McLellan, 56, was within the remaining season of a five-year contract incomes him roughly $5M per season, according to CapFriendly. He’d signed a one-year extension previous to this season, which the Kings will nonetheless owe him.
The veteran NHL head coach oversaw the Kings’ return to relevancy after their late-2010s retool, posting a 164-130-44 document in 338 appearances and guiding them to playoff berths in back-to-back seasons for the primary time since a five-year run between 2010 and 2014. A workforce with Stanley Cup aspirations this 12 months has now fallen out of the divisional playoff image, although, going 3-8-6 of their final 17 video games and narrowly occupying a wild-card spot.
Most pointed to the Kings’ lack of steady goaltending getting into the season as a motive why their document may crumble. Curiously sufficient, that hasn’t been the case. Whereas he’s going via a latest rut, veteran Cam Talbot has given Los Angeles above-average play with a .911 SV% and a pair of.5 targets saved above anticipated (per MoneyPuck) in 32 appearances. Since a mid-season recall from AHL Ontario, backup David Rittich has been wonderful, with a .925 SV% and a 5-1-3 document in 11 video games.
They’ve additionally dominated possession. Their anticipated targets share and Corsi share at 5-on-5 play each rank third within the league, however regardless of that, their offense has struggled to provide with subpar capturing expertise. Their 152 targets scored rank sixteenth within the league on the All-Star break – precisely in the midst of the pack.
That might nonetheless assign blame to a roster building situation and never a training one, given the workforce’s programs underneath McLellan, have been conducive to dominating play. The workforce’s greatest offseason swing, a commerce and subsequent eight-year, $68M extension for Pierre-Luc Dubois, has crashed and burned. The 25-year-old has 10 targets and 20 factors in 48 video games, far beneath expectations. He’s averaging underneath 16 minutes per recreation and has a team-worst -16 ranking.
Nonetheless, Los Angeles will flip to a special voice to make sure they keep their playoff spot and don’t slide additional down the Western Convention standings. Hiller has been on the Kings’ employees because the starting of final season after being let go as an assistant by the Islanders within the 2022 offseason. Previous to a three-year tenure on Lengthy Island, Hiller served as an assistant in Toronto from 2015 to 2019 and spent the 2014-15 season as an assistant on the Pink Wings’ bench. Earlier than ascending to the NHL teaching ranks, he spent almost a decade as a head coach within the WHL with the Chilliwack Bruins and Tri-Metropolis Individuals.
Hiller’s NHL profession was short-lived, however 40 of his 63 video games got here sporting a Kings jersey within the 1992-93 season when the Wayne Gretzky-led workforce superior to the Stanley Cup Last. Hiller was concerned in a serious mid-season commerce with the Pink Wings that 12 months, heading to Detroit together with future Corridor-of-Famer Paul Coffey in a deal for winger Jimmy Carson.