Opener vs. Avs, three battles with Oilers highlight schedule

KINGS

Edmonton’s Jake Walman delivers a hit to the Kings’ Phillip Danault during last season’s playoff series. The Kings and Oilers will meet just three times during the 2025-26 regular season. David Crane / staff photographer

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By Andrew Knoll

Correspondent

The last four seasons have cast the Kings in the role of Sisyphus, rolling their heavy stone up an 82-game hill, only to see it sent tumbling back down by the Edmonton Oilers in a quartet of consecutive first-round defeats.

Yet hope springs eternal, and with a deeper forward group and a reconfigured defense, the Kings will take the ice for these six must-see contests.

Oct. 7: vs. Avalanche

As part of a nationally televised tripleheader, the Kings will help ignite the 2025-26 campaign as they host the Avs. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and a healthy Gabriel Landeskog will try to crash the party, while Kings fans will get their first look at heel-turned-face Corey Perry in a black-and-silver sweater. The Avs’ lightning-paced attack will be a great first test for the Kings’ new-look defense – outgoing were Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence, incoming were Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin – since Colorado has captured 14 of the past 18 meetings with the Kings.

Nov. 28: at Ducks

With the Ducks edging toward .500 last season and making some notable upgrades over the summer, the Freeway Faceoff could be back. The first of four installments will unfold at Honda Center, where Perry plied his trade for 14 campaigns, including winning the Hart Trophy in 2011 and being an enormous thorn in the Kings’ side seemingly every year. Dumoulin was a Duck for most of 2024-25, though he finished the year with a playoff team, the New Jersey Devils.

Dec. 2: vs. Capitals

While Matt Roy and Pierre-Luc Dubois have already both returned to Los Angeles once, the absence of Roy will still be felt and the aftershocks from the miserably failed Dubois acquisition still reverberate through each level of the Kings organization. The Capitals catapulted to the top spot in the Eastern Conference standings last season, the same campaign in which captain Alex Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s hallowed mark for career NHL goals.

Jan. 20: vs. Rangers

Though Jonathan Quick didn’t start either matchup with the Kings last season, he’ll be back with the Rangers again and this time he’ll be joined by another former King. At the 2025 trade deadline, then-GM Rob Blake said Gavrikov would soon be signing a long-term contract. Four months later, he did – with the Rangers. The Kings committed the same $8.5 million he and Spence will make this season to Dumoulin and Ceci, moves that The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn described as “subtraction by addition” in an analysis that placed the Kings as having the biggest drop in roster quality year-over-year.

Feb. 6-24: Olympics

After a 12-year absence, the NHL is back at the Olympics and its contingent is sure to include some Kings. Adrian Kempe (Sweden) and Drew Doughty (Canada) represented their countries at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Kempe is a lock to return to the Tre Kronor and Doughty has long been known to elevate his game when sporting a maple leaf on his chest. With the field expanding from four teams to 12, Kevin Fiala (Switzerland) will undoubtedly head to Italy as well.

April 11: vs. Oilers

The Kings and archival Edmonton will square off only three times this season, with two clashes at Crypto.com Arena. In Game 79 of the Kings’ season, they’ll measure up against Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and the squad that’s sent them fishing in each of the past four postseasons. Given that Vegas reeled in the offseason’s biggest fish, Mitch Marner, and may not be done, it’s far from inconceivable that the Kings and Oilers would meet in a fifth straight first round, with this matchup setting the scene and maybe even influencing the venue.