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As the Los Angeles Kings move into an uncertain off-season, Quinton Byfield is sounding like a young player who is ready to become a team leader. While certain impending Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) played coy about their future plans, and a certain head coach sounded reluctant to second-guess any of his decisions in the 1st round series loss to the Edmonton Oilers, Byfield took ownership of one of the key blunders of the series: his failure to chip the puck out of the zone with 29 seconds to play in Game 4.
When asked about this pivotal moment, the 22-year-old didn't look to shift blame, but chose to take responsibility: " In the moment there, my thought process there was, this and that, I didn't want to ice the puck on an empty netter. I tried to make the safe, smart play to chip it out and didn't get that out. I think that play there will.... I'll think about that all summer, to be honest. If I make that play there we are up 3-1."
In addition to breaking his personal best with 23 regular season goals this year, Byfield chipped in three goals in the six-game series against the Oilers, finishing just one back of Adrian Kempe's team high four goals.
Although already known for several highlight reel goals during his young career, Byfield has made significant strides defensively and appears to take pride in playing a 200ft game. As longtime number one center Anze Kopitar enters the last season of his current two-year contract, LA will need Byfield to play bigger minutes and to counter the opposing team's top lines. Could there come a time when Byfield ends up playing more minutes than the aging Kopitar, who will turn 38 in August? Keeping Kopitar fresh for the playoffs by reducing his regular season TOI would not necessarily be the worst idea for a team that hasn't won a playoff round since 2014.
Whatever the off-season may bring, management and fans alike must surely hope this stinging playoff failure will motivate Byfield to make the 2025-26 season his best campaign yet.
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