Los Angeles Kings Fire Coach Jim Hiller, D.J. Smith Takes Interim Role

Looking to salvage captain Anze Kopitar’s final NHL season, the Los Angeles Kings made a coaching change on Sunday. After surrendering 14 goals in two losses coming out of the Olympic break before rebounding with a 2-0 win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday, the Kings announced that they’ve replaced Jim Hiller with interim head coach D.J. Smith.

Los Angeles currently sits three points out of a wild-card playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Hiller’s first NHL head-coaching assignment lasted just over two years. Now 56, he was elevated from his assistant coaching role when Todd McLellan was fired on Feb. 2, 2024.

Over 175 games, he coached the Kings to a record of 93-58-24 for a .600 points percentage but in his two playoff runs, he couldn’t get his team past the Edmonton Oilers in the first round, even with home-ice advantage in 2025.

Though the Kings have made the playoffs for the last four consecutive seasons, they’ve lost to the Oilers each time. Los Angeles hasn’t won a playoff round since capturing the franchise’s second Stanley Cup back in 2014.

With an eye toward improved results, the organization replaced GM and vice president of hockey operations Rob Blake with Ken Holland last May. Holland’s off-season roster adjustments included the addition of free-agent defensemen Joel Edmundson and Cody Ceci as well as veteran forward Corey Perry. Just before the Olympic break, he swung for the fences by acquiring forward Artemi Panarin from the New York Rangers in exchange for forward Liam Greentree and two conditional draft picks, then signed the 34-year-old impending free agent to a two-year contract extension at $11 million per season.

Panarin’s debut with Los Angeles didn’t work out as planned. Though he collected three assists in his first three games while skating on a line with Kopitar and Adrian Kempe, the Kings dropped a 6-4 decision to the Vegas Golden Knights in their return to action on Wednesday. Then, they fell 8-1 to their playoff rivals, the Oilers, on Friday before bouncing back to shut out the Flames on Saturday.

By then, the writing was on the wall for Hiller.

Smith, 48, is in his third season with the Kings organization. He was hired as an assistant coach on Feb. 6, 2024, joining Hiller’s bench less than two months after he was fired by the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 18, 2023. He has served as an associate coach for the last two years.

Smith had coached at the junior level and served as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs before he was hired in Ottawa in 2019. His record with the Senators was 131-154-32 for a .464 points percentage. Ottawa did not make the playoffs while Smith was behind the bench.

This year, the Kings aspire not just to make the post-season, but to earn a better outcome than a first-round exit. To do that, they’re going to have to reel in at least one Western Conference team.

As of Mar. 1, the Seattle Kraken are holding down the second wild-card spot in the West with 65 points, while the Utah Mammoth are in the first wild-card berth at 66 and the Oilers sit third in the Pacific Division, also with 66.

Los Angeles will have competition to bump out one of those teams. With 62 points, the Kings are currently level with the Nashville Predators, who announced a plan to change their general manager in early February. They’re also facing pressure from Macklin Celebrini’s San Jose Sharks, who have 60 points but have played two fewer games.

These changes are also playing out with the NHL’s 2026 trade deadline less than a week away, on Friday, Mar. 6. The Kings have been widely rumored to be looking to make additional roster changes and they have some flexibility, with more than $3 million in cap space according to PuckPedia. However, that money can’t be used as strategically as it was in the past.

Under the rules of the NHL’s latest CBA extension, double-salary retention is no longer allowed on trades, which was a tool that teams used to reduce cap hits of acquired players.

Also, a new rule will require teams to be salary-cap compliant in the playoffs for the first time, although that number will be based on a team’s active 20-player roster rather than the 23-player maximum that’s used in the regular season.

It’s a new wrinkle that’s intended to stop teams from using injured reserve as a tool to keep players’ cap hits off the books in the regular season, only to have them ready to go for the first game of the playoffs. It could very well have unexpected impacts when it’s put into play starting in April.

The Kings do have one serious long-term injury. Offensive forward Kevin Fiala was ruled out for the rest of the regular season after suffering multiple fractures to his leg while playing for Switzerland during the Olympics. His status for the playoffs has not yet been announced.

Forward Andrei Kuzmenko is also listed as week-to-week after undergoing surgery for a torn meniscus in his knee.

The Kings will remain in Los Angeles until after the trade deadline, but Smith’s first tests as interim head coach will be challenging. The team will host the league-leading Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, followed by a pair of Eastern Conference playoff teams in the New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens. Then, they’ll hit the road for five games in eight nights out east, with two sets of back-to-back games.

Matt Greene, who played defense for the Kings during their Stanley Cup runs in 2012 and 2014, joins Smith’s bench as an assistant coach. He has remained in the organization since his retirement in 2017, first as a scout and then as a player development coach.

Hiller is just the second NHL coach to be fired in 2025-26. The Kings will be thrilled if their change yields the same results that the Columbus Blue Jackets have seen since replacing Dean Evason with Rick Bowness in January. The Blue Jackets are 10-2-1 under Bowness and are currently five points out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.