He’ll Be Central to Committee

Michael Cammalleri is the Kings’ top returning goal scorer from last season, though that is grading a bit on the curve.

The Kings, on paper, don’t have a lot of oomph at forward. Only three players reached the 20-goal plateau last season, topped by Cammalleri’s 26.

Yet first-year Coach Marc Crawford said he can see the potential. “I don’t see anyone that you look at and say, ‘That player is going to be a big goal scorer for us,’ ” Crawford said. “I think it will be a number of guys. We may score goals by committee.”

Cammalleri certainly ranks high on that committee. Last season he had 17 goals in the last 48 games.

“I suspected he was going to be a guy who was strong on the puck and very quick,” Crawford said. “But I have been surprised how strong he is on the puck and how he darts in and out of holes.”

While Cammalleri tries to deflect the conversation away from himself -- “I’d rather talk about the team and how exciting it is with all the changes” -- he does admit that last season was important to him.

Cammalleri felt he made a big step in establishing himself with a two-goal performance in December against Calgary, which began a five-game goal-scoring streak.

“That night in Calgary, Craig Conroy was sick so I got more minutes than I would have,” said Cammalleri, who finished the season with a team-high 15 power-play goals. “That started a pretty good streak and I stopped trying to play how other people wanted me to. I played my game, which is doing anything to help the team win.”

That could include scoring more goals this season, as the Kings are banking on a smorgasbord of forwards to provide offense. Providing a list of possible candidates, Crawford named nine players, including newcomers Patrick O’Sullivan and Anze Kopitar.

“We’re counting on guys to emerge,” Crawford said, adding, “the one thing we have up front is depth. If a couple lines score 70 and a couple lines score 60 we might be able to sustain things better when we have misfortune, slumps, suspensions, injuries.”

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A few precious moments with the volatile Sean Avery, who is limiting his media exposure in an effort to change his controversial actions of last season.

Avery was brilliant on the ice during a team scrimmage Saturday, scoring one goal and assisting on two others. Off the ice, well, it’s a work in progress.

You’re just going to focus on hockey this season?

Avery: “Yes.”

What can you do to move on from last season?

Avery: “I got to play hard.”

How long do you think it will take for people to let you move on from last year?

“You’re just wording it that way to talk about all those things from last year. That’s it,” Avery shouted and stormed off.

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chris.foster@latimes.com