An under the radar signing, Joel Armia is ready to bring his game to Los Angeles

Perhaps lost a little bit in the world of former Kings foes and analytical debates that headlined July 1 in Los Angeles was the signing of forward Joel Armia.

He’s not the splashy type of signing that typically garners a ton of interest. After all, “plays a lot of minutes on the penalty kill” doesn’t really attract a ton of headlines.

But while the Armia signing is not a flashy one, on paper it appears to be a pretty effective one. Could honestly turn out to be the best value signing made by the team over the summer.

Because, while Armia does not bring a ton of flash, the Kings weren’t really looking for a ton of flash from him. What they were looking for was put pretty bluntly by Ken Holland in advance of July 1.

“I’ve got to try to figure out a fourth line that the coach wants to put out there a little bit more.”

Armia should be exactly that, with the ability to move up in the lineup as needed. He doesn’t think that he is limited as a player to a fourth line role. He believes that he plays a two-way game, which should fit in with a Kings system that largely requires it. In looking at the depth chart, the fourth line is his most likely starting point but he thinks he’s got more to his game.

On July 1, Armia had different options around the NHL. So why Los Angeles and why the Kings? Well, in playing against the Kings, he described a team he felt was difficult to play against, bringing with him some things he feels should add to that. Felt like a good fit for him on the ice.

“I feel like every time I played against the Kings it was a tough opponent every time and I feel like the playing style kind of fits my playing style too,” Armia said. “I feel like I’m a good, two-way player and I can be used anywhere in the lineup. I feel like I still have a lot of skill to play wherever and I’m up to the challenge too. Whatever the team is asking me to do, I’ll do it.”

He’s scored 10 or more goals six times in the NHL, including a career-best 17 during the 2023-24 season. Playing lower in the lineup, he’s proven capable of production, despite it not being the primary reason the Kings wanted to add him into the mix.

Armia plays the way the Kings want their fourth line to play at even strength and he offers something the team didn’t get much of from players in those roles last season – special teams contributions.

The Kings largely relied on their Top-9 both to play on the power play and to kill penalties. The former is likely not Armia’s wheelhouse, with forward Corey Perry the more likely of the two signings to factor in there, but the penalty kill is. Just three forwards around the NHL played more shorthanded minutes last season than Armia and Montreal was a Top-10 penalty-killing unit on the season as a whole.

“I feel like I take a lot of pride on the penalty kill,” Armia said. “It’s a really fun job, trying to deny all the opponents best players not to get on the scoreboard and kill their momentum that way. It’s a lot of fun. A big, big part of the game that I enjoy.”

Penalty killing in many ways is about pride. It has to be, playing with fewer players on the ice.

Armia logging a big role in those situations could help two-fold.

The Kings do have a lot of players with PK capabilities but if Armia becomes a crutch to lean on, it could help reduce the workload on players like Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar, freeing them up to more work offensively while simultaneously helping to limit their difficult minutes, which ideally keeps them fresher for 5-on-5 and power-play opportunities. Fresher for offensive situations, for a team that wants to score more goals.

Imagine writing a story that suggests taking one of the best two-way forwards in NHL history off the penalty kill. But it’s good to have options. As injuries come up, as situations change, it’s good to have a number of players capable of playing in those different types of roles. Armia helps in that he is a top-tier penalty killer and that it should help lessen the burden on the team’s top offensive players in the process, whether it be Kopitar, Kempe, Quinton Byfield or others.

The same could be said for Perry, as it pertains to the power play, and for Armia, playing with Perry is a reunion with a former teammate.

The two played together on the 2021 Montreal Canadiens squad that advance to the Stanley Cup Finals, along with Kings center Phillip Danault and Kings defenseman Joel Edmundson. In Perry, the Kings are getting another player who Armia believes can help the team, both with his on-ice competitiveness and what he brings as a teammate.

“A lot of experience, he can score goals and he’s a good leader in the locker room too,” Armia said of Perry. “It’s just amazing how I feel like every year when you watch him play, he’s always a really good player. I have nothing bad to say about him, he’s a great guy and a great player.”

Armia and Perry were the only additions the Kings made to the NHL roster. The entire Top-9 up front returns from last season with Andrei Kuzmenko re-signing on a one-year contract extension to maintain the consistency the Kings had within that group. From the deadline on, the Kings ranked second in the NHL in goals scored per game at 3.68. They averaged four goals per game in the playoffs. What the Kings lack in top-end talent they make up for in depth and those signings only help in that area.

In terms of what he’s looking forward to, the chance to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs is certainly top of the list for Armia. After reaching the Finals in 2021, Armia and the Canadiens missed out on postseason competition in each of the next three seasons, finally getting that taste of playoff hockey again this past spring, as Montreal lost to Washington in five games.

“Playoff hockey is just so, so different from the regular season, it’s so much more fun to play in the playoffs,” Armia said. “I feel like the LA Kings, they’re built for playoffs. I feel like it’s a balanced team – size, grit, good skill, really, really well balanced team, I feel like.”

There are also eyes on the Winter Olympics in Milan, after participating in the 4 Nations Faceoff this past winter for Team Finland.

Armia was a part of a generation of players denied a real opportunity to compete internationally in a best-on-best format until the 4 Nations tournament. He’s got a gold medal from the IIHF World Championships in 2022 and played a depth role with Team Finland at the event this past February. At 32, this could be his only opportunity to play at the Olympics. While he’s not a lock, making the team again this winter is certainly on his list for the season.

“The 4 Nations was a special experience, to get to play against all the best players in the world and now it’s a goal of mine to be on the Olympic team too,” he said. “That’s going to be a great tournament too because there haven’t been many tournaments where the best play against each other, so it would be a great thing to be on the team. I’m working torwards that.”

Armia is still in Finland for the time being but plans to head to Los Angeles in due time. Several Kings veterans have begun to make their way back to Southern California to join players like Drew Doughty and Trevor Moore, who have been here all summer, training locally. Getting close to that time, certainly, to get the chance to see how players like Armia factor in on the ice.