- More than 850 Kings fans answered The Athletic’s survey and 69 percent picked a rebuild over trying to win now
- Over 80 percent said they have no confidence in team president Luc Robitaille
- Read below for the rest of the results, including the captaincy vote and what fans expect from Quinton Byfield
Kings fans want a teardown. The people running the team want the opposite.
Eric Stephens of The Athletic surveyed more than 850 Los Angeles Kings fans this month, and 69 percent said they would rather watch the club rebuild than chase a playoff spot. The other 31 percent chose win now, which is the road Luc Robitaille and Ken Holland are already on.
Robitaille took the heaviest hit. More than 80 percent of respondents said they lack confidence in the team president, who is closing in on a decade in the role and has yet to oversee a playoff series win since the last rebuild ended.
Holland came out of it slightly better. Just over 70 percent were wary of his fingerprints on the big decisions, and close to half handed his summer a C. Another 219 voters graded the offseason below that, including 46 who failed him outright.
None of that has changed the plan. Los Angeles added Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula, Erik Gustafsson, Corey Perry and Scott Laughton in free agency, and Holland signed Brandt Clarke to a five-year extension in June. Most readers think that one ages well.
One move landed cleanly with everybody. Fans were broadly positive on the Peter Laviolette hire, and the 61-year-old brings a winning record with six previous NHL teams and a history of quick turnarounds:
The bigger on-ice question was Quinton Byfield, who turned 24 on Wednesday and finally has the top center job to himself. A plurality of voters put him in the 60s for points this season. Nearly a quarter went further and called for 70 or more.
Anze Kopitar’s old letter is still unassigned. A third of respondents want Drew Doughty wearing it, with Adrian Kempe and Mikey Anderson drawing real support, and 20 percent said the Kings should skip naming a captain entirely.
Doughty is heading into the last year of his deal with no extension in place. Half of the fans surveyed want him to finish his career in Los Angeles the way Kopitar and Dustin Brown did. The other half are ready to move on, during the season or after it.
Five straight first-round exits, four of them to Edmonton, are what built this mood. The Kings open against Colorado in about six weeks, and Robitaille and Holland are walking into a building full of people who wanted a different plan.
