A losing culture is a real thing and the Kings are about to finish as a bottom 5 team for the third straight year. How is that even possible with Doughty and Kopitar on the team?
It's possible because the organization has added next to nothing as far as impact players since they won the SC in June 2014.
The Lucic trade (assuming Futa is telling the truth) robbed the Kings of Matt Barzal, that is a big loss. You want to imagine how good Barzal would have been for the Kings? He put up 85 points as a 20 year old, could you imagine how hyped we'd be if Turcotte or Kaliyev were to do that next season? He would have been good enough to have helped out the Kopitar/Doughty era and young enough to be the man in the next era, or if the Kings hit the jackpot with Byfield or someone else he'd be one of the best 2nd line centers in the league for 7-8 years. Again, assuming Futa is being truthful in what he said, that trade was one of the worst in the history of the franchise, and that is saying something.
The Kings have had 5 first round picks in the the past 4 drafts. #2, #5, #11, #20 and #22. None of those five have been an immediate homerun for the NHL club. Now I am not saying they all should have been immediate stars or aren't good prospects because they haven't been overnight sensations, but it would have been nice for the product on the ice this season had one of them been.
To use people taken at the same or similar spots in the draft, the Kings season is not nearly as bad if any of these were true.
If Byfield were like Laine, Landeskog or Eichel in his D+1
If Turcotte were like Keller, Tkachuk or Marner in his D+2
If Kupari were like Connor or Boeser in his D+3
If Vilardi were like Rantanen or Barzal in his D+4
It is possible, all these guys are proof of it.
Again, not saying I expected all of these, or even two of these to be reality, but the Kings are a much better team if any one of these were true. I won't include Toby, he has been very solid for the Kings, but he's a defensive minded d-man with a more limited ceiling who isn't going to impact the game like the others would have been if they hit right away, which is fine, the Kings knew that when they took him and he's been pretty good in that role in his D+2.
But if you want to know one of the reasons why the team is as bad as it's been, especially when it comes to putting the puck in the net, the lack of anything offensively (thus far) from first round picks is a big reason.