their chips in this season. The upgrades available compared to the current roster weren't deemed a big enough upgrade to make the moves worthwhile.
The other factor working against the Kings was how close they are to the salary cap. The Kings only have about 400k of wiggle room and the price was too high to move out salary. On the whole this is the deepest Kings team ever fielded by GM Berger, and GM Berger is going to let it ride.
The team has been middling, with average play of late, alternating games with good defense but poor goaltending with games with good goaltending but bad defense. The Kings had a big 5-2 win against Dallas today with a revamped set of lines. The Kings hope that is more a sign of things to come. In that game though the Kings stifling defense only allowed 17 shots on goal, but 2 goals still went in. The Kings have to hope that their goaltending rises to the challenge this season. It is obvious to those who follow the Kings closely that this will be Viktor Fasth's swan song with the team (based on salary) and the former #1 overall pick hopes to go out on top. He will have to truly show who he is down the stretch if the Kings want to make any noise in the playoffs.
9/19/2026 - 326 words
