Fresh on the heels of Jim Hiller officially being named the LA Kings new head coach last week, attention immediately turned to who would be joining him behind the bench. As we reported a few weeks ago, DJ Smith had already signed to return in 2024-25 after first jumping onboard to help out Hiller following the departure of Todd McLellan in February.
Talks are set to be heating up with a decision close to being announced. From what we’re hearing, “experience” is the most important criteria among the short list of candidates. Further, the Kings are looking for somebody who brings good details and structure on the offensive side of the puck.
While the team needs to play with a greater ‘desire to win’ — a.k.a a willingness to go to the dirtier areas of the ice, something GM Rob Blake discussed in detail last week — getting somebody like Matt Greene or Ian Laperriere added to the staff doesn’t seem to be in the offering at this time.
Jarret Stoll, who would seemingly help with the offense and toughness factors, doesn’t have the experience preferred. So, scratch him off the list too.
Marco Sturm eliminated himself from the running early on and is in the running for getting the Sharks head coach job instead.
With all of that in mind, below are the five most likely candidates under consideration:
[listed in alphabetical order]
Newell Brown – In the spirit of fairness, Brown wasn’t a name initially on our short list. Kings Of The Podcast co-host Dennis Bernstein first mentioned his name on twitter early Tuesday. Checking around with those who know Brown, several say he would fit in well the Kings current group; he’s a good man who works hard. Brown previously ran the power play in Vancouver and Anaheim. A former college hockey player, he was drafted by the Canucks in 1992, yet never skated in an NHL game. After retiring, he served as a college and later AHL head coach for a few years before earning his first NHL assistant role in 1996. he was on the staff when Anaheim won a Stanley Cup in 2007. While on the surface he doesn’t have the same obvious connection to the Kings as some of the other candidates on our list, his son Adam was hired last season as the goalie coach for AHL Ontario.
Lane Lambert – We had him on our original list to potentially join Hiller’s group back in February, and he remains a candidate due to his familiarity with LA’s new bench boss, as they spent time together with the Islanders. Lambert brings a wide variety of experience to the table, having been a player for a few NHL teams (including the Red Wings), before getting into coaching and spending time in Nashville and Washington before eventually ending up in New York. Of the five candidates here, we believe he’d be fifth on the list. That’s just a hunch, though, it isn’t backed up by any specific intel.
Brad Larsen – Like Stoll, Larsen is one of the rare guys who was actually drafted by two different NHL teams (Ottawa 1995, Colorado 1997). After roughly 300 games in the league, Larsen retired in 2010 and jumped into coaching at the AHL level. He was first and assistant, then a head coach, and was later hired as an assistant in Columbus for the 2014-15 season. John Tortorella, who also coached the Blue Jackets, is on record singing the praises of Larsen. Keep in mind, Larsen was also in Columbus when PL Dubois was there and had some success. The one missing component here is experience. He only has seven years as an NHL assistant. That can be offset somewhat by being a head coach the past two years, as there’s a big difference once you’re in the main seat. He was also teammates with Blake in Colorado, which would have given LA’s GM plenty of time to get to know more about his hockey mind.
Brad Lauer – Like Larsen above, he has experience with Dubois. Lauer was in Winnipeg the past two seasons as an assistant coach. Overall, his time behind the bench has several similarities to Hiller, in that they both have a mix of experience as WHL head coaches combined with the No. 2 guy for quite some time in the NHL. Lauer was an assistant with Ottawa, Anaheim, and Tampa Bay before returning to the junior ranks in 2018. Four years later, he guided the Edmonton Oil Kings to the WHL Championship, and that spurred his hiring in Winnipeg for a return to the NHL in 2022.
Davis Payne – If that name sounds familiar, it should be. He served under Daryl Sutter as the Kings assistant coach starting in July 2012. At one time, he was thought to be the eventual successor to Sutter in LA. Since leaving SoCal, Payne has served as an assistant in Buffalo and Ottawa. Given his time with the Senators while Smith was the head coach there, his ramp up time would be minimal should he join the Kings. However, what he would bring more than anything is a solid understanding of what it takes to win. He would be seen as somebody bringing some of those strong culture pieces back to LA. Obviously, his familiarity with a few of the players and management would also ease the transition. Having intimate details of the Kings ‘defensive first’ approach to hockey should also give him a leg up on all other candidates listed above. During his time with the Sabres, he worked under Phil Housley, one of the league’s all-time great goal scorers. He surely picked up some additional offensive knowledge during that time period. And how’s this for a connection — Payne played for Brown when he was coaching at Michigan Tech. For more on Payne see here.
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