New Kings Man

Kings roster

Palffy, who spent the last six seasons with the New York Islanders, has had consecutive seasons of 43, 45 and 48 goals, and he had 22 goals in the 50 games last year after a long holdout. He signed a five-year contract in December and thought he would stay in New York.

"It's changed my life," Palffy said. "I'm trying to forget everything that's happened in the past, like last year, because last year was really frustrating for me. It was hard. I've been trying to figure out everything so I can go forward, I can go to L.A., do my job over there, do what I do best."

In Los Angeles Palffy will be united with childhood friend Jozef Stumpel on the Kings' top line that will probably include Luc Robitaille.

"He's an all-star player, a 40-plus-goals guy," said Brian Smolinski, who was traded to the Kings with Palffy. "He's one of the premier goal-scorers in hockey, comparable to [the Mighty Ducks' Teemu] Selanne or [Phoenix's Keith] Tkachuk."

Whether Palffy can ignite the King's offense remains to be seen. The team missed the playoffs for the fifth time in six years last spring and they are moving to a new $300 million arena in Downtown L.A., that they will share with NBA's Lakers and Clippers. So the pressure is on.

"If you're going to win games, nobody going to say who's going to score goals," Palffy said. "If you win, 1-0, I don't care who scores the goal. It's nice if you have more players who can score goals. When you have only one or two guys, that's real pressure. Everybody's watching you. In L.A., more guys can score goals and that's nice."