Similar points last year. Kovalchuk is off to a better start this year on offense, but Panik is off to a better start this year on defense.

Kovalchuk was obviously a big star a decade ago, and used to be pretty clutch. This year he's got the worst plus/minus on the Kings. Panik hasn't gotten on the board yet this year, but neither have opposing power plays against him.

I'm not sure you have to add Johansen.

ETA: I hope Johansen goes to South Carolina to work on his offense. He's been defensively solid in the AHL for just over two years. Maybe he needs to play against weaker competition to get his offense going. SC is 9-1 and Kris Bindulis is their #1D. Johansen could get a point a game there, and come back up to Hershey ready to play the style that got him drafted.

Also, the Kovalchuk situation is even worse than you made it sound in LA. Friedman says he's "welcome to keep practicing with the team." Wow. Talk about a public demand to waive an NMC. https://lakingsinsider.com/2019/11/12/kovalchuk-a-healthy-scratch-per-blake-but-future-murky/

So let's look at why LA wants to do that. In his first ten games this year, Kovalchuk got 7 points. In his next seven games, he's got two more. He can still hit, with five hits in one game against Buffalo, but in his other 16 games, he has five more hits, with a max of one per. He's been plus in two games, and minus in seven.

Last year he started strong, with 14 pts in his first 14 games (almost a point a game), and then trailed off to finish with 34 points in 64 games. So he got 20 in the last 50, while not playing much defense. Tough to even see throwing in Stephenson when you look at it like that. Panik is really off to a poor start, but he'll snap out of it and still be in his 20s. I think LA adds and WSH doesn't.