LA Kings Announce 2026-27 Coaching Staff as Housley, Hajt and Whitney join Peter Laviolette’s Staff

The LA Kings have announced three additions to their coaching staff in advance of the 2026-27 season, under new Head Coach Peter Laviolette.

Phil Housley has joined the LA Kings as Associate Coach, while Chris Hajt and Ray Whitney have joined the staff as Assistant Coaches, joining Derik Johnston who will remain on staff as an Assistant Coach. Goaltending Coach Mike Buckley will also remain on staff in the same role as the team’s goaltending coach.

Housley is an unsurprising hire. He’s worked with Laviolette in two separate stops along the way – New York and Nashville – and clearly they’ve found some success together. What I like about this hire is that in the six seasons Laviolette and Housley have worked together, the groups of defensemen on those teams have produced in the way that Housley did in his playing career. Okay, maybe not that much. But in those six seasons, the Rangers and Predators finished no lower than eighth in scoring by defensemen, finishing in the Top-5 four times. That’s encouraging for a team that ranked 32nd of the NHL’s 32 teams in that metric last season.

Personnel has to be factored in here and the Kings don’t have an offensively-minded group of blueliners, minus the recently re-signed Brandt Clarke. Laviolette’s system is often uncompromising, though, and whoever is here will be asked to play differently than they were last season. As he said during his introductory press availability, there aren’t two sets of rules for different defensemen. There’s one set of rules and players will be expected to make the right reads and contributions when situations call for it and Housley certainly will play a part in that. The Kings are exploring personnel changes in that area and hopefully they are able to make some headway to put players in the best position to succeed.

For a guy like Clarke, who better to help bring him along than one of the best offensive defensemen in NHL history. For say Drew Doughty, perhaps it offers him more offensive freedom to get back towards the way he has produced in past seasons. For the rest of the group, there hasn’t been a ton of historic offense in their games, though I believe there could be a bit of untapped ability for Mikey Anderson and even Brian Dumoulin to an extent. We’ll certainly know if that is the case with Housley and Laviolette reunited in Los Angeles.

For Hajt, it’s a well-deserved and overdue promotion back to the NHL. Hajt has been an underrated, unsung hero within the system for a long time. He was a part of the staff in Manchester that won a Calder Cup all the way back in 2015 and he’s worked with Kings prospects on the blueline over two stints since, minus a two-year break when he worked on Housley’s staff in Buffalo as an Assistant Coach.
Hajt worked with Ontario when Mikey Anderson and Sean Durzi came through the system. Same goes with Brandt Clarke and Jordan Spence. He’s worked with Jacob Moverare and Angus Booth as well, who have played NHL games as later picks. Ontario led the AHL’s Pacific Division in the goals against column last season. when you look at the players developed in Los Angeles over the years, it’s been on the blueline where they’ve had a lot of success. Hajt has played a role in that at the AHL level and that often flie under the radar.

Having worked in Ontario myself during Hajt’s first season back with the organization way back when, the influence he had and the work he put in was incredibly noticeable. Only continued from there. Nice to see someone like that get a well-deserved promotion, especially when he is among the best people you’ll meet in the industry. Great to see him get that NHL opportunity here.

For Whitney, there is a ton of familiarity between him and Laviolette.

Whitney was a key player on the 2006 Stanley Cup Championship winning Carolina Hurricanes. He was a very good player for a number of years – he scored 60+ points with four different NHL franchises – and he finished his career with more than 1,000 career points in the NHL in more than 1,300 career games.

Whitney has three years of professional scouting experience with Carolina and coached junior hockey for three seasons in Pheonix at the AAA level. His fit is one where you have to put your trust in Laviolette. This is clearly a guy he knows very well, as a player and a person. He was a heck of a player but not every good player is a good coach, so there are some unknowns there. I can’t really speak to his track record because he doesn’t have one in a coaching role. However, Laviolette brought in Craig Berube in Philadelphia. He brought in Dan Muse in Nashville. He brought in Scott Arniel in Washington. Solid track record of progression. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here for sure and Whitney’s first orders of business will be to figure out how to help this team score more goals and best align the forwards he has in place, once that group is completed over the coming weeks and months.

As a coach, Whitney is a bit of an off the board hire and perhaps that’s not a bad way to round out your staff. It’s a good mix. Laviolette and Housley are the veterans within the Kings coaching ranks. Hajt has tons of experience working with younger players in junior and minor-league hockey and he worked with Housley for two NHL seasons in Buffalo. Whitney was an accomplished player who is new to coaching at this level. Together, that’s the staff behind the bench that will lead the Kings forward into next season.

As noted above, Johnston and Buckley will both remain on staff from last season. Johnston does a lot of 1-on-1 work with players on the ice and has drawn praise for that. He has his influence on X’s and O’s, sure, but he’s often the first guy on the ice working with guys on certain parts of their game. Buckley was Team USA’s goaltending coach at the Olympics so his credentials don’t really need repeating. He was a part of resurgent seasons for Cam Talbot, David Rittich, Darcy Kuemper and Anton Forsberg and will be tasked heading into the coming season of getting Kuemper’s game back on track, along with continuing to try and grow Forsberg’s play from this past season.

