The Los Angeles Kings removed the interim tag and named Jim Hiller as the club’s 30th head coach Wednesday.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported that Hiller agreed to a multiyear contract.
The Kings fired Todd McLellan on Feb. 2 and tabbed Hiller as the team’s interim head coach. Under Hiller, the Kings finished the regular season on a 21-12-1 run before falling in five games to the Edmonton Oilers in their Western Conference first-round playoff series.
Los Angeles was 23-15-10 under McLellan this season.
Los Angeles has reached the playoffs four times during general manager Rob Blake’s tenure but failed to advance past the first round. The Kings have not won a playoff series since winning their second Stanley Cup in three years in 2014.
Prospects for a breakthrough in a tough Pacific Division appear difficult.
Team captain Anze Kopitar will turn 37 in August, and defenseman Drew Doughty will be 35 in December.
Los Angeles doesn’t have many prospects at its minor league affiliate in Ontario, California, and has cap issues. David Rittich is the Kings’ only goaltender under contract for next season.
Hiller also has to find a way to get Pierre-Luc Dubois on track. The Kings acquired Dubois from the Winnipeg Jets and signed him to an eight-year, $68 million contract last season. The center didn’t have any chemistry with anyone on the team and had career lows for a full season in goals (16) and points (40).
During the Edmonton series, Dubois was often on the fourth line.
As a player, Hiller recorded 20 points (8 goals, 12 assists) and 116 penalty minutes in 63 career games with the Kings, Red Wings and New York Rangers. He was selected by the Kings in the 10th round of the 1989 NHL draft and was the 18th coach in NHL history to make his head-coaching debut with the team that originally drafted them.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
The Ottawa Senators have opened up a nice gap as the first wild card, with 75 points and 26 regulation wins in 65 games. Beyond them, things get interesting.
If it comes down to the regulation-wins tiebreaker at season’s end, the Rangers have an upper hand over all the rest, with 29 in that column, compared with 23 for the Jackets, Red Wings and Bruins, and just 22 for the Habs.
The Canadiens host the Panthers also at 7 p.m. (NHL Network)
The Blue Jackets face the visiting Rangers also at 7 p.m. (ESPN+)
And if they have their sights set on catching the Senators, these clubs are all rooting for the Maple Leafs, who host Ottawa (7 p.m., ESPN+). It’s a great night for multiple streaming devices!
There is a lot of runway left until April 17, the final day of the regular season, and we’ll help you track it all with the NHL playoff watch. As we traverse the final stretch, we’ll provide details on all the playoff races, along with the teams jockeying for position in the 2025 NHL draft lottery.
Points: 62 Regulation wins: 23 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 15 Points pace: 75.9 Next game: vs. WPG (Sunday) Playoff chances: ~0% Tragic number: 22
Points: 45 Regulation wins: 13 Playoff position: N/A Games left: 15 Points pace: 55.1 Next game: vs. WSH (Saturday) Playoff chances: ~0% Tragic number: 5
Race for the No. 1 pick
The NHL uses a draft lottery to determine the order of the first round, so the team that finishes in last place is not guaranteed the No. 1 selection. As of 2021, a team can move up a maximum of 10 spots if it wins the lottery, so only 11 teams are eligible for the No. 1 pick. Full details on the process are here. Matthew Schaefer, a defenseman for the OHL’s Erie Otters, is No. 1 on the draft board.
The Texas Rangers‘ pitching staff took another hit Friday, when right-hander Jon Gray suffered a right wrist fracture.
Gray was struck by a line drive from Colorado Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia to lead off the fourth inning that knocked him out of the game.
“Not good news, not good news,” manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. “It’s terrible. I feel awful for him, to be this close to getting the season going. It’s just not good news. I’ll get back in there and find out more, but right now, there is a fracture.”
Gray’s injury is the third setback for the Rangers rotation this week. The team said Thursday that left-hander Cody Bradford would start the season on the injured list because of soreness in his throwing elbow. Tyler Mahle had been scratched from a start with forearm soreness, but the right-hander returned to pitch in a minor league game Thursday.
Gray went 5-6 with a 4.47 ERA in 23 appearances (19 starts) for the Rangers last season, when he was shut down in September for a foot injury that required surgery. He is in the final year of a four-year, $56 million deal.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
TOKYO — Japanese star Shohei Ohtani showed off some prodigious power in his return to the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night.
In an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants, the three-time Most Valuable Player belted a long two-run homer to right field in the third inning to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead, setting off a roar from the roughly 42,000 fans in attendance.
The Dodgers put on quite a power display in the third with Michael Conforto, Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández all going deep to give Los Angeles a 5-0 advantage.
The Dodgers are playing in Japan as part of the Tokyo Series. The team is playing two exhibition games against Japanese teams before starting the regular season with two games against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to have at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in one season in 2024. He played several seasons for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan before coming to the U.S. in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels.