2/25 Preview – Panarin’s Debut + Anderson/Turcotte To Be Activated, Doughty/Kuemper/Armia Latest, Gotta Win Some At Home

TODAY’S MATCHUP: We’re back! The LA Kings are coming out of the Olympic break tonight, as they host the Vegas Golden Knights in a Pacific Division showdown.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: The Kings have a 1-1-1 record versus Vegas this season, with tonight’s game concluding the season series between the two clubs. Forward Andrei Kuzmenko leads the Kings this season with three points (1-2-3) in three games versus Vegas, while defenseman Brandt Clarke leads the way with two goals. Clarke has seven career points against the Golden Knights, his most versus one NHL opponent.

KINGS VITALS: After a full practice yesterday, the Kings held an optional morning skate today, in advance of their return to game action.

Goaltender Anton Forsberg was off the ice first for the Kings this morning, but Jim Hiller was non-committal on tonight’s starter. Forsberg has been one of the NHL’s best goaltenders since the calendar flipped to 2026. Among netminders with at least five appearances since January 1, Forsberg ranks sixth in the league with a .920 save percentage, while his 2.27 goals-against average ranks eighth. Should Kuemper get the nod, he’s returning to Los Angeles after winning a silver medal with Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. I’d expect Forsberg, but until warmups we wait to know for sure.

Based on today’s morning skate and practices over the last couple of days, here is tonight’s projected lineup for the Kings –

Panarin – Laferriere – Kempe
Byfield – Kopitar – Moore
Armia – Turcotte – Kuzmenko
Foegele – Helenius – Perry

Anderson – Doughty
Edmundson – Clarke
Dumoulin – Ceci

Forsberg
Kuemper

Lots of moves and things to talk about here, especially considering the team’s long break in between games. Should the above lines pan out, it would leave forwards Jeff Malott and Taylor Ward, as well as defenseman Jacob Moverare, as healthy scratches. Not positive on the bottom-six alignment, so consider this more an educated guess than anything firm. Could see Foegele and Armia swapped. Updates on a number of players below in the 3 To Watch For section of the preview!

GOLDEN KNIGHTS VITALS: Vegas sits atop the Pacific Division with 68 points as NHL games resume, eight points clear of the Kings in the top spot.

Per Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review Journal, here’s how Vegas lined up this morning, with goaltender Adin Hill expected to get the start in net –

Lines and pairs, to the best of my ability:

Barbashev-Hertl-Kolesar
Smith-Laczynski-Dorofeyev
Saad-Sissons-Holtz
Reinhardt-Uchacz-Bowman

Lauzon-Andersson
McNabb-Coghlan
Hutton-Korczak

— Danny Webster (@DannyWebster21) February 25, 2026

Vegas will be without forward Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanafin tonight, after both players won the gold-medal game with Team USA on Sunday. Per Bruce Cassidy speaking yesterday, Canadian Olympians Mark Stone, Mitch Marner and Shea Theodore are all TBD for tonight and none of the three skated at Crypto.com Arena today, with the expectation that they will not play tonight. Certainly, a massive opportunity for the Kings to capitalize without what could be five key players in the lineup for Vegas.

Storyline Of The Day – Debut for 72
It’s Artemi Panarin time!

No one has played an NHL game in 20 days but for Panarin, that goes even a bit longer. Prior to the trade with New York, Panarin was held out of the lineup by the Rangers in anticipation of a trade. He hasn’t played since January 26, a gap of exactly one month. Does that mean the Kings will ease him into it? Wouldn’t count on it.

“We will lean on him and look to him a lot,” Jim Hiller said of Panarin. “He’s a good week of practice, everybody’s very impressed. We knew the type of player he was. You watch him and you get on the ice with him, the players watch him in line, do some of the drills and and you realize what an elite talent he is. He doesn’t have to put the weight of the world on his shoulders, to put the team on his back, he’s obviously signed for a couple more years beyond this, so think we can all just let him settle in, we’re going to see a terrific player as an LA King. We’ve just got to make sure that he’s not coming in here and feeling the pressure that he has to do something that he doesn’t normally do. He has to go be Artemi Panarin.”

The break almost levels that playing field a bit. It’s not as if Panarin has been off for a month where the rest of the league has been playing games. Some players have, obviously, at the Olympics, but for the bulk of the team, this is the first game back in a while. Whether that’s two weeks or a month, it’s a while. That should help to even things out a bit for the new guy.

Panarin is hoping to pick up where he left off, when he collected 16 points (5-11-16) in 11 games played during the month of January. He has two assists in two games played versus Vegas this season and there’s a ton of excitement coming from his direction to get things going with a new club.

In terms of the players, there’s just tons of excitement from the Kings surrounding their newest player.

Alex Turcotte – It’s huge for our team. He’s one of the best players in the league, he’s so talented. We’re really happy and excited to have him here. He’s just a sick player, so it’s been great.

Drew Doughty – Offensively, he’s got good vision, he’s got good moves, he’s got a good shot, very talented offensively, very happy to have him. I know don’t know him that well but from what I’ve gathered, great guy too, great guy to have in the room. Very excited to have him.

