Latest On Personnel – Jim Hiller To Return, Reports of Sturm/Smith Interviews, Management Additions

As expected, new Kings Vice President & General Manager Ken Holland spoke about several different aspects of the organization yesterday during his introductory press conference. Holland was alongside Kings President Luc Robitaille, while AEG CEO Dan Beckerman was in attendance as well as a representative of the team’s ownership group.

Also in attendance was Kings Head Coach Jim Hiller, with Holland confirming yesterday that Hiller will remain as the team’s head coach entering the 2025-26 season. Alongside Hiller was Associate Coach D.J. Smith, Assistant Coach Newell Brown, Goaltending Coach Mike Buckley and Video Coaches Samson Lee and Cole Lussier.

Ultimately, Holland had final sign off on that decision, as Robitaille mentioned during his end-of-season media availability over a week ago. It was important, in his words, that a new GM at least had the opportunity to make that decision on his own, as opposed to being hamstrung by too much existing structure, even though Robitaille felt it was likely Hiller would return. Holland will have autonomy on hockey operations decisions going forward and that included the position of head coach.

Holland arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening and his first day at the team offices at Toyota Sports Performance Center in El Segundo came on Wednesday, which included several meetings with existing team staff. The longest of which was with Hiller, with the pair meeting for around two hours on Wednesday to discuss Hiller’s future with the team. Holland also met with Assistant General Manager Nelson Emerson as well as team leaders Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, all in separate, 1-on-1 meetings. Holland likely would have had a feeling in one direction or the other coming into that meeting, but he walked away from it seemingly excited to proceed forward with Hiller as the team’s head coach.

“I look forward to working with Jim Hiller, going into next year,” Holland said yesterday. “I spent two hours [on Wednesday] with Jim. Jim and I worked together with the Detroit Red Wings back a couple decades ago, he was assistant coach to Mike Babcock and I’ve of followed his career with the Islanders and with Toronto. I thought Jim did a great job. The team checked, goals against were down, penalty killing was good, the team played hard. I thought when the playoffs started that the Kings had a real good chance to go on the long playoff run and unfortunately [they lost] in a real tough series with the with the Edmonton Oilers.”

No other coach in franchise history led a team to higher win or point totals than Hiller did during the 2024-25 season. He helped change the way the team played and although I think it took awhile to get there, the culture that Hiller instilled helped to bolster the play of several individuals, with players like Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield thriving down the stretch, playing as high-level hockey as they have in their time as Kings. While his deployment of first-year players I think varied at times, just about all of them played better hockey in April than they did in October. All of that put the Kings in a position to perform in the playoffs.

In the postseason, I think there are three moments within the series that saw a 2-0 Kings series lead become a 4-2 series defeat. There’s the lost challenge in Game 3, there’s the blown leads in Games 3 and 4 and there’s the management of the bench, specifically in Games 3 and 4.

In evaluating those moments, just about everyone involved said that the team sitting back was not a directive from the coaching staff. Ultimately, a coach is responsible there, but there was no change in strategy, no directive to sit back, no coaching done to encourage that. The lost leads are not excusable and in the moment, yeah I thought it was on coaching. To hear it from the players, from the coaches, from Robitaille that no one has ever had a coach tell them to sit back the way the Kings did, I think it changes the narrative there. It was certainly a problem and a team’s style of play still falls on the staff. But this wasn’t a directive to the team in those moments, either.

The other two decisions were clearly coaching decisions and Hiller spoke to the challenge specifically in his end-of-season media availability. It was the wrong choice and he said as much. The bench management seemed to be a learning experience heading into Game 6, when depth players played substantially more, and something he’ll have to work on going forward. If that line was a bit more veteran – as just about every fourth line still in the playoffs is – there is likely more trust there. If Tanner Jeannot was available, I think it’s much different. He wasn’t, though, and things played out the way they did.

Holland spoke about the playoffs being a learning experience for Hiller and believes he’ll be a better coach next season than he was this season as a result of it. I think that with the bulk of the group likely returning and that group now having a pretty good grasp of the way that Hiller and the staff want them to play, it shouldn’t take as long as it did last season to get up to speed. There will be downturns over 82 games, but it took around two months to see the Kings team that was envisioned start to present itself. Another two to see the best version of that, over the final 20 or so games of the season, with personnel really slotted into place after the acquisition of Andrei Kuzmenko. With a full season of work behind them and targeted additions to hopefully get the personnel right from the start, the Kings will have the opportunity to hit the ground running better than the did in 2024.

Ultimately, Hiller’s body of work merits another season at least. A couple of mistakes in that series, certainly, but the Kings found success in several ways under his leadership, all of which put the Kings in the positions they were in Games 3 and 4. There’s something to be said there and ultimately, Holland decided to continue in the direction the Kings have been trending towards.

One question that is certainly out there is will the remainder of the coaching staff within the organization remains unchanged.

Associate Coach D.J. Smith has been reported to be in the interview process with other clubs, most closely linked to Pittsburgh. Smith was the bench boss in Ottawa before he joined the Kings and would make sense to be in the mix for other opportunities. Smith was a highly-touted assistant coach in Toronto and was on a shorter-term deal with the Kings, working alongside Hiller but with the opportunity to look at going elsewhere if the opportunity presented itself.

Also in those conversations is Ontario Reign Head Coach Marco Sturm, who was reported to be a finalist for the Vancouver job, before it was announced that Canucks assistant coach Adam Foote was hired for an internal promotion. Sturm has been reported as being in the mix in Boston and Seattle as well, both of which remain open jobs. Clearly at the point in his career, Sturm feels is ready to take the next step to a head coaching position at the NHL level and it’s clear that other NHL teams see him in that light as well. Sturm has certainly conducted several interviews and while he did not get the job in Vancouver, assume he will be in the mix until the end with the other openings he’s interviewed for.

Lastly on the personnel front, Holland mentioned Assistant General Manager Nelson Emerson and Director, Player Development Glen Murray as executives under contract who he looked forward to working with.

Along those lines, though, an additional report that I think makes some sense to share came on the 32 Thoughts Podcast earlier this week. Elliotte Friedman indicated that Holland’s contract is expected to be a shorter-term contract, which is true, with the focus on getting the Kings over the current Round 1 hump the organization is facing. He added to it that the Kings asked around the league regarding some younger, less-experienced candidates who could potentially join the organization under Holland, at first, with an eye potentially towards a larger role down the road.

Holland confirmed yesterday that he is able to add to his staff, if he so chooses, over the coming days, weeks or months.

“Luc said if I had a person or two I might want to bring in, might look at doing that right now. We’re going to sit and talk here over the next couple of days.”

That would not be a person to replace someone else, but to add to the mix. While there is an importance to maintaining some form of a status quo, it’s also important for Holland to have the opportunity to bring in one or more executives from the outside as well to help push the franchise forward. Nothing crazy in there, but don’t be surprised to see additional hires made as Holland continues to settle in with the Kings organization.

Have a few others thoughts to come over the next week or so. Will start season reviews towards the end of the month into June, getting those all in before the NHL Draft. Also going to bring back an Insider Q&A on Monday, so come prepared with questions entering the summer and I’ll answer as best as I can!