{"id":491707,"date":"2026-06-08T16:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=491707"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T20:00:07","slug":"kings-hire-laviolette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/08\/kings-hire-laviolette\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Kings Hire Veteran Peter Laviolette as Next Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Laviolette is in the news today, as word broke that the Los Angeles Kings hire Laviolette as their next head coach. He will take over from interim head coach <span>D.J. Smith, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/03\/01\/los-angeles-kings-make-coaching-change\/\" target=\"_self\">who finished the year after Jim Hiller was let go<\/a>. The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/04\/26\/2026-stanley-cup-playoff-series-review-colorado-avalanche-los-angeles-kings-anze-kopitar-retires\/\" target=\"_self\">Kings were swept by the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> in the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, marking a fifth-straight, first-round playoff exit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOB2IYdhiSJ\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 5849px; aspect-ratio: 5849\/3901;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p><span>Credit Image: \u00a9 Jordan Teller\/ISIPhotos via ZUMA Press Wire<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Kings Hire Laviolette as Team Looks To Bounce Back Next Season<\/h2>\n<div class=\"components_paragraph__b8N_5\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Peter Laviolette is being hired by the Los Angeles Kings as their next head coach, per <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PierreVLeBrun?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@PierreVLeBrun<\/a>. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ilh8gqeGEs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ilh8gqeGEs<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; TSN (@TSN_Sports) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TSN_Sports\/status\/2064052334066339967?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 61-year-old veteran coach has coached for 1,594 career NHL games with the New York Rangers, Washington Capitals, Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes and New York Islanders. He won the Stanley Cup with the Hurricanes in 2006, and was a Cup finalist in 2010 and 2017 with the Flyers and Predators, respectively. His 846 career wins are good for seventh all-time among all coaches, sitting just three wins away from Ken Hitchcock for sixth. Laviolette did not coach in the NHL this past season, after the New York Rangers fired him after the 2024-25 season, following a tumultuous season.<\/p>\n<p>Laviolette will now be responsible for leading a new era of the Kings, as <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kopitan01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-06-08_hr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anze Kopitar<\/a> has presumably played his final NHL game. The team is desperate for more scoring, despite being responsible defensively. As reported by TSN&#8217;s Pierre LeBrun, Laviolette has been signed to a three-year deal. The Kings went 35-27-20 last season, barely scraping into the playoffs with 90 points. Laviolette will be tasked with changing the play style of the team to be able to generate more offence consistently.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Laviolette has agreed to a three-year deal with the Kings. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/k7mCLEWVMB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/k7mCLEWVMB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) <a  href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PierreVLeBrun\/status\/2064052903988301851?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/05\/16\/nhl-rumours-edmonton-oilers-pursue-bruce-cassidy-after-firing-kris-knoblauch\/\" target=\"_self\">Edmonton Oilers<\/a> and Toronto Maple Leafs were also interested in Laviolette, which means their respective coaching searches will continue. The Maple Leafs, in particular, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/06\/06\/nhl-rumours-leafs-update\/\" target=\"_self\">were interested in multiple prominent coaches<\/a>, so as Laviolette gets taken off the board, they will need to pursue different candidates. More coaching hires are sure to come as the offseason continues.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peter Laviolette is in the news today, as word broke that the Los Angeles Kings hire Laviolette as their next head coach. He will take over from interim head coach D.J. Smith, who finished the year after Jim Hiller was let go. The Kings were swept by the Colorado Avalanche in the opening round of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":138227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4547,34,4548],"tags":[5769,1547],"class_list":["post-491707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kings","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-los-angeles-kings-news","tag-peter-laviolette"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491707"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491713,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491707\/revisions\/491713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}