As the Los Angeles Kings prepare to play the Minnesota Wild tomorrow, I thought it was time to gauge the acquisition of Kevin Fiala trade from the Wild that saw standout defensive prospect Brock Faber and a 2022 first-round pick (Liam Ohgren) go the other way.
General Manager Rob Blake made an opportunistic move when the Kings were starting to emerge from their retooling phase. They had just lost to the Edmonton Oilers to a game seven in the 2021-22 playoffs and were looking to take another step. The Wild were in a cap crunch from the buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. Blake capitalized on the situation and swung for the fences on Fiala.
Fiala has been a point-producing player and a powerplay pivot (22g, 41a, 63p) for the Kings. He has 161 points in 176 games played (61g, 100a -3), but has racked up 136 penalty minutes over the two-plus seasons in LA. He’s essentially been a double-edged sword during his time in LA.
He has played up and down the Kings’ lineup but has not landed a full-time role alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, only finding a soft spot next to Phillip Danault.
At 28, the Kings will likely see the best of Fiala’s career over the next year or more. It is also possible that the best of Fiala has already come. He’s currently right in the middle of his prime.
Faber, on the other hand, is 22 years old. He is already an established top-pairing defenseman on a good Minnesota team. He was recently chosen to make the United States Four Nations Roster over American players on the Kings, such as Mikey Anderson.
His stats via Moneypuck at even strength represent numbers that would fit right in with the Kings: on-ice goals expected against per 60: 1.86, on-ice shot attempts against per 60: 56.1, on-ice high-danger shot attempts per 60: 1.25, and on-ice expected Goal differential: 4.5.
Defensively, based on his suppression metrics, he would be the number 2-3 defenseman on the LA roster. The fact that he’s within the range of metrics of shutdown guys Vladislav Gavrikov and Anderson is marvelous for the Calder candidate of last year. However, he’s much more fleet-of-foot than Gavrikov, and Anderson, with a higher offensive ceiling, raising his overall value.
Faber’s numbers and overall play are a significant reason why Minnesota extended him to an 8-year contract in the offseason, carrying a $8.5 million yearly price tag. That’s more than Fiala makes.
Fiala has been excellent against the Wild since becoming an LA King (3-6-9 +2), but the actual weight of this trade for LA can only be measured by playoff performance. Unless you’ve lived under a rock in Los Angeles, you would know that the Kings have been dispatched in descending order to the Edmonton Oilers each of the last three seasons. Yes, Fiala put up a 2-point-per-game performance in 2022-23 on a lethal line with Gabriel Vilardi, but last postseason was a different story, as he only notched two points in their five-game exit.
The playoff aspirations LA had have not come close to fruition. To add insult to injury, the draft pick, the Kings’ package with Faber, has started to bear fruit.
Ohgren looks to be a good player. The Swedish winger scored during his first taste of the NHL last season and got called up for a three-game stint this season. At worst, with Ohgren, the Wild look to be getting a surefire top-nine forward with some upside. That, combined with the lock of a first-pairing right-shot defenseman, only hurts the optics of the trade.
So, while the Kings will get another frontal look at Faber tomorrow, deep down, management knows that if the Kings don’t advance to the second round with Fiala in their core group of players, the trade will continue to age poorly. At a glance, it seems Blake jumped the gun on leaving the retooling phase, exhausting precious resources that are now blossoming elsewhere.