After several days of intense speculation, the LA Kings confirmed today that there was indeed some fire in all that smoke by announcing that Ken Holland will be the franchise's 10th General Manager.
Welcome to LA! 🌟
— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 14, 2025
We've named Ken Holland the 10th General Manager in franchise history.
📲 https://t.co/hzLeQdCZnG#GoKingsGopic.twitter.com/mDzBrRxlP6
The former NHL goalie will immediately be called upon to make some big saves. The NHL Draft is just over a month away and the status of unrestricted free agents Vladislav Gavrikov, Andrei Kuzmenko, and Tanner Jeannot, as well as restricted free agent Alex Laferriere, will need to be gloved down.
Despite assurances from Team President Luc Robitaille on retaining the services of head coach Jim Hiller next season, Holland could very well decide to make a change behind the bench. Holland fired Jay Woodcroft in Edmonton after a 3-9-1 start to the season in 2023, replacing him the relatively unknown Kris Knoblauch. That move turned the Oilers' season around, leading Edmonton to their first Stanley Cup Finals since 2006.
With LA, Holland will inherit a solid team that regularly underperforms in the playoffs. Thus, much like his tenure with Edmonton, the Kings' new GM will be tasked with getting a team to the next level. Unlike Edmonton, however, he won't have superstars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to work with.
Instead, he will have promising youngsters like Quinton Byfield and Brandon Clarke, as well as the aging duo of Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar and a rejuvenated Darcy Kuemper between the pipes.
Will Holland feel that this team's current roster is good enough to compete for the Stanley Cup or will he shake things up with an off-season trade? Holland is often described as a "win now" type of executive so a move or moves wouldn't be completely out of character. His 2001 trade for Dominik "The Dominator" Hasek was a huge factor in Detroit's 2002 Stanley Cup win. In 2008, Holland flipped two draft picks to the Kings for defenseman Brad Stuart to line up with Niklas Kronwall on a top-four pairing and guess what? Detroit won another Cup that year.
Team President Luc Robitaille believes that if you are looking to add on July 1st your team is in a good spot. It will be quite interesting to see where Ken Holland thinks the Kings are this summer and how he intends on getting LA past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 2014.