Luc Robitaille expects Jim Hiller to return as Kings’ coach

EL SEGUNDO — Kings team president Luc Robitaille spent nearly half an hour on Tuesday clarifying the state of the franchise, the status of its staff, including head coach Jim Hiller, and the “mutual agreement” to part ways with now-former General Manager Rob Blake.

Mostly, he obfuscated each matter.

One thing he was clear on was his praise for his former teammate and close colleague Blake, whom he said had “the highest integrity of anyone (he’d) ever known” and who “left us with a damn good team and left this franchise in great shape.” He also expressed esteem for Blake’s leadership and character, saying his departure would “leave a huge hole.”

While Robitaille was loath to delve into the discussion between him and Blake over the weekend, he hinted at a confirmation of the Mayor’s Manor report on Monday that that stepping down was “100% Blake’s decision,” as site publisher John Hoven asserted.

“Blakey and I had been talking about it for probably a year. He always said he wanted to wait to sign [a contract extension] and see,” Robitaille said. “We’re not getting into the details of our conversation, but it’s something that we talked about. He felt a certain way, I did, and we both agreed that this was better for the franchise.”

Robitaille provided a bit more clarity through vagueness when he was asked that given his overall positive if not glowing assessment of the team’s quality, roster, coaching, playing style, effort and even its management – he repeatedly lauded Blake’s moves from last offseason – if Blake would have returned if the Kings had not lost a fourth straight first-round playoff series to the Edmonton Oilers.

“I’m not sure. I’m not sure about that. We’ve had talks over the weekend with Blakey, that’ll remain private, but I’m not sure,” Robitaille said.

Robitaille said “we’re there, we were there last year,” and later specified that he meant that “there” meant they were one of 10 or so teams with realistic designs on winning the Stanley Cup. He pointed to St. Louis and Colorado as other teams that blew leads (though not four of them like the Kings did) in Game 7s and bowed out early. That conveniently ignored that both of those teams have captured the Stanley Cup (St. Louis in 2019 and Colorado in 2022) during the 11-year gap since the Kings last won a playoff series in any round. He also omitted that winning the Stanley Cup entails winning four rounds, a tough task for a squad struggling to win one.

“On July 1, if you look at your team and say ‘what can we add that can help us win the Stanley Cup?’ then you’re there,” Robitaille said. “We’ve been thinking that way for the last couple of years. We haven’t won the Cup. It’s not about beating one team or winning one round, it’s about winning the Stanley Cup.”

Regarding Hiller, of whom he said “I fully think this guy’s coming back for sure,” he offered the caveats that “it’s sports,” where anything can happen, and that the incoming GM would have his say.

He said he didn’t anticipate a change in large part because of the Kings’ 105-point regular season, which tied a franchise record. The Kings are 69-37-10 under Hiller, who took over in February 2024, and equaled a franchise best for wins (48) and broke the record for home wins (31) this season.

While it was among the very best campaigns in a history that dates to 1967, it was the sixth-highest point total in the NHL this year. Additionally, among the surviving “Expansion Six” franchises, the Kings’ two campaigns of 105 points lack sorely: Philadelphia has 12 seasons with 105 points or more, St. Louis has eight, Pittsburgh has six (as well as five championships) and the relocated Minnesota North Stars franchise has 10 since moving to Dallas in 1993.

There was even rare mention of Phillip Anschutz, the Kings owner who has been notoriously distant, even prompting Hall of Fame columnist Helene Elliott to pen an open letter to him in 2009. The last time he was seen prominently at a Kings game coincided with their last playoff series win.

“We have one of the best owners in sports. He cares about our team and he’s way more present than you would know and he loves his team,” Robitaille said.

The puzzling language of difficulty and hardship returned, something unbefitting of most figures in the hard-nosed world of pro hockey. The Kings made the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season. So did seven other teams, all of which have now won multiple rounds in the playoffs during that span, most of which have reached the conference finals and three of which combined for four of the past five Stanley Cup titles.

The fifth title was won by Vegas, which has made seven postseason appearances in its eight years of existence. The Golden Knights had a prior Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2018, losing to Washington, which has made 16 of the past 18 tournaments.

“We’re at a place where you look at our team like ‘that’s a good team.’ It’s hard to make the playoffs in the NHL, there’s only 16 teams out of 32 [that get in],” Robitaille said.

Yet Robitaille insisted that despite 11 years of relative futility – Dean Lombardi only got three of those seasons after winning the only two Cup titles in what to that point could only loosely be termed franchise lore – the Kings were on the cusp.

“We’re there. We were there last year,” Robitaille said. “Rob Blake made tremendous moves in the summer. But, it’s not good enough so we’ve got to get better.”

Robitaille doesn’t sound like he’s close to hiring Blake’s replacement. He plans to examine multiple candidates, including Marc Bergevin, the former Montreal GM who was a senior adviser to Blake for the past 3½ years.

Robitaille isn’t waiting until he hires a new GM to begin preparations for next season. Working with assistant GM Nelson Emerson, Robitaille has already spoken to pending unrestricted free agents Andrei Kuzmenko and Vladislav Gavrikov, who played significant roles in the team’s late-season success.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.