Kings coach Jim Hiller proved he's more than just a career assistant — but there's one big step to go

New York Times

20-04-2025

Sitting in a hotel lobby, a short stroll from the Chicago lakefront, Jim Hiller was very much at ease on a rainy March afternoon as his Los Angeles Kings were digging into the stretch run of a defining season.
The Kings' head coach is a conversationalist at heart, whether in a postgame news conference or in a casual chat that allows him to be more expressive. Winning tends to breed more relaxed exchanges, and the Kings have won, at least enough to defy those who predicted a bleak future after three consecutive first-round playoff exits.
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The Edmonton Oilers ousted the Kings all three times, and the five-game dusting last spring left a particularly bitter taste. And the Kings and Oilers are meeting again, with Game 1 on Monday at Crypto.com Arena. The Kings are under immense pressure to break through, to conquer their nemesis. That pressure permeates the organization, and Hiller is among those who will feel it the most.
CONFIRMED ✅
Round One Schedule is here 📲 https://t.co/GBuBWqCo9w #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/Jsh2OQgqSH
— x – LA Kings (@LAKings) April 17, 2025
But the Kings have responded to Hiller in his first full season after they removed his interim tag last May. They closed the regular season with a 17-5-0 run to earn second place in the Pacific Division. They tied franchise records with 48 victories and 105 points.
But it won't matter if they don't take down the Oilers. For the 55-year-old Hiller, the series will be the true judgment of him and their year 'with some people, I'm sure' as he acknowledges.
'But for myself, how am I going to judge myself?' Hiller continued in a lengthy interview with The Athletic. 'That will probably be different than how others judge me of success or not. Hockey's a tough game. It's tough to win. Sometimes you're defined on success. Sometimes you're defined on how hard your team competes and how close you are. Those are different scales for different people. I cannot control how anybody's going to judge me outside of how I judge myself.'
Once Game 5 ended at Rogers Place last May, Hiller talked of the bond he forged with the Kings after replacing Todd McLellan at midseason.
'It's a great group of players with a lot of character,' he said then. 'They made it easy for me in what was maybe difficult circumstances for them because of the way we had performed for about six weeks. I owe a lot to them.'
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His status was up in the air, though. He managed to turn their ship away from the rocks, but he couldn't prevent another postseason letdown, and other candidates with proven NHL head coaching credentials were available. Perhaps they could woo Craig Berube, Sheldon Keefe or Dean Evason. Give Gerard Gallant another shot. Consider promoting Marco Sturm from their own Ontario Reign in the American Hockey League.
Longtime Kings general manager Rob Blake said he needed at least two weeks to assess Hiller. Three weeks passed. Hiller had long pined for this opportunity — 'I'll be honest with you, I was wondering if I would ever get a chance, based on how long it seemed to be taking,' he said — but knew there was no sense of permanence.
Some coaches become viewed as quality, even excellent, NHL assistants but aren't seen as big-chair-caliber. Hiller, who had worked on the staffs of Mike Babcock, Barry Trotz and McLellan, often wondered if he'd have to take another path to become a head coach.
'That was a concern for sure,' Hiller said. 'And I thought about, you know — I coached in junior for a lot of years as a head coach — do I have to go to the American League? These are thoughts that I had over the last probably three or four years of being an assistant coach.'
As Blake and Hiller discussed the direction of the Kings, Hiller's biggest endorsement might have come from his players. Particularly their leaders. The relationship had been built from when McLellan brought in Hiller for the 2022-23 season to run the power play.
Anže Kopitar wasn't sure what Blake would decide after Hiller's sample size but said, 'When he came in, he did a good job.' Drew Doughty didn't feel he had any say over the choice. 'But I wanted Jimmy to be our head coach,' Doughty said. 'And I knew that right from the first time he took over. I was asking for it.'
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Hiller said Lou Lamoriello, the famed executive whom he worked under before coming to the Kings, provided good counsel. Lamoriello told him to stay in the NHL sphere. Hiller said the most effective part of convincing his GM that he was the right man for the job was the 34 games he got to coach, in which the Kings went 21-12-1.
'They saw me working in an assistant coach role,' Hiller said. 'They got to see me work in a different role, which requires different skills. I hoped that, that was a big part of the convincing. And I feel good about that, because sometimes you go in an interview and everybody says, 'This is what I'm going to do, and I do this and I'm really good at this, and you'll see this.' And from a management perspective, you just kind of have to take the person's word for it or get a feel for my case. They got to see how I did it, and if they didn't like it, then I wouldn't have had a chance to have that next step of the process. That must have went OK, and I feel good about that in maybe the two weeks there.
'They could have went in a bunch of different directions. I can say this with full confidence. I felt that I was the best person for the job at the moment. I really did. And I thought, if they don't see that, then they don't see that. I just felt that.'
There's tangible proof that Hiller isn't just a caretaker. Of all the head coaches in Kings history, he became the fastest to 50 victories. They never lost more than three consecutive regulation games this season and had six different win streaks of four games or more — four of them coming over the last six weeks to grab home-ice advantage over the Oilers.
