A day after separating with Its managing directorThe president of the Kings, Luc Robitaille, expressed his confidence in his head coach, saying that he was expecting Jim Hiller would be back with the team next season. However, the final decision, he added, would be with the new GM.
“Your managing director, you want to give him freedom. You don't want to enclose a new person who is coming,” he said. “But the record for what Jimmy made this year is really, really good. It would be really difficult for any GM to say:” Well, this guy should not come back. “”
“I think Jimmy is an excellent coach and I fully think that this guy is coming back, that's for sure.”
During his first full season as NHL coach, Hiller equaled team records for victories (48) and points (105) and broke the record for home victories (31). But he had made several crucial errors in the playoffs which Accelerated the team's releaseleading to another record: The kings have passed a franchise, the 11 seasons without winning an post-season series.
Blake was eight of these seasons. However, these failures of the playoffs were not necessarily the trigger that led to his departure. Robitaille devoted most of a 28 -minute meeting with the media on Tuesday to its former director general, saying that the two have discussed the future of Blake with the Kings for most of the last six months.
“We met during the weekend, we took a few days to spend during the season and review, which happened in the playoffs and so on,” said Robitaille. “At one point, we both realized and agreed that it was time to probably bring a new voice, just to bring us to this next level.”
Robitaille and Blake, both players in the fame of fame, were teammates with the Kings and worked together at the front office for more than a decade. This made the mutual decision for Blake and the team to separate particularly difficult, said Robitaille.
“It's never easy because there is part of friendship,” he said. “He's going to leave a big hole. So it's a difficult thing. It was a difficult weekend.”
Robitaille said that the search for a new managing director had already started and that the process will be wide open, the team considering candidates inside and outside the organization.
“We have no chronology, but obviously, we understand the urgency,” said Robitaille. “We know what's going on.”
Once hired, the new managing director will start work with a long list of tasks. Decisions will have to be made about a number of players, starting with defender Vladislav Gavrikov, who led the team in minutes. He is a free agent without restriction, just like Andrei Kuzmenko, Tanner Jeannot and Trevor Lewis.
Gavrikov, who won $ 5.875 million this season, is due to an increase and is Kuzmenko, who came from Philadelphia on the deadline and immediately boosting the Kings power game. Kuzmenko, 29, won $ 2.75 million in the last year of his contract.
Defender Vladislav Gavrikov (center), celebrating after having marked a goal with Adrian Kempe (9) and defender Mikey Anderson, is one of the multiple free agents with which kings have proposed to start contractual negotiations.
(Alex Gallardo / AP)
In addition, the winger Alex Laferriere is a limited free agent and striker Adrian Kempe is eligible for July 1. Robitaille said the team had already contacted some of these players and proposed to start the negotiations.
The team will have money to spend, because the NHL wage ceiling will increase considerably over the next three years, going from $ 88 million this season to $ 113.5 million in 2027-28. Robitaille said the team would not be afraid to spend this money.
“We are committed to winning,” he said. “If you want to win in this league, you usually spend on the ceiling. But it is not a question of spending on the ceiling. It's about being wise, making the right decision and so on. We are not going to just throw money, just to throw money. You have to do things well.
“But this team is committed, yes.”
Robitaille thought that the Kings had the talent of racing in a deep playoff series this season, especially after beating Edmonton for the first two games in their first round series. But things took a lap round in match 3. With the Kings leading at the end of the third period, Hiller challenged an ice cream, arguing that Evander Kane des Oilers had interfered with goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper on the goal of the energy of the score. The demonstration was refused, the oilers received a power game and 10 seconds later, they took the lead.
Edmonton would no longer lose, eliminating the kings in the first round for the fourth consecutive season.
Hiller has also shortened his bench in the playoffs, on the use of a core of veterans while sub-using its lower front line and its last two defenders. As a result, some players were gassed at the end of the series.
“He has injured the big time,” said the defender Drew Doughty, who leads all the skaters in time of playoffs, to qualifiers. “In recent years, I'm not going to say that we might be winning, but this year, really, I felt like I was winning this series.
“Everyone bought what we were supposed to do. This is the best team we have had here for a very long time. Unfortunately, this was not done. ”
Hiller took office as an interim coach in the middle of the 2023-24 season and led the Kings in the playoffs – as well as a loss in the playoffs in the first round against the Oilers. This earned him the work permanently, Blake signing him to sign him with a three -year contract with a fourth year option last May.
“Jim did a great job,” said Robitaille. “The managing director who arrives will have to make his own decisions and so on, but we had a very happy new year. It's the best year – equal to, I think, 1974 -75 – in the history of Kings.
“But it's sport and you want to win the last game of the season. This is our goal.”
