LOS ANGELES _ John Stevens, who has spent seven seasons with the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant coach as well as associate head coach and has been partly responsible for their excellent defense and penalty killing, has been hired to be the team's coach, the team announced Sunday.
A formal announcement will be made by General Manager Rob Blake at a news conference scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Stevens, 50, was the Kings' head coach for four games during the 2011-12 season before they hired Darryl Sutter. Before joining the Kings' staff in 2010, Stevens coached the Philadelphia Flyers. His regular-season record was 120-109-34 over parts of four seasons with the Flyers and 11-12 in playoff games.
With the Kings, Stevens worked closely with Sutter, who was fired this month after the Kings missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons. General Manager Dean Lombardi also was fired.
Stevens' biggest challenge will be to squeeze offense out of a team whose scoring struggles were too much to overcome last season. The Kings averaged 2.43 goals per game, 25th in the NHL. They also must add speed in order to compete in the younger, faster NHL, or better use the speed they already have.
Blake identified Stevens as the primary candidate for the coaching job almost immediately. They had extensive conversations over the past weeks, with Stevens outlining his plans to Blake and to new club president Luc Robitaille.
In a press release issued by the Kings on Sunday morning, Blake emphasized the team's need to increase its scoring.
"John and I had very productive dialogue this last week in relation to his head coaching philosophy and specifically how he would implement a strategy to activate our players offensively while maintaining the defensive philosophies we have come to be known for," Blake said in the press release. "I am confident that we are both in agreement on how that can be executed. With that said, we believe John has the ideal qualities to lead our hockey club. His wide array of coaching experience, including success as an NHL head coach and his inherent knowledge of our players and those in our development system, is very appealing to us. We are confident he is the best person to lead our hockey club forward."
Stevens will have to fill out the rest of the coaching staff. In addition to hiring an assistant or associate coach to fill his former position, there's an opening for an assistant because Davis Payne was relieved of his duties soon after Sutter was fired. Goaltending coach Bill Ranford will retain his job.
