Todd McLellan has been relieved of his duties by the Los Angeles Kings. This move does not come as a surprise with him much the Kings have been struggling with their recording being 23-15-10 and currently sit in the first wildcard spot. They are only up on the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators by two points. Jim Hiller will be taking over the head coach position on an interim basis.
During his time with the Kings, he coached 338 games and went 164-130-44 over his 5 years with the Kings. In his tenure as head coach, the Kings never made it past the first round as they ran into the Edmonton Oilers both times. The highest they finished in the standings was 3rd in the Pacific. The Kings seemed to be building to something through the last couple years, but this year just has not gone the way they wanted. They acquired Piere Luc-Dubois to try vault them to the top of the Pacific division, it just has not worked.
Jim Hiller is going to be filling in for the remainder of the season. Hiller has been an assistant coach for last 10 years heading into this season. He was on the bench for the Red Wings, Maple Leafs and Islanders, before he came to LA for last three seasons. This will be his first time being a head coach in the NHL but does have experience from his WHL days.
McLellan has been a very respected coach around the league for years. He has coached the San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers along with the LA Kings. He has coached 1144 games and has 598 wins during that time. There is no doubt that if Todd decides to continue coaching, which he has not indicated anything at this time, he will be able to find another coaching gig.
