The moves this offseason by the Los Angeles Kings didn't give fans a lot of confidence that they could finally end their run of first-round exits. The focus was on depth and adding veterans like Corey Perry and Brian Dumoulin but it was lacking on that big-time move.
However, even with that missing piece, the Kings are still considered one of the top teams in the NHL, as evidenced by the latest power rankings on ESPN. The Kings would finish 11th, which was only a drop of three spots from their pre-playoff ranking of eight.
This past season, it was mostly a three-team race atop the Pacific Division and that might appear to be the case once again for this season.