With today’s news, I believe that means that Newell Brown will not return for a third season. Happy trails to an extremely personable and likeable guy. We wound up on the same gym schedule on the road what felt like every day and I always enjoyed my time around him. Sure that others did too. The Kings did not hit the offensive heights or find the power-play success that was needed, so it’ll be a fresh voice in those areas heading into next season. There was a lot of interest around the NHL in Brown when he came to the Kings and I wish him the best of luck wherever he winds up next.

From the team’s official release –

Housley, 62, joins the Kings organization with over a decade of coaching experience at the NHL level having most recently served as an assistant coach for the New York Rangers under Peter Laviolette for two seasons (2023-25). Prior to that, Housley was an assistant coach with the Arizona Coyotes for three seasons (2019-22) and previously served as head coach for the Buffalo Sabres (2017-19).

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015, Housley began his NHL coaching career as an assistant with the Nashville Predators for four seasons (2013-17), also working under Laviolette during that time, where he helped guide the Predators to their first Stanely Cup Final appearance in franchise history in 2017. While with Nashville, the team led the league in goals by defensemen two of his four years behind the bench (2014-16) and finished in the top-two each of his four seasons.

A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Housley has coached Team USA in six International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) tournaments, including three IIHF Men’s World Junior Championships (2007 – bronze, 2011 – bronze, 2013 – gold) and three IIHF Men’s World Championships (2011, 2013 – bronze, 2014).

As a player, Housley was drafted sixth overall by Buffalo in the 1982 NHL Entry Draft and is a veteran of 1,495 career NHL games across parts of 21 seasons between the Sabres (1982-90), Winnipeg Jets (1990-93), St. Louis Blues (1993-94), Calgary Flames (1994-96, 1998-01), New Jersey Devils (1995-96), Washington Capitals (1996-98), Chicago Blackhawks (2001-03) and Toronto Maple Leafs (2002-03). Over his playing career, Housley amassed 338 goals and 1,232 points (338-894=1,232), both of which are the fourth-most among all defensemen in NHL history, while earning NHL All-Star honors seven times (1984, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2000). Internationally, Housley won gold at the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, a silver medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in addition to his three medals as a coach. He is also a member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame (Class of 2004) and IIHF Hall of Fame (Class of 2012).

Hajt, 47, joins Laviolette’s coaching staff after completing his ninth season (2015-17, 2019-26) with the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, where he most recently served as an associate coach. During the 2017-18 and 2018-19 campaigns, Hajt was as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres on Phil Housley‘s staff, who now serves as the Kings’ associate coach.

He also spent one season as an assistant coach with the Manchester Monarchs (AHL) in 2014-15, where he was part of the 2015 Calder Cup Championship team. With Ontario, Hajt helped the Reign qualify for the playoffs on six occasions (2015, 2016, 2022-26), including two division titles (2016, 2026), and Western Conference Finals appearance (2016).

The Saskatoon, Saskatchewan native was also a part of the Ontario Hockey League’s (OHL) Guelph Storm from 2008-14 as an assistant coach for six seasons and as the team’s assistant general manager for one, where he helped lead the Storm to the 2014 OHL Championship and a second-place finish in the 2014 Memorial Cup.

As a player, Hajt skated in 582 career professional games across six leagues, including six games with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers and Washington Capitals. The former blueliner appeared in 477 AHL games with Hamilton, Portland, and Lowell and had stints in the ECHL, DEL, Liiga, and Serie A.

Whitney, 54, joins the NHL coaching ranks with more than two decades of NHL experience as a player, having played in 1,330 career regular-season games over 22 seasons with the San Jose Sharks (1991-97), Edmonton Oilers (1997-98), Florida Panthers (1997-01), Columbus Blue Jackets (2000-03), Detroit Red Wings (2003-04), Carolina Hurricanes (2005-10), Phoenix Coyotes (2010-12) and Dallas Stars (2012-14).

Selected 23rd overall by San Jose in the 1991 NHL Entry Draft, Whitney was the second player ever drafted by the Sharks in franchise history. Among all NHL skaters who played during his 22-year career, Whitney ranked fifth in games played (1,330) and 12th in both assists (679) and points (1,064). He is one of 42 forwards in league history to have at least 1,000 points while appearing in 1,300 or more games.

Whitney also totaled 21 goals and 53 points (21-32=53) in 108 career Stanley Cup Playoff contests. His postseason success is highlighted by his 15-point performance (9-6=15) during the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, helping Carolina capture their first Stanley Cup Championship in franchise history under head coach Peter Laviolette.

A native of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Whitney represented Team Canada in four IIHF Men’s World Championships (1998, 1999, 2002, 2010). He also served as an assistant general manager for Canada at the 2023 Spengler Cup. Following his playing career, Whitney spent three seasons (2015-18) as a pro scout for Carolina before coaching his son, Hudson, on the Phoenix Jr. Coyotes 15U, 16U and 18U teams.