The NHL’s once-feared California road trip is starting to look a lot less like a vacation again.
By Ryan Pittman | 5 For Fighting Podcast
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There was a time when an NHL team looked at the schedule, saw Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose stacked together, and didn’t exactly start celebrating.
Sure, California had sunshine, beaches and palm trees. But there was a pretty good chance you’d leave the state with about as much happiness as somebody who just paid $17 for a beer at a hockey arena.
Through the late 2000s and most of the 2010s, this wasn’t a vacation. It was a business trip into hostile territory.
San Jose had Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and eventually Joe Pavelski, on a team that treated 100-point seasons like a formality. Anaheim had Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, two stars who could beat you on the scoresheet and make you pay for it in the corners. Los Angeles had Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty and Jonathan Quick, and won two Stanley Cups in three years.
From 2009-10 through 2017-18, the three clubs combined for 22 playoff appearances in 27 team-seasons.
The peak was 2013-14. Visiting teams went a combined 22-29-6 through the three California buildings. Anaheim finished with 116 points, San Jose with 111 and Los Angeles with 100. All three made the playoffs, and the Kings went through both San Jose and Anaheim on their way to the Stanley Cup. People were calling it the “California Death March.”
That was California hockey.
Then, rather suddenly, it wasn’t.
The California Hockey Hangover
The old stars disappeared one by one. Marleau. Thornton. Pavelski. Getzlaf. Perry. Quick. And after 2025-26, Kopitar.
San Jose sank to the bottom of the standings and missed the playoffs seven straight years. Anaheim went into a deep rebuild and had its own seven-year drought before finally breaking through last season. Los Angeles stayed the most competitive of the three, but even the Kings are now stepping into a post-Kopitar world.
The trip went from “good luck getting out alive” to “thanks for the six points.”
But for the first time in a long time, there’s a legitimate argument that California is about to become a problem again. Just a different kind of problem. The old teams were built around stars who had already been through wars. The new ones are built around young stars who haven’t hit their ceilings yet.
Nowhere is that more obvious than San Jose.
San Jose Sharks: The Big One Is Already Here
Let’s just get this out of the way. Macklin Celebrini is ridiculous.
In his second NHL season, at 19, he played all 82 games and put up 45 goals and 70 assists for 115 points, breaking the Sharks’ single-season scoring record. He became just the sixth teenager in NHL history to hit 100 points, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Dale Hawerchuk and Jimmy Carson.
Not bad company. If you’ve never read the Great One’s own take on the game, 99: Stories of the Game is a must for any hockey fan. And fittingly for this article, a big chunk of Gretzky’s story happened in a Kings jersey.
Not a prospect. Not “one day.” He already owns the franchise record.
This summer, San Jose locked him up: five years, $94 million, $18.8 million per season starting in 2027-28. At the time of signing, it was the highest AAV in NHL history. That’s one hell of a vote of confidence.
Sharks fans are buying in too. If you want to rep the kid without dropping jersey money, these Macklin Celebrini socks are a fun way to do it.
The bigger story might be what’s around him now. Will Smith had 59 points in 69 games. Alexander Wennberg had 55. Michael Misa, the second overall pick in 2025, arrived after leading the entire CHL with 134 points (62 goals, 72 assists) in 65 OHL games. Sam Dickinson is a major piece on the blue line, and 2026 second-overall pick Ivar Stenberg adds another potential top-six forward to the pipeline.
If you collect cards, this is exactly the kind of youth wave worth chasing. Rip a 2025-26 Upper Deck Series 2 blaster box or an Upper Deck Extended Series blaster box and you might pull one of the young guns shaping California’s next era.
And Mike Grier clearly decided the kids needed some adults in the room. He signed Jacob Trouba (four years, $33 million) after a 35-point season in Anaheim, added Mason Marchment (five years, $33.75 million) after a 45-point year, and acquired Darnell Nurse from Edmonton, a 20-minute-a-night defenseman who led the Oilers in blocked shots and hits.
The Sharks don’t look like a team waiting for the rebuild to finish anymore. They look like a team trying to speed it up.
The giant question mark is in net. San Jose was 30th in goals-against average (3.49) and 25th in save percentage (.881). Yaroslav Askarov went 21-20-4 with a 3.63 GAA and .884 save percentage, while Alex Nedeljkovic went 18-14-4 with a 2.87 and .896. That’s not exactly a Stanley Cup recipe.
Still, the Sharks went 39-35-8 for 86 points, a 34-point jump from the year before, and finished just four points out of the final wild-card spot. And now they’re adding talent.
San Jose went from the team you wanted to see on your California trip to the one you least want waiting for you on night three.
Jumping on the teal train early? Grab a San Jose Sharks hat before the bandwagon fills up.
Anaheim Ducks: The Rebuild Arrived Early
Anaheim might be the most interesting of the three, because the Ducks already took the first big step.
They didn’t just improve. They made the playoffs.
