Willie Mitchell had surgery on his knee during the lockout, has been slow to heal, and it is up in the air as to when he might return to the line-up. Currently the Kings defensive line-up looks like this:

Scuderi-Doughty

Martinez-Voynov

Drewiske-Greene

Muzzin-Bodnarchuk

Do the Kings need to add a top four defenseman? Or a better question might be, is Alec Martinez ready to step in and be a part of the top four?

Traditionally, Dean Lombardi has set up the roster so that each defensive pairing has one physical defenseman and one puck mover. The Voynov-Martinez pairing features two players with the reputation of being offensive minded backenders who sometimes have some lapses in their defensive responsibilities.