The Kings Added Zuccarello, Haula and Perry and the Power Play Is Where the Fantasy Value Is

The Kings spent free agency adding experience to their forward group, bringing in Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula and Corey Perry alongside a coaching change to Peter Laviolette. The roster reshuffle has produced a set of projected line combinations that matter considerably more for fantasy purposes than the individual signings suggest.

Early projections out of Los Angeles have Artemi Panarin, Quinton Byfield and Adrian Kempe together at the top of the lineup, with a second unit built around Kevin Fiala, Haula and Zuccarello. The alternatives being floated include Juuso Armia, Scott Laughton and Alex Laferriere on a third line.

Line combinations in August are guesses. Power play units are where the fantasy value actually lives, and that is where the additions register.

The power play is the story

Zuccarello is projected onto the first power play unit alongside Panarin, Kempe and Byfield. That is the detail worth extracting from the entire offseason.

Zuccarello finished last season with 54 points in 10 fewer games than the year before, and he has averaged roughly 25 power play points per season since 2021-22. A veteran playmaker whose production is heavily concentrated on the man advantage does not need to be a top-line even-strength player to return fantasy value. He needs the power play assignment, and he appears to have it.

The counterweight is availability. Zuccarello has failed to reach 70 games in each of his past three seasons and turns 39 in September. That is a meaningful games-played discount, and managers should not project a full 82.

Haula is a different case

Erik Haula recorded 38 points in 81 games for Nashville last season and profiles as a low-end second-line or high-end third-line center in Los Angeles as currently constructed. That is a useful NHL player and a marginal fantasy one.

Haula's value is almost entirely conditional. If he centers a productive second line with Fiala and Zuccarello and draws power play time, he becomes a streaming option in deeper leagues. If Laviolette moves him down or if the second unit does not click, he is undraftable in standard formats.

That conditionality is worth stating plainly, because signings of veteran centers generate more fantasy attention than they usually deserve. Haula is a roster upgrade for the Kings. He is not a fantasy target.

Fantasy fallout for the incumbents

The additions matter most for what they do to the players already in Los Angeles.

Kempe and Byfield both project to remain on the top line and top power play unit, which protects their value. Panarin's arrival at the top of the lineup is the largest single factor in the Kings' offensive projection, and the players deployed with him benefit accordingly.

Fiala is the player whose outlook shifts most. A second line centered by Haula with Zuccarello on the other wing is a legitimate scoring line, but it is also a line whose power play access is limited if Zuccarello occupies the first unit spot. Fiala's fantasy value depends on whether he is on the first power play group or the second, and that is a question the preseason will answer.

Laferriere and the younger forwards are the ones squeezed. Veteran additions consume minutes, and a team that signs three experienced forwards in one summer has fewer opportunities available for internal development.

The Verdexed model take

The model reads Los Angeles as a team that improved its floor without materially raising its ceiling. Adding veterans with defined roles makes a lineup more predictable, which is valuable in the standings and neutral for fantasy upside.

The fantasy-relevant conclusion is to target the top power play unit and ignore almost everything else. Kings forwards on the first unit have real value. Kings forwards on the second unit are replacement level in most formats, and the difference between those two categories is worth more than any difference in talent among the players involved.

Zuccarello is the specific recommendation, at a discount that accounts for age and games played. A player who produces roughly 25 power play points a season on a team with a stronger top unit than he had before is the kind of late-round pick that quietly wins categories.

What to watch in camp

Three things. Whether Zuccarello holds the first power play spot once the coaching staff has seen the group live, because that is the entire basis of his fantasy case. Whether Fiala is on the first or second unit. And whether Laviolette's system, which has historically favored pace, changes the shot volume profile of a Kings team that has not been a high-event club.

Line combinations will shuffle repeatedly through October, as they do everywhere. Power play deployment is stickier, and the manager who identifies the first unit correctly in September rarely has to revisit the decision.

For now, the read on Los Angeles is that the top of the lineup got better, the depth got older, and the fantasy value is concentrated in about five players.

Corey Perry and the fourth line question

Perry's addition is the least fantasy-relevant of the three and the most instructive about what Los Angeles is trying to do. A veteran forward at this stage of his career is signed for net-front power play work, playoff experience and locker room presence, not for scoring.

That said, net-front power play work is exactly where deflection and rebound goals come from, and if Perry is on the second unit rather than sitting, he has marginal value in deep leagues that reward shots and hits. He is not a draft pick in standard formats.

The broader signal is that the Kings believe they are close. Teams in rebuilds do not add three veteran forwards in one summer. Teams that expect to play meaningful games in the spring do, and that expectation shapes how Laviolette will distribute minutes: toward the players he trusts and away from the ones still developing.

For fantasy purposes, that reinforces the same conclusion. Concentrate on the established top of the lineup, and let the depth sort itself out.