The Los Angeles Kings are expected to hire Peter Laviolette as their next head coach, a league source confirmed to The Athletic, as the franchise looks to improve upon a disappointing 2025-26 season and break a cycle of first-round playoff exits.
The Kings are giving the 61-year-old Laviolette a three-year contract, according to the source. Laviolette didn’t coach last season after being fired by the New York Rangers in April 2025 following two seasons with the Blueshirts.
The Rangers won 55 games under Laviolette and captured the Presidents’ Trophy in 2023-24, with Artemi Panarin, now with the Kings, scoring a career-best 120 points.
This will be the seventh NHL team Laviolette has coached. He is seventh on the all-time wins list with 846 and has led three clubs — the Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators — to the Stanley Cup Final. He won the Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006.
Laviolette has also coached five division champions, the most recent in 2023-24 with the Rangers. He’ll take over a Kings team that has lost in the first round of the playoffs in five consecutive seasons, including 2025-26. The Kings dropped from 105 points to 90 and relied on an NHL-record 33 overtime games to squeeze into the postseason, where they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche.
Anaheim Ducks assistant coach Jay Woodcroft was a finalist for the position, according to a team source. The Kings were also interested in talking to Bruce Cassidy but ultimately pushed forward with Laviolette after being denied permission by the Vegas Golden Knights to discuss the job with their former coach, whom they still have under contract.
D.J. Smith was among those also interviewed by general manager Ken Holland. Smith took over the Kings on March 1 on an interim basis after Jim Hiller was fired, with Holland citing consecutive demoralizing losses to the Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers during a homestand after the Olympic break as a factor in his decision. Tasked with injecting life into a Kings club that appeared flat with a 24-21-14 record, Smith compiled an 11-6-6 record the rest of the way.
Laviolette’s hiring speaks to the Kings’ need to incorporate a more offensive mindset into their organizational philosophy that has long emphasized tight checking and defensive play. While three of their playoff clubs finished near the middle of the pack in scoring, the Kings plummeted to 29th in goals last season, with 220.
