Kings' Robitaille expects coach Hiller to remain in charge after GM Blake's replacement hired
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Kings president Luc Robitaille expects coach Jim Hiller to remain in charge after the team selects its new general manager.
Robitaille expressed strong support for Hiller on Tuesday, one day after GM Rob Blake and the Kings mutually agreed to end Blake's eight-year tenure.
“Your general manager, you want to give him the freedom, you don’t want to lock up a new person that’s coming in, but the record of what Jimmy has done this year is really, really good,” Robitaille said at the Kings’ training complex. “It would be really hard for any GM to say, ‘Well, this guy shouldn’t come back.’ He’s been really good. I think Jimmy’s a great coach, and I fully think that this guy is coming back, for sure.”
Hiller has been in charge of the Kings' bench since February 2024, when the former assistant took over for the fired Todd McLellan. The Kings are 69-37-10 in Hiller's first job as an NHL head coach, and they matched franchise records with 48 victories and 105 points this season before losing to Edmonton in the first round for the fourth consecutive postseason.
Robitaille emphasized that the new GM would have the final say on the coaching staff, but the longtime team president reiterated his overall happiness with the state of the Kings' roster, their coaching staff and even their style of play despite their repeated playoff disappointments.
Robitaille made it clear that Blake supported the decision to seek new team leadership. Robitaille plans to hire a general manager who can provide a fresh perspective on how to change a talent-filled roster that can't get it done in the postseason.
“Blakey and I have been talking about it for probably a year,” Robitaille said. “He always said he wanted to wait to sign (a contract extension). I'm not going to get into detail about our conversation, but it's something we talked about ... and we both agreed this was better for the franchise.”
The former Kings teammates agreed that “it was time to probably bring a new voice just to get us to that next level,” Robitaille added.
Los Angeles hasn't won a playoff series since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, and the Oilers have bounced the Kings in four straight springs. Los Angeles has won only eight total games in those four first-round series, and Hiller's club lost its final four in a row last week after winning the first two at home.
Robitaille didn't sound close to hiring Blake's replacement. He plans to examine multiple candidates, including Marc Bergevin, the former Montreal GM who was a senior adviser to Blake for the past 3 1/2 years.
Robitaille isn’t waiting until he hires a new GM to begin preparations for next season. Working with assistant general manager Nelson Emerson, Robitaille has already spoken to pending unrestricted free agents Andrei Kuzmenko and Vladislav Gavrikov, who both played significant roles in Los Angeles’ late-season success.
When asked what he sought in a replacement for a general manager of a team coming off one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, Robitaille emphasized the importance of evaluating the Kings' roster with fresh eyes.
“We had a good year ... but it’s sports, and you want to win the last game of the season,” Robitaille said. “That’s our goal.”
Robitaille doesn't necessarily want to see the Kings abandon their regimented, defense-oriented style of play under McLellan and Hiller, however.
Fans often criticize Los Angeles' style as old-fashioned and not offense-forward, but Robitaille offered a passionate defense of a team that stopped relying so heavily on the neutral-zone trap this season and finished 14th in the NHL in goals scored (249).
“We had three of the best lines in hockey,” Robitaille said. “We scored goals. We had a 40% power play (at the end of the season). We felt like we needed to tweak our power play, and credit to our guys, they figured it out. Some teams have a 60-goal scorer. We don't, but we have a lot of guys that can score goals. We play hard. We forecheck. We don't sit back. ... We want to push.”
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