MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Toward the end of last season, Kings coach Marc Crawford publicly said that Dustin Brown had the potential to become a 30-goal scorer. Known primarily as a tough hitter, Brown must have taken Crawford's challenge to heart. Brown almost doubled last year's goal total, scoring 33 compared to last year's 17. Brown proved himself as a bona-fide first-line winger.

MOST DISAPPOINTING PLAYER
After a somewhat contentious arbitration process in which the Kings "won" the hearing and had to pay Michael Cammalleri $6.7 million over two seasons, Cammalleri took a step backward. Nagging injuries played a part in Cammalleri's decline as he went from 80 points to 47 points.

FREE AGENT FOCUS
The Kings will have several holes this summer. The expected departure of forwards Ladislav Nagy, Scott Thornton and Brian Willsie will force the Kings to find some secondary scoring, and the Kings must decide whether to re-sign defenseman Rob Blake to a short-term deal or find at least one veteran defenseman on the free agent market this summer. Perhaps most important, emerging winger Patrick O'Sullivan will be a restricted free agent and might need to be locked up with a long-term contract.

PLAYER NOTES

--C Anze Kopitar hasn't been a part of Slovenia's offense in the World Hockey Championships; he's been "the offense." In its three pool-play games -- losses to the United States, Canada and Latvia -- Slovenia scored two goals, both by Kopitar. Slovenia dropped into the "relegation" bracket and is now at risk of dropping into a lower division for next year's tournament. Kopitar is coming off a big season with the Kings, his second in the NHL, during which he improved his point total from 61 to 77.

--RW Dustin Brown is picking up where he left off at the end of the NHL season. In a breakout season, Brown scored 33 goals for the Kings, more than he had in his previous two seasons combined. Selected to represent the United States in this month's World Championships, Brown has not slowed down. In three pool-play games in the World Championships, Brown had two goals and three assists and helped the Americans advance to the "qualification round," one step away from the medal round.

--It's shaping up to be a big summer for LW Patrick O'Sullivan. A restricted free agent on July 1, O'Sullivan is coming off a breakthrough season and could land his first major NHL contract. He's also representing the United States at this month's World Championships for the first time and is off to a great start. In three pool-play games, against Slovenia, Latvia and Canada, O'Sullivan had two goals and two assists.

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