NHL 26 Predicts Heartbreak for the LA Kings Once Again

With the 2025-26 NHL Season set to begin on Tuesday, October 7th, I thought it would be a fun idea to use EA Sports NHL 26 to predict how the Los Angeles Kings season will go. To pull this off, I used franchise mode and simply skipped to the end of the year.

It’s no secret that the expectation for Los Angeles is nothing short of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs for a fifth consecutive season. Although, this time they must get over the hump and make an appearance in the second round, whether they play the Edmonton Oilers for the fifth straight time or not. 

Let’s see how EA Sports expects the Kings upcoming season to play out.

Overall: 5-6-1 (20th in the NHL)

The Kings got off to an incredibly slow start, going 1-6-1 in their first eight games before winning four in a row to close out the month strong. Adrian Kempe was L.A.’s leading scorer after 12 games. He scored nine goals and seven assists for 16 points in October. Despite a rough start for the team, Kempe started off a contract year on the right foot. 

Overall: 11-11-3 (21st in the NHL)

November was somewhat the same result as the month previous despite an incredibly hot start. To start the second month of the season, the Kings won five of their first eight games before losing their final five games. Once again, Kempe lead the team in scoring, ending November with 15 goals, 12 assists, and 27 points the first 25 games of the season. A great start for a player who’s looking for a massive pay-raise next summer.

Overall: 17-18-3 (25th in the NHL)

Not a great way to end 2025. The Kings continued their inconsistent play in December as they kept winning one game, then losing two. This pattern would repeat until the month finally came to an end. In his final year, Kings captain Anze Kopitar overtook Kempe for the team lead in scoring as he ended December with 10 goals and 27 assists for 37 points in 38 total games.

Overall: 26-24-4 (21st in the NHL)

January was the first time that the Kings ended a month with an overall winning record. This was thanks to an extremely strong end to the month in which they won their last four heading into February, where the winning didn’t stop. Kopitar remained as the Kings leading scorer with 14 goals and 33 assists for 47 points in 54 games.

Overall: 30-26-4 (20th in the NHL)

The Kings their strong finish to January into February where they would win their first three games of the month, resulting in a season high, seven game win streak. However, their streak would have to come to pause due to the break for the Winter Olympics. This break proved to hurt L.A. more than anything as they finished the month losing two of three. Once again, Kopitar finished the month leading the team with 15 goals, 38 assists and 53 points in 60 games. With just over 20 games to go, the Kings must start winning games if they want to have a chance at making the postseason.

Overall: 40-29-4 (12th in the NHL)

And start winning games they did. Los Angeles ended March as the hottest team in the National Hockey League, winning 10 of their 13 games throughout the month. This included a five game win streak to end the month as well. After this stretch, the Kings found themselves in third place in the Pacific Division. Barring an April collapse, L.A. was in the drivers seat to make a fifth straight postseason appearance. ‘Kopi’ continued his remarkable final season with a 14 point month giving him 21 goals and 46 assists for 67 points in 73 games.

Overall: 43-35-4 (6th in Pacific, 17th in NHL) Missed Playoffs

Oh boy. They did the one thing that they couldn’t do. After only picking up three wins in the final nine games of the season, the Los Angeles Kings missed the playoffs for the first time since 2020-21. To make it worse, they missed by just one point, getting beat out by the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild card spot. Vancouver beat Los Angeles twice in the last five games as well. A brutal collapse to say the least. Lets hope something like this does not translate to the real world this season.

Points: A. Kopitar (72) K. Fiala (64) Q. Byfield (61) T. Moore (61) A. Kuzmenko (58)

Goals: A. Kuzmenko (27) K. Fiala (26) A. Kopitar (25) P. Danault (24) A. Kempe (23)

Assists: A. Kopitar (47) T. Moore (47) D. Doughty (40) Q. Byfield (39) K. Fiala (38)

Plus/Minus: J. Edmundson (+12) T. Moore (+6) A. Kuzmenko (+5) D. Doughty (+3) Q. Byfield (+2)

Defense Points: D. Doughty (45) B. Clarke (31) B. Dumoulin (30)

Goaltending Stats:

Darcy Kuemper: 65 GP, 35-26-3, 8 SO, .914 SV%, 2.96 GAA

Anton Forsberg: 23 GP, 8-10-1, 1 SO, .897 SV%, 3.31 GAA

Success: Brian Dumoulin

In his first season with the Kings, NHL26 had blue liner Brian Dumoulin scoring a whopping 14 goals. This total would crush his previous career high of six that he set with the Seattle Kraken in 2023-24. His 14 goals were good for the 10th most among defensemen in the simulation.

Disappointment: Adrian Kempe

For whatever reason, forward Adrian Kempe did not do well in the simulation. Kempe took an unexpected step back from his two previous 70+ point campaigns. In 82 games, the 29-year-old scored just 23 goals and 33 assists for 56 points. This would be great season for the average player, not someone who is expected to make upwards of $10 million per year. If Kempe produced more in the simulation, L.A. likely makes the postseason. Hopefully the Kings sniper fares better than his video game counterpart.

Success: Andrei Kuzmenko

If Kings F Andrei Kuzmenko can produce like he did in this simulation, I imagine Kings fans and management will be very satisfied. Kuzmenko posted 27 goals and 31 assists for 58 points in 82 games. By far the best season of his career since his rookie season with Vancouver in 2022-23. 

Disappointment: Brandt Clarke

Blueliner Brandt Clarke is expected to a leap in the 2025-25 season. However, in this simulation not only did he not improve, he actually regressed. Clarke scored five goals along with 26 assists for 31 points in 82 games. The 22-year-old should perform better than EA thinks he will.

Although nobody on the Kings earned any hardware in the simulation I figured I should share how NHL 26 thinks the awards will be handed out at the end of the season.

Stanley Cup: Tampa Bay Lightning over Vegas Golden Knights in seven games

Conn Smythe: Nikita Kucherov (TBL)

Presidents Trophy: New York Rangers

Art Ross: Auston Matthews (TOR)

Rocket Richard: Auston Matthews (TOR)

Ted Lindsay: Auston Matthews (TOR)

Hart:  Auston Matthews (TOR)

Norris: Cale Makar (COL)

Calder: Ivan Demidov (MTL)

Vezina: Andrei Vasilevskiy (TBL)

Jennings: Andrei Vasilevskiy (TBL)

Selke: Sidney Crosby (PIT)

Lady Byng: Auston Matthews (TOR)

Jack Adams: Travis Green (OTT)

Stay tuned in with your Los Angeles Kings here at The Hockey News, as the 2025-26 season inches closer.

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