LOS ANGELES –– On a busy Tuesday morning for the Kings, they announced that one center would remain with the organization, another would be shipping out to the Midwest and a third would be arriving to Southern California imminently.

Before they signed Samuel Helenius to a two-year contract extension worth $875,000 per season, they completed a trade with the St. Louis Blues that swapped Akil Thomas for Nikita Alexandrov.

Helenius, 23, played 50 games for the Kings during the 2024-25 season, but saw his usage diminish dramatically during the playoffs and the first third of this campaign. The towering Finn – his listed height of 6-foot-6 might undersell his stature – averaged under four minutes per night, less than half his regular-season ice time, during the playoffs. This year, he’s playe

See Full Page