It's been an up-and-down season for the Los Angeles Kings' budding start Quinton Byfield. After a breakout 2023-24 campaign and a lucrative extension over the summer, the hope was for Byfield to move back to center and ascend to stardom behind Anze Kopitar.
Things haven't gone according to plan so far. After a strong training camp and preseason, Byfield spluttered out of the gates with just 11 points and three goals in his first 29 games. In game 30, Byfield appeared to hit a turning point, with a two-goal performance that included a highlight reel assist for Warren Foegele.
— LA Royalty (@LARoyalty1967) December 14, 2024
Including that game, Byfield had an eight-game stretch where he scored six goals and nine points, the offense seemed to be turning for him, and then the Tampa Bay Lightning came to town. Byfield spent the majority of that game playing against Nikita Kucherov and the Lightning's first line, earning shutdown duties that show the faith Jim Hiller now has in Byfield.
While Byfield and his line spent most of the game defending, they denied any points for Tampa's top line at even strength en route to a 2-1 Kings victory. Since that game, Byfield has been Hiller's go-to shutdown center, a move that's shown Byfield's defensive chops.
In that stretch, Byfield has faced off against some of the league's best centers and best lines. In Winnipeg he played almost 10 minutes against Mark Sheifele and one of the best lines in hockey, in Edmonton it was over 12 minutes against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, 12 minutes against Alexander Barkov and 12 against Adam Fantili and Columbus' top line. In all of those minutes played against some of the league's most dangerous players and lines, Byfield's line gave up zero goals.
They've sawed off the opposition's top players and have been a key part of LA's stellar defensive play over the last eight games. The issue is, that has come at the cost of offense. In that stretch, the Kings have scored two or fewer goals in seven of eight games and Byfield has just one goal and one assist.
Yes, it's only been eight games and that isn't a huge sample size, but the Kings' offense dropping off right as they switched Byfield's role feels a little too convenient to be a coincidence. Right as his season got on track offensively his role was changed and has nullified what he can bring to the scoresheet.
That isn't to say it's been a bad move from Jim Hiller, Byfield and his line have been stellar defensively, but at what point does the offense loss outweigh the defensive prowess? It's a question Hiller will have to answer and isn't helped by Kevin Fiala and his line failing to take advantage of easier matchups and Anze Kopitar's zero goals and four assists in his past ten games.
The switch for Byfield isn't the sole cause of this offense slump, but it isn't helping things either.
Hiller did say this won't be Byfield's role forever too.
"That won't be his job every night," said Hiller after the Florida Panthers game last Jan. 22. "On the road, we don't control the matchups so we don't chase them very often, I like the fact that Phil and Kopi have done that forever, Phil's done it his entire career, we've bounced between them here, now we've just got one more guy. It's a tough job, some nights it's nice to have the day off from that job and maybe create a little more offense. That won't be his job every night."
It's a fair point from Hiller that it's more difficult to get desired matchups on the road, but it's not as though they have zero control and it's hard to believe other teams are chasing their best players against Byfield.
You do imagine as we get into the final stretch of the season and playoffs Kopitar and Phil Danault will go back to the main shutdown centers. In a recent discussion with an NHL scout, they mentioned the benefits of using the younger Byfield as the shutdown option, taking on the more grueling task, to preserve the older Danault, and in particular Kopitar, for the end of the season.
It would be a sound plan, but the offense needs to find itself in the meantime.
Another potential reason for this change is an attempt to get Fiala going offensively, giving him "easier" matchups to try and exploit offensively.
As a last positive to this move, Byfield needs to become a 1C for this team in the future, which means taking on these matchups. The experience he's getting is invaluable and he's proving he can handle these matchups defensively. Now he must find a way to produce while sawing off the opposition's top players. Of course, with respect to Foegele and Trevor Moore/Tanner Jeannot, that will also be much easier if he has a winger of Adrian Kempe's quality to play with.
Byfield is showing he can be a star defensively, but it's harming the Kings' overall offense and that balance is something Hiller must find.