After a whirlwind week, Akil Thomas is comfortable and delivering for the LA Kings down the stretch

By Zach Dooley April 12, 2024

Akil Thomas had a pretty eventful first week as an LA King.

On Day 1, he made his NHL debut against the Winnipeg Jets, with his parents and several friends and family members in the building in Manitoba. In his next game, three days later in San Jose, Thomas scored his first career NHL goal, the eventual game-winning goal in a 2-1 win over the Sharks. Two days after that, he played nearly 12 minutes, a career-high, as he made his home debut in a big win over Vancouver. Wouldn’t you know it, two days after that, he’s in the team photo. The next night, he scored again, in his first Freeway Faceoff, his second goal in four games. Two days later, he scored against Calgary as the Kings clinched a playoff spot.

At the start of the season, Thomas was just in search of health and consistency. Two things that had eluded him throughout his first three professional seasons, courtesy of a pair of long-term injuries. Now that he’s here, he’s just taking things as they come. As a rookie in this league, joining the NHL club at a whirlwind point in the season, that means a day-by-day approach.

“Every day is pretty new, so I’m just trying to take it in as much as I can,” Thomas said. “Just kind of take it day by day, show up and work hard whether it’s practice or a game or whatever it is.”

In his NHL debut, Thomas was thrust into the highest-intensity game he’s likely ever played in.

End of a roadtrip, contested between two teams fighting for playoff positioning, with the Kings playing in Winnipeg. As the Kings chased a big road victory, Thomas found himself as one of the odd-men out down the stretch, playing fewer than four minutes. As his head coach said after the game, it was a tough game to be thrown into cold.

Fast forward three days and Jim Hiller guaranteed us before the game that Thomas would play more, as he checked back into the lineup. He saw his icetime more than double, with a first-period goal setting the stage for a confident sophomore outing. Thomas forechecked, he brought energy and physicality and he even penalty killed, with assistant coach Trent Yawney calling his number on a four-minute kill. All things Thomas needs to do to stay in the lineup.

“I thought the San Jose game, he played so well, he really did,” Hiller said of Thomas. “I know he scored the goal, but there were other areas of the game where – I didn’t think we were particularly sharp in the San Jose game – but he gave us energy. He gave us detail in his game, he gave us physicality, he gave us all the things that maybe we were missing just a little bit from our group. We wanted to make sure we gave him another good luck against Vancouver.”

Thomas was inclined to agree with his head coach.

Although it was Saturday’s game against the Canucks that he played the most, it was the win over the Sharks that Thomas felt was his best game.

“I think I probably played the best in San Jose, I felt better, I felt like I was doing a little bit more,” he said.

Over the weekend, Thomas played as a part of a Kings group with four full forward lines, skating on the fourth line with high-energy players Blake Lizotte and Trevor Lewis. It’s a role he continued in throughout the game in Anaheim, before the lines got shuffled a bit yesterday evening,

At 5-on-5, the win over Vancouver was perhaps the tightest distribution of minutes we’ve seen with Hiller in charge. That line was fourth of the four lines, at 8:49 played, but the disparity between that line and Phillip Danault’s line was just 93 seconds in total, with that line leading the way with 10:22. That’s not even a shift per period. While it was a full line effort, consider Thomas an important part of it. If a player isn’t up to the flow of the game, Hiller won’t hesitate to shorten the bench. There was no need, with his fourth line generating as much as anyone, in his mind.

“That whole line, they complemented each other well and they spent more time in Vancouver’s zone than any other of our lines and that came from the forechecking tenacity, they had really,” Hiller said. “So they had good chemistry.”

Per Natural Stat Trick, the line of Lewis, Lizotte and Thomas was the only line for the Kings over 50 percent in terms of expected goal share. On a rare night when the Kings were outpossessed, that line had two high-danger scoring chances with much of their puck possession generated through the forecheck, as they played with energy and pace. The followed that up again in Anaheim, with the team’s lone goal on nine shot attempts for, compared to just four against. In controlling more than 71 percent of shots on goal, no line had better numbers in that department than they did.

Playing lower in the lineup is an interesting spot for Thomas.

In the AHL, he’s a top-six forward, relied upon for offensive contributions certainly, but he’s also not a player who shies away from the physical aspect of the game, or the other areas that a professional needs to deliver in. With the Kings, it’s those other elements that will be expected of him. The goals are nice, and the Kings certainly need depth scoring, but to play in a third or fourth-line role come the postseason especially, Thomas has to bring the other parts of his game.

While there is a bit of an adjustment, it’s not anything he’s dodging. He wants to deliver in those ways and establish himself as a regular with the big club.

“Every shift I’m out there, I’m just trying to move my legs and hit anyone I can,” he said. “I think it’s definitely a different mindset, but I’m trying to kind of merge the two together to try to play more confidently. I think that’ll just come with time.”

Just trying to hit anyone he can.

That sounds like a player who will endear himself to hockey fans pretty quickly.

His most common NHL linemates, Lizotte and Lewis, were complementary of his style of play and the way he’s hopped right onto their line and found success.

Lewis – He’s great. He’s hard on the pucks, he’s fast and it looks like he can kill [penalties] too. He’s been a great addition to our line, he’s an easy guy to play with and it’s been a lot of fun.

Lizotte – Super smart player, responsible, works hard, hard on pucks, really skilled. He’s a pretty complete player. I think Trevor and I love having him with us and let’s keep playing with him moving forward.

Thomas called himself a “swiss-army knife”, player who has sandpaper in his game. We’ve known that since he was drafted and he’s shown it in the OHL and AHL since. The NHL is a different beast though, and he’s got the tool within that knife to be the player the Kings need right now, even if ultimately he might be capable of being more.

He’s not the first player to be faced with that adjustment, but it’s one that many players need to face and embrace to break into the NHL. It’s few and far between that even the most gifted of prospects step right into the top six of a contending NHL club. Look at Quinton Byfield or Adrian Kempe, two of the best homegrown players for the Kings in recent years, as examples of players who had to succeed lower in the lineup before elevating into higher roles. It’ll come with time.

“The more I play, the more comfortable I feel and I feel like the more comfortable I feel, the better I’ll do and the more I’ll show to them,” Thomas added. “That feels great.”

It’s a good thing when a player is feeling that way four games into an NHL career. It’s even better when a coach is seeing similar things and showing a trust in that young player. The game against Vancouver team was the final game the Kings will play against a team in the playoff picture and the Kings relied upon their fourth line heavily. Following that up with another strong performance was a good next step. And then another.

“He’s earned the coach’s trust,” Hiller added. “He just goes out there and he works, he takes the body and he understands the game well. To see him score these goals is a bonus, but we’ll take them for sure.”

Now, with the postseason locked up for the Kings, Thomas will look to continue to play his game and put his name in the Game 1 conversation. Two weeks ago, I’m not sure many would have had that one.

Pretty good place to be and consider Thomas to be raring to go for the ride.