Jim Hiller Named Kings HC; Led LA to 2024 NHL Playoffs as Interim HC

The Los Angeles Kings have hired Jim Hiller as head coach, the team announced Wednesday.

Hiller was promoted to the team's interim head coach on Feb. 2 following the firing of former head coach Todd McLellan. He had worked for the team as an assistant coach since 2022.

Hiller led the Kings to a 21-12-1 record and a playoff berth, where the team lost in five games to the Edmonton Oilers.

The Athletic's Eric Stephens and Pierre LeBrun reported that Hiller has signed a multiyear extension.

Kings general manager Rob Blake will meanwhile return to the Kings for the 2024-25 season.

As a player, Hiller skated in 40 games for the Kings during the 1992-93 season. He has previously served as a head coach in the BCHL and WHL.

He was drafted by the Kings in the 10th round of the 1989 draft, and last season became one of 18 NHL coaches to make their debut behind the bench with the same team that drafted them as a player, according to the team.

The Kings started out the season with a 20-7-4 record through Dec. 28, one of the best starts in franchise history, but fell into a rut in the New Year.

Los Angeles won just three of their next 17 games, a 3-8-6 rut that saw them slip into a Wild Card spot and led to McLellan's firing midway through his fifth season with the team.

After Hiller took over, the Kings leaned on power-play dominance to earn 43 of 68 possible points, ranking 10th among all NHL teams in points percentage and securing them a third consecutive playoff berth.

In the postseason, however, the results were the same. As in their last two playoff runs under McClellan, the Kings once again lost in the first round to the Oilers.

That pattern may need to change next season if Blake, who is heading into the final season of the three-year extension he signed in 2022, is going to keep his job past 2025.

That could potentially lead to changes in how Blake directs Hiller to coach the team. Hiller continued setting up neutral zone traps with the Kings' infamous 1-3-1 system this spring, but Blake said in May that the team would consider implementing a new style of play in 2024-25, Dan Greenspan reported for NHL.com.

Hiller will hold his first press conference as the Kings' permanent head coach on Thursday at 10 a.m. PT, per Kings reporter Russell Morgan.