Hiller gets multiyear Extension

I like Hiller, so I don't mind the deal. My guess is that if the team flounders next year and Blake is replaced, Hiller will have a short tenure here.
 
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ByLA Kings
@LAKings LAKings.com
10:55 AM

The LA Kings have named Jim Hiller as the club’s 30th head coach in franchise history, it was announced today by Vice President and General Manager Rob Blake.
Hiller, 55, was originally elevated to Kings interim head coach on Feb. 2, 2024, after serving as an assistant coach over the past two seasons. Hiller made his head coaching debut on Feb. 10 against the Edmonton Oilers to become the 18th different head coach in league history to make their coaching debut with the team that originally drafted them, and the first to do so since Phil Housley(6th overall, 1982 by Buffalo).

In 34 games regular-season games, Hiller led the Kings to a 21-12-1 record for 43 points and a .632 points percentage, the 10th-best points percentage in the league during that time, en route to the club’s third consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Under Hiller’s guidance, the Kings were statistically the best home team from the All-Star Break through the end of the regular-season, accumulating a league-leading 14 wins (14-3-1), 29 points and .806 points percentage in 18 games at Crypto.com Arena. The club finished the regular-season winning nine of their last 10 home contests, which included eight consecutive victories on home ice from March 11 through April 13 to mark the team’s longest home winning streak since their eight-game run (8-0-0; Oct. 12 – Nov. 13) in the 2010-11 campaign.

Hiller joined the Kings as an assistant coach on July 19, 2022, after spending the previous eight seasons in the same capacity with the New York Islanders (2019-22), Toronto Maple Leafs (2015-19) and Detroit Red Wings (2014-15). Since Hiller joined the coaching staff, the Kings have scored 124 power-play goals, tied for the fifth-most in the league during that span, while the team’s power-play percentage has averaged 24.0% to place seventh among all teams. Under Hiller’s watch in his first season with the organization, the Kings tallied 68 power-play goals, the fourth-most in the league, while their power-play percentage finished the year at 25.3%, tied for the second-best in team history behind the 1979-80 team (26.8%).

Prior to his NHL coaching debut with Detroit, Hiller spent 12 seasons coaching junior hockey in Canada between the Western Hockey League (WHL) and British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). Hiller began coaching in 2002 with the Tri-City Americans (WHL), where he spent two seasons before taking the helm behind the bench of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (BCHL) during the 2005-06 campaign. Hiller returned to the WHL the following year as head coach of the then-expansion Chilliwack Bruins, leading the Bruins to the playoffs in their first season.

Following three seasons with Chilliwack (2006-09), Hiller returned to Tri-City from 2009-14. During the first season of his second stint with Tri-City, Hiller led the Americans to a division title, conference title and WHL Championship Series appearance. In total, he coached Tri-City to two division titles (2009-10, 2011-12) and five consecutive playoff berths over his five seasons. He was awarded the CHL’s Brian Kilrea Award and WHL’s Dunc McCallum Award for Coach of the Year for 2011-12, leading Tri-City to a 50-18-2-2 record with 104 points.

A native of Port Alberni, British Columbia, Hiller served as an assistant coach for Team Canada at the 2010 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament in Slovakia, helping guide his home country to its third consecutive championship. Hiller was originally selected by the Kings in the 10th round (207th overall) of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. In total, Hiller appeared in 40 games for the Kings, recording six goals and 12 points. Hiller suited up for 63 career NHL games, registering eight goals, 12 assists and 20 points.
 
Bright idea Blake strikes again.

This team is crying out for an up and coming, think out of the box type leader, not a 1-3-1 establishment dinosaur.

I hate to say it, but if the Ducks can make a couple solid FA signings this year I can see them surpassing us. We are in cap hell with no #1 goaltender, losing Arvidsson and Roy, and the only players you can see taking a step up would be QB, and maybe Clarke and Spence, maybe.

Lots of potential players to regress at the same time unfortunately, think it's going to be a long season.
 
Pickle_Pucks said:
Bright idea Blake strikes again.

This team is crying out for an up and coming, think out of the box type leader, not a 1-3-1 establishment dinosaur.

