Los Angeles brings its own new piece into camp. Artemi Panarin is at his first full Kings training camp since arriving in a February trade from New York, and coaches will be using these four preseason games to figure out where he fits alongside a mostly returning core — 24 players from last year's roster are in Ontario, led by Drew Doughty entering his 19th NHL season.
None of it gets settled on Saturday. The NHL trimmed its preseason from seven games to four this year as part of the new labor deal, which means each exhibition carries a bit more weight for the players actually fighting for a job, even if the two head coaches will treat this like the low-stakes look it is.
For Vegas, that means using the Empire Classic to see how quickly Craig's system takes with a lineup that's still 66 bodies deep and far from cut down. Where the Golden Knights get their secondary scoring without Dorofeyev is a real question, and Saturday is the first data point, however small, on Olofsson and the rest of the forward group tasked with answering it.
For the Kings, the more interesting thread is chemistry — Panarin has had exactly one full training camp with this roster's holdovers, and every shift Saturday is a chance for the staff to see how he reads the game next to players he's known for a season, not a career. Doughty's presence gives the back end a steady veteran anchor while the rest of the group, prospects and depth signings included, jockeys for the final roster spots.
Both franchises sit in the Pacific Division, so this is also the first of what will be several looks at each other before the games start counting in October. Nobody's circling this one on the calendar, but for the guys on the roster bubble in Ontario, it's the whole season in miniature.