Kings name Newell Brown as assistant coach

The LA Kings have rounded out their coaching staff with the additional of Newell Brown, who joins Jim Hiller’s staff as an assistant coach.

Brown, 62, joins the Kings staff from the Anaheim Ducks, where he spent each of the last three seasons. Brown has 27 seasons of coaching experience at the NHL level and combined with his time in the AHL and the NCAA, Brown has 37 years of coaching experience to bring to the organization.

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Brown is a veteran of the league and a coach who naturally had interest elsewhere before signing with the Kings.

Since 1996, he’s been an NHL assistant coach without a gap in his employment history. He’s worked in Southern California, via three separate stints with the Ducks, including one during the team’s lone Stanley Cup championship in 2007. Anaheim is one of five NHL teams he has worked with in his time as a coach in the league.

Having a more veteran assistant coach, with a first-time head coach, doesn’t feel like a bad move. It also meets the criteria that Hiller suggested when he joined us on All The Kings Men. Hiller and Brown have never worked together in the NHL and that seemed to be Hiller’s preference. He has D.J. Smith on his staff and that pair known each other quite well from their time in Toronto. A big reason why Smith chose this opportunity with the Kings and chose to remain on staff. Adding in Brown gives the Kings a veteran voice and a unique voice, someone who might operate differently than the status quo.

“You need different parts, people have to do different things that in the end complement each other, so that’s exactly what has to happen,” Hiller said. “You can’t all be the same. You have to have different pieces and for me, as the leader of the coaching staff, I have to understand where are my strengths and where are my weaknesses, and I’ve got to fill those gaps in. So, it’s not just “I like this guy and I like this guy”, it’s how do they fit together, make me stronger and then make us as a group stronger.”

This release, while not the primary content, also gives us clarity on the rest of the coaching staff remaining in place. Smith’s title is associate coach, while assistant coach Derik Johnston, goaltending coach Mike Buckley and video coordinator Samson Lee were all mentioned in the release as remaining in place, which keeps everything else the same as the group that ended the season. Buckley drew rave reviews in his first season with the organization from both David Rittich, who recently re-signed, as well as veteran Cam Talbot. Johnston has drawn praise from players for the 1-on-1 work and skill drills he runs with the group while Lee is one of the best in the business in his role, remaining as the lone constant throughout several different coaching staffs the Kings have employed.

As far as roles and responsibilities, Brown’s area of expertise is up front. He’s worked with power-play units in his time in the NHL and that’s an area he’ll likely help with in LA. That’s naturally Hiller’s background as well and he kept those responsibilities after bring named the team’s interim head coach. Last week, however, Hiller noted that he’d need to give up the day-to-day oversight of the team’s power play. That could fall to Brown, who has helped in that area in past stops. Working with a young Anaheim team didn’t yield results, but when Brown was with Vancouver at his last stop, the Canucks clicked at over 20 percent on average throughout his tenure. With Hiller likely to retain an influence in that area, on a unit that’s generally performed well since he joined the organization, it’s an area that makes a lot of sense.

From the team’s official release –

Brown, 62, joins the Kings organization after serving as an assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks for the three seasons (2021-24). Brown has been an assistant coach in the NHL since the 1996-97 campaign, beginning with a two-year stint behind the bench for the Chicago Blackhawks. In total, Brown has 27 seasons of coaching experience at the NHL level, having been an assistant for Chicago (1996-98), Anaheim (1998-00; 2005-10; 2021-24), the Columbus Blue Jackets (2000-04), Vancouver Canucks (2010-13; 2017-21), and Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes (2013-17).

Prior to coaching in the NHL, the Cornwall, Ontario native coached the Adirondack Red Wings in the American Hockey League (AHL) for four seasons from 1992-96. Brown, who played forward for the Michigan State Spartans for four seasons, began his coaching career at his alma mater and served as an assistant coach for the Spartans for three seasons before taking the helm as head coach of the Michigan Tech Huskies. Over two seasons from 1990-91, Brown coached the Huskies to a combined 29-47-4 overall record.

Brown was selected by the Vancouver Canucks in the 8th round (158th overall) of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft. From 1978-80, he skated two seasons for his hometown Cornwall Royals in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) where his four points over five tournament games (4-0=4) helped the Royals capture the 1980 Memorial Cup. Brown went on to register 202 points (73-129=202) in 156 collegiate games for the Spartans. He played one season of professional hockey in 1984-85, splitting times between the Fredericton Express of the AHL and the International Hockey League’s Muskegon Lumberjacks.