In an intriguing twist, former Senators head coach D.J. Smith takes the reigns in Los Angeles to replace Jim Hiller, reuniting a coaching lineage that dates back to their shared tenure behind the Toronto Maple Leafs' bench.
The Los Angeles Kings made a coaching change on Sunday, dismissing former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Jim Hiller as their bench boss.
Hiller became a first-time NHL head coach on February 2, 2024, when the club installed him as the interim head coach following the dismissal of Todd McLellan. After Hiller successfully led the Kings to a playoff berth that spring, the organization removed the interim tag from him and named him the 30th head coach in franchise history on May 22, 2024.
Maple Leafs fans may remember Hiller from his four-year tenure in Toronto. Brought in as an assistant under former head coach Mike Babcock, Hiller ran the club’s power play from 2015 to 2019. During that time, he was crucial in developing some of Toronto’s young offensive stars, including Auston Matthews and William Nylander.
When Hiller originally took the reigns in Los Angeles, he brought D.J. Smith over as an assistant coach. Smith and Hiller worked together in Toronto during that same 2015–2019 span before Smith was hired as head coach of the Ottawa Senators. While Smith headed to Ottawa, Hiller departed Toronto to join the New York Islanders as an assistant for the 2019-20 season.
In a notable twist, it is Smith who will now be tasked with leading the Kings down the stretch of the 2025-26 season. He has been named the interim head coach as a result of Hiller’s dismissal. In the four-plus seasons Smith coached the Senators, the team never finished higher than sixth place in the Atlantic Division, so it will be intriguing to see what effect he has on this veteran Kings roster.
Los Angeles officially revealed the coaching change after the club defeated the Flames 2-0 on Saturday night. Prior to that victory, however, the Kings had slipped out of a playoff position after losing six of their previous seven games.
Through games played on February 28, 2026, the Kings hold a 24-21-14 record. They sit only three points out of the second wild-card spot and four points out of third place in a Pacific Division that has been perceived as underperforming this season. Many NHL coaches have found success in their second opportunities behind the bench, and that is exactly what the Kings will be banking on with Smith, whose history with the Blue and White goes back even further than his coaching days; he played a combined 11 games as a defenseman for the Maple Leafs across the 1996-97 and 1999-2000 seasons.