In a league in which the average coach lasts 2.51 years, acumen matters. Set plays and adjustments matter. Player deployment, of which Hiller has been applauded and criticized for, matters. Unlike his predecessor McLellan, Hiller freely moved his forwards around — often within games — and regularly went with an 11-forward, seven-defenseman lineup until Doughty returned at the end of January from a broken ankle. The Kings had few hiccups as Hiller shuffled his cards.
'If everyone in the dressing room knows how to play our system, it shouldn't matter who you're playing with,' defenseman Joel Edmundson said. 'You play the right way and do your job, you can play with anyone.'
If anything, it shows Hiller's willingness to be flexible. That was apparent when a few of the Kings' top players expressed reservations with their previous 1-3-1 system that had become too static and restrictive. While the 1-2-2 they play isn't dramatically different, Hiller encouraged his forwards to be more in motion between the zones and to play with more freedom, provided they remain adhered to the franchise's tenet of strong backchecking and tight defense.
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'What I like about what Jim's tried to do there is, he's tried to make them more than just a counterpunch team,' former NHL forward and ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro said. 'Tried to be more aggressive offensively. They don't score as much as he or the Kings would probably like them to score. They're never going to lose their DNA, which is that they're a hard defensive team to play against. But I think they're a little more offensively inclined than they were in the past.
'I think Jim's view is that two goals isn't going to get it done. They need to score more than that, but they can't forget what they are.'
It helps that Blake, after failing with Pierre-Luc Dubois amid a few questionable moves, connected with additions such as Edmundson, forward Warren Foegele and, most notably, goalie Darcy Kuemper. And deadline acquisition Andrei Kuzmenko has been a perfect fit, injecting more creativity into an offense that had been erratic. But Hiller has deftly managed people, whether it's a youngster such as Brandt Clarke, the rising core piece that is Quinton Byfield or a veteran with an unpredictable spirit such as Kevin Fiala.
For instance, Hiller has sat Fiala for lengthy stretches in a game when he committed a ghastly turnover or took a bad penalty, and scratched the winger for an October contest in San Jose when he was late for a game day meeting. But Hiller never lost him.
'For me, it was a little — I wasn't very easy sometimes,' Fiala said. 'But now when I got to know him and stuff, now we're clicking. … He tells you. There's no bulls—. He tells you straight to your face, whether it's good or bad.'
Clarke's diminishing ice time became a topic after he assumed a larger role to start the season with Doughty sidelined. Hiller said he only paid mind to that when asked and purposefully 'don't get into all the nuts and bolts of it' in media sessions because he didn't see much value in the debate. 'We can't,' he said. 'Because there's going to be too much, and we get off track.'
The Kings needed more from their younger players this season. Byfield has become an impact center critical to their efforts. Alex Laferriere continues to grow as a top-six forward. Clarke and Alex Turcotte have made contributions through the season, while Samuel Helenius has emerged as a trusted fourth-line center. Hiller has overseen the evolution of their development.
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'It's hard to come in and help as a young player,' Hiller said. 'You can help when you're ready and you can't if you're not ready and you get forced into roles, then I don't think it helps the team. It doesn't help the veteran players. And the veteran players can see that the young players are ready to help, help them win and take on bigger roles because they've proven it, then I think that strengthens the whole team.
'We were fortunate in that all those players were capable of taking on bigger roles and not forced into roles for the sake of getting younger. And I think that's really led to a cohesive team and a team that plays for each other for one another.'
When a portrait of Hiller is painted, a defining characteristic emerges.
'He's a very intense guy,' Kopitar said. 'He'll let you know if things are going right or if things are going wrong. That's obviously accountability. He is a straight shooter. Calls it the way he sees it.
'That's good. You want to know where you stand. He lets you know. The good or the bad.'
'You felt like he was part of the group,' Mikey Anderson said. 'Granted, they're the ones throwing a plan together throughout day to day, throughout games and ultimately in the playoffs. But as a player, it felt like he was in the fight with us. You could feel how much he cared about the group. How much he wanted to be engaged and wanted to win.'
Edmundson won the Stanley Cup playing under Berube in St. Louis, and sees a close parallel.
'They're both guys that you want to play for,' he said. 'They bring the best out of every player. Very intense but they also joke around and have a fun side at the same time.'
That passion often stays behind their doors. Kopitar and Doughty appreciate that Hiller will let them know when they're not playing up to their high standards but won't single out their poor play or that of teammates in the media. When asked about the sense that he's 'in the fight' with his players, Hiller said, 'I'm not against them. I'm with them.'
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'Even though there's some decisions that people don't like (and) it feels like coach is against me, I hope they mean that they know that I'm sincere, that I want to win and I will try to push them to win. And I've given them my best. So, I hope that's what that would mean.'
Blake gave Hiller a three-year contract, with a team option for a fourth. But Blake's contract expires after this season and there hasn't been much talk of a renewal. A new GM often wants their own coach, sooner or later. Another loss to Edmonton wouldn't look good on either Blake or Hiller.
But Blake's future is not Hiller's concern. And the best way to control his own situation is getting the Kings to a place they haven't been for more than a decade: the second round.
'We're trying to have a great season,' Hiller said. 'Finish it off. So far, so good. We got to finish it. That's what I can have my biggest influence on. That's really the only focus.'