Joel Armia – He’s a special player. I can’t wait to see him on the ice in a Kings uniform, it’s going to be exciting to see him. He’s one of the best in the league offensively.

Mikey Anderson – Everyone’s super excited. He’s a special player, does some things that a lot of guys don’t. Playing against him, he handles the puck so good, he knows how to create space for himself. It feels like, no matter how tight you are to him, he finds a way to get a puck through you or around you. He knows where guys are at all the time. He’s one of those offensive threats that when you’re defending him, you know where he is all the time. We’re happy to have a guy like him, I think he’ll add a good boost to our offense.

Quinton Byfield – We’re super excited to have him. We’ve seen what he does on the ice and what he’s going to bring to us. Just being around him, seeing what he does on the ice, it’s just super exciting. I can’t wait to get out on the ice with him [in a game] and to be on the same team as him.

So the guys are excited. Coaches are excited. Panarin is excited as well.

We’ll see him in action tonight, a very exciting moment here for the Kings organization. Certainly needs to be, with the importance of the two points at stake versus Vegas.

3 To Watch For –
– The Kings have played 26 games at home this season and have just eight wins. Only Vancouver and New York have fewer and those teams sit at the bottom of the standings in their respective conferences.

The Kings were unbelievable at home last season. 31 victories led the league. Six regulation losses led the league on the other end. Felt almost automatic when the Kings took the ice at Crypto.com Arena. Just hasn’t translated at all this season and the Kings will need to change that almost immediately.

The first six games coming out of the break are all in Los Angeles. There’s a seven-game homestand from March 28 – April 11 that could be season-defining. In total, the Kings have 15 games remaining on home ice and when you look at the 26 remaining games overall, they’re going to have to find some results in California. Crowds at home were strong going into the break and are expected to be strong in these first three games coming out of the break. All divisional games too. Not sure what that secret sauce is, but the Kings have to find some of it here down the stretch.

Starts tonight, carries into tomorrow and off we go. Road performances and losing the right way have kept the Kings in the hunt until this point but they’re not going to get things going as they need to without improving their level of play at home.

– Looking at the Olympians, here’s what we know entering tonight’s game.

Adrian Kempe will play, for sure. He returned to Los Angeles over the weekend and practiced in full yesterday, as he starts to build chemistry with Panarin, his expected linemate beginning with tonight’s game. Kempe is ready to go tonight against Vegas.

“I had a couple days off, body’s feeling good, mind is rested, so I’m ready to go,” Kempe said. “Hopefully we can just have a good finish to the year.”

Felt less certain as of yesterday with regards to Darcy Kuemper, Drew Doughty and Joel Armia, who did not practice yesterday with the team but all three players were on the ice for morning skate today.

Drew Doughty, Joel Armia and Darcy Kuemper are all on the ice as the @LAKings get set to begin their morning skate!

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 25, 2026

Kuemper returned to Los Angeles late on Monday but was given Tuesday off from practice. Armia returned yesterday afternoon while Doughty arrived on Tuesday evening, with both players arriving after the Kings hit the ice. Sounds like Armia had some travel delays which cost him a couple days on his arrival back in Southern California, but he’s here and in action.

Kuemper looks like he will back-up goaltender Anton Forsberg, which feels like it was a scheduled thing regardless, though Jim Hiller was not committal on tonight’s starter between the pipes. Doughty and Armia are both expected to play with no restrictions on their minutes, per Jim Hiller. Should either have asked for a day off, it’s likely they would have been afforded the game off, but considering the stakes here for the Kings, I think it’d be a little concerning if that was the case.

No restrictions for Doughty/Armia with their minutes tonight or with going back-to-back tomorrow.

Pretty simple from Doughty on why he isn’t taking any time off – “We need wins.”

Said he isn’t 100 percent adjusted to Pacific time, but slept well last night. Feels good overall. https://t.co/VkFwEjyyhG

— Zach Dooley (@DooleyLAK) February 25, 2026

So, Kempe is good to go. Doughty and Armia will play as well, while Kuemper is available and will dress. All players are good to play back-to-back as well, with the Edmonton Oilers in town tomorrow evening.

– Lastly, feels like more of a formality than anything else, but expect to see defenseman Mikey Anderson and forward Alex Turcotte activated from injured reserve between now and tonight’s game. Turcotte missed the final six games before the Olympic break, while Anderson missed the final two. Both players were able to skate over the break and both have been full participants each day of practice since the Kings returned.

Turcotte added that he was close to being able to go in those two games before the break but just wasn’t quite there. Now he is.

“It was kind of a close call before the break, coming back [into the lineup], so I was already working out and skating,” Turcotte said. “I feel great and I’m excited to play. It feels like forever, so we’re all looking forward to it.”

Spoke with Anderson earlier in the week and he said he felt like everyhing was on track for him to play tonight. He has practiced each day since, in a full-contact capacity, so he’s good to go.

At some point today, that paperwork is expected and both Anderson and Turcotte will be formally activated, added to the active roster and both should be available at 100 percent for tonight’s game against Vegas.

Kings and Golden Knights, big one coming out of the break! An opportunity, certainly, for the Kings to get their stretch run started with some positive momentum.