I hate to say it, but if the Ducks can make a couple solid FA signings this year I can see them surpassing us. We are in cap hell with no #1 goaltender, losing Arvidsson and Roy, and the only players you can see taking a step up would be QB, and maybe Clarke and Spence, maybe.

Lots of potential players to regress at the same time unfortunately, think it's going to be a long season.
Click to expand...
I have said it many times. This team will continue to flounder or stay where they are until Flake and Luc are shown the door. I like Hiller also, but he is not going to lead us to the promised land.
 
At this stage of the Kings I'm not mad as Hillar as the coach. He at least has the ability to pull the goalie change lines and call timeout far better than our last idiot coach.

I feel Hiller actually listens to different ideas and is not as stubborn and is willing to try new things, I imagine he'll Tinker with the 1-3-1 and find better ways for our attack to work.

At this point, the problem is with our players they're small soft and not Warriors. Obviously our goal tending is not the best, but I'm happy enough with Rittich.

We have a team composition crisis. We desperately need an upgraded defensive core that can move the puck fast and we need offensive players that are willing to get off the half wall and drive the net and create chaos. I'm hoping with the infusion of Thomas and Clarke we can at least begin to go in the right direction
 
To be honest, I can't get behind this signing. Hiller did ok, but at the end we only won 1 playoff game under him. In my opinion, with the plethora of high qualify veteran coaches available, this signing tells me two things 1) the Kings went the cheap route 2) Blake and Luc will likely be gone this time next year.

At best we should have given him a 1 year "prove it" deal instead of multiple years.
 
Hoven shared this recent quote from Brind'Amour that might have played into why Rob/Ownership made this decision:

Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour, widely considered one of the most respected head coaches in hockey, was on NHL Network Radio on Tuesday morning. After serving as a longtime assistant before being hired as the Hurricanes bench boss, he was asked for his thoughts on why more teams don’t hire an assistant vs. going after ‘bigger names’ let go by other teams. It wasn’t a question specifically about the Kings situation, yet it was a rather timely answer.

“That’s a great question,” Brind’Amour began. “I know why it doesn’t, because it’s not sexy. GMs, their jobs are on the line, so it’s easy to just fall back on a [veteran] guy who has been doing it. Then you don’t have to answer questions too. But it actually makes more sense, in my opinion, if you have the right guy that’s sitting there because he knows everybody. In my case, I was here for seven years as an assistant coach; so I knew all the players and I knew what they were good at, what they weren’t good at. I knew everything. I had a great relationship with them all, so it was a very easy transition. I think that’s what made it work… I think that it just takes a lot of guts for an organization to hire the assistant because it’s just not that sexy move. It worked here because I think we had good pieces in place and I had a great relationship with all the guys. I felt like that got me started off on the right foot.”
 
LAKingSteve said:
Hoven shared this recent quote from Brind'Amour that might have played into why Rob/Ownership made this decision:

Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour, widely considered one of the most respected head coaches in hockey, was on NHL Network Radio on Tuesday morning. After serving as a longtime assistant before being hired as the Hurricanes bench boss, he was asked for his thoughts on why more teams don’t hire an assistant vs. going after ‘bigger names’ let go by other teams. It wasn’t a question specifically about the Kings situation, yet it was a rather timely answer.

“That’s a great question,” Brind’Amour began. “I know why it doesn’t, because it’s not sexy. GMs, their jobs are on the line, so it’s easy to just fall back on a [veteran] guy who has been doing it. Then you don’t have to answer questions too. But it actually makes more sense, in my opinion, if you have the right guy that’s sitting there because he knows everybody. In my case, I was here for seven years as an assistant coach; so I knew all the players and I knew what they were good at, what they weren’t good at. I knew everything. I had a great relationship with them all, so it was a very easy transition. I think that’s what made it work… I think that it just takes a lot of guts for an organization to hire the assistant because it’s just not that sexy move. It worked here because I think we had good pieces in place and I had a great relationship with all the guys. I felt like that got me started off on the right foot.”
Click to expand...
Very insight answer from Rod.

I have no idea if Hiller is capable of leading this group to a Cup but he certainly adds some stability to a rocky situation. From questions about management to firing the last head coach, making a 3 year commitment to an internal promotion gives the appearance that the answers are already in-house.

Really curious if Hiller just gets one hire in DJ Smith or if Blake lets him pick both his assistants.
 
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