The Kings put a merciful and overdue end to the Jim Hiller era, relieving the 30th coach in franchise history of his duties on Sunday and promoting assistant D.J. Smith to interim head coach.
Additionally, former Kings defenseman Matt Greene, who had been working in player development, will move behind the bench as an assistant coach. He will assuredly take Smith’s role working with the Kings’ blue-liners.
Hiller had his detractors for much of the season, but survived every lull and disappointment until the Kings were eviscerated by the Edmonton Oilers, 8-1, on Thursday. That came on the heels of a catastrophic third period against a preseason roster version of the Vegas Golden Knights two days earlier.
“I want to thank Jim Hiller for his dedication, professionalism, and the commitment he showed to our players and our team every day. He is a respected coach and person, and we appreciate the work he’s done behind our bench,” read a statement from General Manager Ken Holland, who replaced Rob Blake after he declined to return to the club after last season. “At this point in the season, we believe a change in leadership is necessary to give our group the best opportunity to reach its potential and compete at the level we expect. These decisions are never made lightly, but our responsibility is to position this team for success now and moving forward.”
Hiller coached the Kings for one full campaign and parts of two others after he replaced Todd McLellan in February of 2024. McLellan guided the group through 338 games, more than Hiller, Willie Desjardins and John Stevens coached combined for the Kings.
The Kings threw themselves behind Hiller at multiple turns despite the presence of red flags and availability of emergency exits.
First, they promoted him to interim coach instead of Marco Sturm or Trent Yawney, both of whom had higher level head-coaching experience than Hiller. Yawney rejoined McLellan in Detroit, where the duo has resuscitated the Red Wings, while Sturm was hired by the Boston Bruins, who have bounced back brilliantly from a disappointing year under his predecessors Jim Montgomery and Joe Sacco.
Then, despite a pathetic showing in the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers that saw them snuffed out in five games during a series that multiple players later admitted they had little chance to win, the Kings removed the interim tag from Hiller.
Ostensibly, Hiller rewarded their confidence, producing a franchise-record number of home wins and a 105-point campaign that equaled the highest total in team lore (albeit only the sixth highest in the NHL last season alone). But then the playoffs commenced, wherein Hiller committed coaching malpractice.
Though he not-so-subtly scapegoated players, Quinton Byfield the foremost among them, Hiller’s own foolhardy challenge was the initial turning point toward a collapse that saw the Kings downgrade a 2-0 series lead into a 4-2 series loss.
The Kings’ painfully defensive posture against a tenacious Edmonton team –– they’re quite familiar as the Oilers have knocked them out of four straight first rounds –– was sugarcoated in absolution for Hiller, presented unconvincingly as “human nature.”
The Kings could have explored a coaching market that saw Joel Quenneville come to Anaheim and Mike Sullivan go to New York –– they have half a dozen Stanley Cups between them –– while reputed coaches like Peter DeBoer, Peter Lavoliette, Bruce Boudreau and Gerard Gallant remained unemployed.
Not only did Hiller give them cause to make a change, but Blake opted not to return to the club, accepting responsibility for the fact that during his eight-year tenure the Kings never won a playoff series. Even before Holland was formally introduced, Robitaille said that he expected him to retain Hiller as head coach, which Holland did.
The offseason saw the Kings improve depth –– Joel Armia and Corey Perry have been valuable peripheral contributors while Anton Forsberg has proven a more capable backup goalie than David Rittich –– but weaken their core.
Vladislav Gavrikov, who was voted the team’s best defenseman last year but deemphasized in the playoffs, went from a slam-dunk re-signing to an unanticipated departure, similar to Matt Roy a year earlier. They have both ranked among the top rearguards in the NHL in five-on-five defensive contribution this season.
Furthermore, Hiller’s sudden and unexplained distrust of Jordan Spence manifested in the front office over the summer. Spence played 150 regular-season games with excellent two-way metrics as a third pairing defenseman, despite playing with partners that had significant limitations. Yet he was scratched for one game and played less than three minutes in another last postseason, seeing his role become marginal at best.
Informed that he would be demoted to a depth role, Spence asked for a trade and was dealt to the Ottawa Senators for two mid-round draft picks. Under Hiller’s stewardship, once enthusiastic alternate captain Phillip Danault was emptied of joy and also asked for a trade, which Holland made in December.
Defenders Brian Dumoulin and Cody Ceci were signed from a thin free-agent crop. That was after an aborted attempt to acquire Calgary’s Rasmus Andersson, who declined to sign an extension with the Kings and later landed with rival Vegas alongside forward Mitch Marner, whom the Kings also pursued.
The result was the Kings having one of the slowest, oldest and least skilled defense corps in the NHL, diluting what had been the core strength of their roster in recent years and the fulcrum of their check-for-chances system.
Though their point total placed them near the thick of a tepid Pacific Division, the Kings had fewer wins than only five of the NHL’s 32 teams. Their 2-0 grind over Calgary in Hiller’s final game as head coach broke a tie for second-to-last in regulation wins.
While Hiller joined the Kings as an assistant in charge of the power play, he and man-advantage specialist Newell Brown had a team that struggled consistently on the power play and offensively overall, especially at home, where they made a 180-degree from their dominance last season.
Smith assumes control in what will be his second stint as a head coach in the NHL. He guided the Ottawa Senators for parts of five seasons, compiling a .464 points percentage and missing the playoffs in each of those campaigns.
Greene has worked with the Kings’ prospects primarily. As a player, he was part of both Stanley Cup champion teams in 2012 and 2014, establishing himself as one of the toughest players on the team and one of its emotional leaders.
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