After seven straight seasons without postseason hockey, Anaheim went 43-33-6 for 92 points, finished third in the Pacific and reached the second round before losing to Vegas in six.
And this wasn’t a veteran team squeezing out one last run. It was a young team scoring goals.
Cutter Gauthier, 22: 41 goals, 69 points.
Leo Carlsson, 21: 29 goals, 67 points.
Beckett Sennecke, 20: 23 goals, 60 points and a spot on the NHL All-Rookie Team.
The Ducks are paying like they believe it. Carlsson signed a five-year, $90 million offer sheet with Philadelphia, and Anaheim matched it: $18 million a year. Gauthier followed with a six-year deal reportedly worth $81 million, or $13.5 million per season. Jackson LaCombe is locked up for eight years at $9 million per, and Pavel Mintyukov got a five-year extension.
They didn’t just run it back, either. Mason McTavish went to St. Louis for two first-round picks. Trouba left for San Jose. John Carlson was moved out and eventually landed in Tampa Bay. Olen Zellweger went to Buffalo. And right before camp, Anaheim terminated Chris Kreider’s contract to clear the cap room needed to get the Gauthier deal done.
That’s a team betting even harder on its kids.
Last season’s numbers show both the excitement and the concern. The Ducks scored 3.23 goals per game, 13th in the league, a massive jump. They also allowed 3.51, 29th in the league.
Anaheim wasn’t exactly locking the doors and throwing away the key. They were basically saying, “Fuck it, we’ll score another one.”
It worked well enough to win a playoff round. The next step is learning how to win without needing four goals every Tuesday. With the blue line overhauled, a lot falls on LaCombe, Mintyukov and the younger defensemen, and Lukas Dostal is now carrying the crease with John Gibson gone to Detroit.
The talent is obvious. The question is whether the defense and goaltending can catch up to the forwards. Either way, this is not the Ducks team that used to hand out free points.
Already a believer? Get ahead of the crowd with an Anaheim Ducks hat.
Los Angeles Kings: The Old Guard Is Still Standing… Barely
This is where the California resurgence theory gets complicated. While Anaheim and San Jose are climbing, Los Angeles is staring at the end of an era.
Anze Kopitar retired. Twenty seasons. 1,521 games. 1,316 points. Two Stanley Cups. Ten years as captain. His final season still ended in the playoffs, with a first-round exit.
You don’t replace Anze Kopitar. You replace the things he did. That’s a much harder job.
The Kings went 35-27-20 for 90 points, fourth in the Pacific, before losing to Colorado in round one. The problem was scoring: just 220 goals, 2.68 per game, 29th in the NHL.
So they went shopping. Corey Perry is back. Mats Zuccarello signed after a 54-point season in Minnesota. Erik Haula came in, Scott Laughton stayed after arriving at the deadline, and Peter Laviolette is now behind the bench. Brandt Clarke got five years and $37 million after his breakout 40-point season.
Then there’s Artemi Panarin, acquired from the Rangers at the deadline. He put up 27 points in 26 games as a King and signed a two-year extension. Add Adrian Kempe’s 73 points and Quinton Byfield’s 24 goals, and there’s still plenty of ammunition.
And the C now belongs to Drew Doughty, the last piece of the championship-era defense, leading the franchise into life after Kopitar.
The Kings aren’t waiting for a rebuild to arrive. They’re trying to extend the window. They aren’t suddenly bad. They just aren’t the terrifying old Kings anymore.
Still riding with LA? This Los Angeles Kings hat works for the Kopitar era and the Doughty era.
So… Is the California Cake Walk Actually Ending?
Maybe the old California road trip isn’t coming back.
Maybe something better is.
Back when Thornton and Marleau were terrorizing teams in San Jose, Getzlaf and Perry were bullying people in Anaheim, and Kopitar and Doughty were turning LA into a playoff war zone, California wasn’t dangerous because of one superstar. It was dangerous because all three buildings could ruin your week.
That’s what’s worth watching in 2026-27.
San Jose has a potential franchise-defining superstar and finally has real talent around him. Anaheim has already climbed out of the basement and is betting big money that Gauthier and Carlsson are the next faces of the franchise. Los Angeles is trying to keep the old powerhouse alive while handing the keys to Doughty and a new generation.
For years, NHL teams could fly into California, grab some sunshine, collect a couple of wins and head home.
The beaches are still there. The palm trees are still there. The overpriced arena beer is definitely still there.
Or skip the $17 arena beer altogether and pour your own at home in a Sharks beer mug, a Ducks beer mug or a Kings tumbler, depending on which California team you’re betting on.
But if San Jose’s kids keep developing, Anaheim’s young forwards keep scoring and Los Angeles survives the post-Kopitar transition, the next team looking at three games in California might want to check the schedule twice.
And if Macklin Celebrini is really just getting started?
The NHL may want to start putting California back on the warning label.
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