Jim Hiller was named coach of the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.
The 55-year-old went 21-12-1 as interim coach after taking over for Todd McLellan, who was fired Feb. 2.
The Kings (44-27-1) finished third in the Pacific Division. They were eliminated from the Western Conference First Round by the Edmonton Oilers for the third consecutive season and have not won a Stanley Cup Playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons in 2014.
“I’ll take you back to [when McLellan was fired], the mandate with Jimmy when he took over was to get us in the playoffs,” Kings general manager Rob Blake said May 6. “There was going to be some change, but it wasn’t dramatic or drastic enough. There’s some things he wants to implement in this team.”
The Kings are Hiller’s first head coaching job in the NHL. At the time of the coaching change, they were 3-8-6 in 17 games after beginning the season 20-7-4.
“It’s a great group of players with a lot of character,” Hiller said after a 4-3 loss to the Oilers in Game 5 at Rogers Place on May 1. “They made it easy for me in what was maybe difficult circumstances for them because of the way we had performed for about six weeks, so I owe a lot to them. They got themselves back together, had a good (All-Star) break and got playing again. They’re good players, really good guys, really good people, so I enjoyed it.”
Blake will return as GM for the 2024-25 season, the last season of a three-year contract extension he signed in May, 2022. The Kings have reached the playoffs in four of his seven seasons but have not won a series.
“The season as a whole, we still believe this group had made progress in a lot of different areas,” Blake said. “We have to find a way to get that to translate in the playoffs.”
Hiller joined the Kings as an assistant coach July 19, 2022, and held the same role with the New York Islanders (2019-22), Toronto Maple Leafs (2015-19) and Detroit Red Wings (2014-15). He coached Alberni in the British Columbia Hockey League and Tri-City of the Western Hockey League, where was named WHL and Canadian Hockey League coach of the year for the 2011-12 season.
As a player, he was chosen by Los Angeles in the 10th round (No. 207) of the 1989 NHL Draft. He played 63 regular-season games as a forward with the Kings, Red Wings and New York Rangers from 1992-94.
Four teams are without a coach: the New Jersey Devils, San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken and Winnipeg Jets. The Buffalo Sabres hired Lindy Ruff on April 22, Travis Green joined the Ottawa Senators on May 7 and the Toronto Maple Leafs named Craig Berube to the position May 17.
NHL.com independent correspondent Dan Greenspan contributed to this report
