Exploring the Los Angeles Kings Goaltending Options for the 2023 Offseason

The Los Angeles Kings were part of the first big trade of the 2023 offseason, shipping Cal Petersen, Sean Walker, Helge Grans and a second-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for Hayden Hodgson and Kevin Connauton in a trade that also saw Ivan Provorov goes to the Columbus Blue Jackets. For the Kings, the deal was mostly about cutting salaries and unwanted players, and they now have a little more leeway this summer to make the necessary additions.

One of those additions is neat. They put a band-aid on the problem by acquiring Joonas Korpisalo at the trade deadline, but that wasn’t enough to help them beat the Edmonton Oilers. Are they using some of that new cap space to make a big trade for a high-end goalkeeper, or are they exploring free agency, or are they bringing Korpisalo back next season.

Frank Seravalli and Colby Cohen spoke about the Kings’ goaltending situation and the avenues they could explore on Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: I wonder if someone like Connor Hellebuyck, for a team whose championship window I think just opened, would make much sense in LA.

Coby Cohen: Yes I agree. Again, Carter Hart’s name has also come up for LA, but here’s what I would say to that, and I’ll come back to it and tell you why. Watch what Adin Hill is doing within Bruce Cassidy’s structure in Vegas. I think it shows teams that if you really load up your backend and put a huge emphasis on your backend size, strength and mobility, you don’t need a Hellebuyck to win the Stanley Cup.

I said on that show, I thought the Vegas Golden Knights would win this series in six. I’ll probably be surprised if he gets to six games, I think it could get to five, and Hill has been great. But I’ve played Cassidy’s system for years, and if you hit and stick to his system, if you don’t go out and chase outside the points in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone , you communicate and you play this half layer, half man versus man system, you don’t put the goalkeeper under a lot of stress, and I think a good goalkeeper can be really good in a system like that -there.

And I think LA is similar in the way they play. They slow everything down in the neutral zone, they don’t give you many chances to score goals without rushing and they make things more difficult defensively.

So I think we’ll see, it depends on the price. They might roll Korpisalo back, they might go out after one of these big free agents, or guys that are available through trade, but again I think Adin Hill is proving that the system is also very important, and rear staff.

You can watch the full episode here…