Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings brought big-league hockey to Southern California, and after decades of near-misses turned Crypto.com Arena into a genuine championship home in the 2010s. Once defined by the Wayne Gretzky trade that transformed hockey's popularity on the West Coast, the Kings later reinvented themselves as a defensively punishing, physically dominant contender. Their black-and-silver identity and deep, star-studded playoff runs earned Los Angeles a permanent place among the league's elite modern franchises. LA's fan base spans Hollywood glamour and gritty, blue-collar hockey pride in equal measure.

Founded in 1967 as part of the NHL's first wave of expansion, the Kings spent two decades searching for an identity until the 1988 acquisition of Wayne Gretzky made hockey a mainstream sport in Los Angeles and carried the club to its first Stanley Cup Final in 1993. Two decades later, a new core led by Jonathan Quick, Anze Kopitar, and Drew Doughty delivered the franchise's first championship in 2012 as the eighth-seeded Kings shocked the league, then added a second title in 2014 with a dramatic double-overtime Game 5 win. The Kings remain one of the NHL's signature California franchises.