The Los Angeles Kings have not gotten off to the best start this season and a big part of that has come down to the play of LA’s goaltenders. While a lot of this season has been marred by inconsistent play from the entire team, no position has been more inconsistent than LA’s goalies and the stats back it up. The Kings currently are giving up the 4th best expected goals against at a very low 2.25 per 60 minutes at 5 on 5 hockey. This good defensive play is not being backed up by the goalies, who ranked 31st out of 32 teams for goals saved above expected as of November 20th. The Kings can’t expect to be a playoff team at the end of the year if they keep getting this level of goaltending from Jonathan Quick and Cal Petersen, and this LA team is way too talented to not be making the playoffs. So, how does LA fix this? The solution is simple, trade for a goalie. Let’s talk about a couple options the Kings could look to make a trade for.

Starting in Arizona, one goalie having a very underrated season is Coyote’s goalie Karel Vejmelka. Vejmelka has had a solid season on a very bad Coyotes team that is in the bottom four in the league for expected goals against per 60 minutes at 3.05. Karel Vejmelka currently sits at a .909 save percentage while his goals against average is still higher than Cal Petersen’s on a significantly worse defensive hockey team. These stats are very promising for a goalie who is just entering the prime of his career at 26 years old. He should be relatively easy to pry away from Arizona and the Kings most definitely have the assets to trade for him. Whether it is a moderately early round pick or a mid tier prospect, Los Angeles has excess of both. Karel Vejmelka is also locked up on a pretty cheap contract for the next 3 years which makes him even more enticing. He would be a great option for Rob Blake to trade for. 

The second option the Kings have is to make another trade with Minnesota for their backup goalie Filip Gustavsson. While he hasn’t had to deal with a poor defense in front of him like Karel Vejmelka, he has still done his job and made saves for his team. Gustavsson has a .906 save percentage and a 2.86 goal against average, which are both better than either of LA’s goalies. He is also on a very cheap one year contract which makes him very easy for LA to get and fit on their books. Minnesota already has Fleury as their number one and they have former first round pick Jesper Wallstedt waiting in the wings to take over his spot which leaves Gustavsson in a bit of a backup goalie limbo. Gustavsson’s contract is another reason why he would be a great fit for LA, as he is on a league minimum 700k for one year. This helps LA who will most likely not be able to move on from Petersen due to his big contract. Gustavsson could be a very cheap and smart option to take away from a cash strapped Wild team.

The Kings should be a playoff team, and the stats seem to indicate that they’re a goalie away from being one. Rob Blake needs to get on the phone and make a move before this season starts to slip away and both of these options could provide the solid goaltending play the Kings need at a cheap price. There is still a long way to go in the 2022-23 campaign, but it would be a shame to see such a talented Los Angeles Kings team slip out of the playoff race due to poor play from their goalies, especially after the success from last season.