Does Mitch Marner Make Sense for the LA Kings? Yes. Also No.
Spring is quickly turning to Summer, which means the Toronto Maple Leafs have been eliminated from the NHL playoffs, Toronto has imploded, and Mitch Marner is being chased out of town. On the other side of the continent, LA Kings Twitter is also left wondering what the team has to add to win their first playoff series in over a decade. Marner’s name is currently being bandied about as a possible solution for LA, which makes sense: they’re a big-market team, have some cap space, need scoring, and have a GM who is not only giving serious crazy grandpa vibes, but he’s more or less been given a blank check to get wacky.
So let’s ask the question—does Marner actually make sense in LA?
3 Reasons Marner Does Fit in LA
1. He’s an ELITE right-shot powerplay machine
Let’s not complicate this—Mitch Marner is a top-10 forward in the NHL when he’s locked in. He’s a right-shot unicorn who lives for time and space, and turns power plays into art exhibitions. Think Kuzmenko but basically better at everything. The Kings have been dying for a player like that. A true star. A difference-maker. A guy who can do more than dump it in and hope the F3 covers for the collapse. An actual zone-entry cyborg.
Drop Marner into a top six with Kempe. Fiala or Byfield, give him the keys to the power play, and suddenly things look a whole lot scarier for opponents—and a whole lot better for anyone who’s watched the Kings attempt to generate consistent offense in the last 10 years.
2. He’s one of the best defensive wingers in hockey
This is the part of Marner’s game that gets buried under all the “he hasn’t won anything” noise. The guy kills penalties, creates takeaways, and constantly breaks up plays that should be goals. There’s a Selke argument to be made here—in fact, Marner was a Selke finalist just 2 seasons ago. If you’re the Kings, a team built on defensive structure and responsible hockey, that’s got to feel like a warm blanket just pulled out of the dryer.
3. LA is not Toronto. Thank God.
Let’s be real: the hockey market in Los Angeles could not be more different than Toronto. Marner wouldn’t be under the microscope 24/7. No one’s live-blogging his haircut. No one is throwing trash on his front porch because his team lost a playoff series (this one actually happened). He wouldn’t be the face of the franchise or the scapegoat when things go sideways. In LA, he’d just be a really good player on a deep team that only gets media attention when they win, not lose. And that might actually let him play freer, looser—and better.
3 Reasons Marner Doesn’t Fit in LA
1. He’s likely about to become the highest paid player in the NHL
The moment Marner lands in LA, you can kiss at least one other important piece goodbye. His buddy Auston Matthews currently holds the highest cap hit of any NHL player at $13.25 million. Odds are, Marner exceeds that number on July 1st. If the Kings plan on retaining Vladislav Gavrikov and Alex Laferriere while adding Marner, something has to give salary wise. Those three contracts would probably cost LA nearly $24 million annually. Their off-season cap space is projected to be $23,268,333. That means GM Ken Holland would have to move significant money out, putting an immediate target on a guy like Trevor Moore and his $4.2 million AAV. While most fans would be perfectly fine with that, Moore’s absence would create another hole that the Kings would have to try to fill internally.
2. He hasn’t exactly crushed the playoffs
Yes, Marner’s an elite talent. No, he hasn’t consistently shown it when it matters most. There’s a pattern here. The big games arrive, the pressure mounts, and Marner’s game shrinks. Is that fixable? Maybe. Is it something you want to bet 7 years and $13-$14 million of your cap space on? That’s a spicy proposition.
Some would argue that the Kings already have enough guys who go quiet in games 5, 6, and 7. Adding another one, even an elite one, is dicey. Is it a Toronto thing? Maybe. But the cost of finding out is insanely high.
3. He comes with a bit of that PLD energy
NO ONE is questioning Marner’s skillset. But fair or not, there’s a growing perception that he brings some baggage—contract drama, playoff underperformance, and an increasingly visible weariness with the market he plays in. You see where I’m going with this and I apologize in advance.
Kings fans just lived through the Pierre-Luc Dubois experience: big talent, big expectations, and an even bigger shrug once the puck dropped. The last thing this team needs is another high-priced enigma with a complicated backstory. The Kings need hockey players that are as low maintenance as humanly possible.
Final Verdict: Do it, Kenny! YOLO!
Mitch Marner would instantly make the Kings more talented, more dangerous, and more fun to watch. He’d also kind of blow up the salary structure, come with playoff baggage, and raise all kinds of questions the team might not want to answer.
In other words, he’s the perfect target for a team trying to win now—and that’s EXACTLY what Ken Holland is here to do. From all indications, Holland has 2 or 3 years to get the Kings to a Cup Final AND he’s likely been given carte blanche on roster decisions. That makes him a very dangerous man.
Yes, there is a substantial risk factor here with Marner. The Kings can’t really know if he’s the right ingredient for their recipe until they throw him in with their current concoction. That being said, they can’t exactly stay the course either. Whether it’s Marner or someone no one is even thinking about, Holland is primed to make a big move in the next 6 weeks.
