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The LA Kings eye bold head coaching hire as Bruce Cassidy’s surprise firing rocks the Pacific Division. Is Ken Holland about to hire a Cup-winning coach—and can the Kings still secure a playoff spot? Eddie Garcia spotlights Cassidy, Pete DeBoer, Peter Laviolette, and possible Craig Berube as leading candidates to replace D.J. Smith. The episode covers the Kings’ ownership’s willingness to pay top salaries and the impact of past relationships on NHL coaching hires. With a crucial showdown against the Nashville Predators looming the Kings battle for the last Western Conference playoff spot intensifies. Prospects James Reader, Kristen Epperson, and Brandon McMorrow head to the Frozen Four, while goalie Hampton Slukynsky may turn pro soon. Can Holland’s first head coaching hire move the LA Kings into NHL contention?
00:00 Kings Coaching Search — Analysis of Jim Hiller and DJ Smith, outlook on LA Kings head coach vacancy, criteria for new coach and job attractiveness.
11:21 NHL Coaching Changes — Vegas fires Bruce Cassidy, ripple effects on Kings options, overview of veteran available coaches and their credentials.
22:12 Kings Playoff Race & Prospects — Wild-card standings, upcoming games, Kings injury updates, prospect news including NCAA Frozen Four and goalie situation.
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It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
A surprising coaching change in the LA King's division,
how could it impact the Kings and who will be the next
LA King's head coach?
You are Lockdown Kings, your daily podcast on the Los Angeles King,
part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.
Hey Kings fans, welcome to Lockdown LA Kings.
I'm Eddie Garcia.
Today's episode brought to you by Fandool during the tournament
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On today's show, we're going to talk about how the Kings are getting
some good luck but will they take advantage of it?
Who are the likely candidates to fill the Kings,
likely head coaching vacancy this offseason?
But we're going to start with what is turning out to be a huge offseason
for GM Ken Holland.
He's got a huge hole to fill in the middle of the Kings lineup
with the impending retirement of Ajay Kobatsar
and seemingly not a lot of options to be able to do that.
But that's a topic for another show.
One of the biggest areas for the Kings GM to address
is who will be the Kings next head coach?
Jim Hiller obviously was fired.
DJ Smith has replaced them on an interim basis.
This season to this point has been hugely disappointing,
barring a very unlikely successful stretch of nine games
and an unexpected playoff run.
It's hard to imagine that DJ Smith will be the Kings full-time head coach
next season.
While I think most of us have liked what DJ Smith has attempted to do
with the Kings under some tough circumstances,
right in the middle of a playoff push,
not a lot of time to implement new things,
it's also hard to say that he's been successful.
The record is what it is by five and four.
Now the only way I could see DJ Smith getting the full-time head coach
next season is like I said, a totally out of the blue run
to like the Western comments finals or something like that.
So pretty unlikely that that is going to happen.
And I think that's the only way he'd be in consideration
to be the Kings head coach next season.
Now it seems like we're sort of back where we were when the Kings
made a coaching change with Todd McClellan, right?
Jim Hiller took over on an interim basis.
Yeah, he got the team into the playoffs.
And they decided to stick with him.
Again, I can't see that scenario playing out again
because of where we are now.
I mean, light killer DJ Smith.
Yes, he's familiar with the team.
He has first hand knowledge of the players,
their strengths and weaknesses.
He's comfortable with the staff in the front office.
They know him.
He knows them.
And there's something to be said for continuity.
But there's also something to be said for getting
the best available coach for the job.
And just like there were better options available than Jim Hiller,
there are better options available than DJ Smith all do respect.
Plus this is the chance for Ken Holland to hire his guy.
Jim Hiller was not his hire.
That was Rob Blake's hire.
DJ Smith was promoted because it was just easier to make that move.
And, you know, there was some sense obviously that Smith
could fill in and do the job.
And, you know, that was an easy move.
But it wasn't, you know, our other big time head coach
is going to take over a team in that situation at that time of the season.
Probably not.
It's not a great situation to walk into.
Now, there's no reason for Ken Holland to not try and hire
the best available coach.
And even though Holland kind of punted on this season with all the injuries,
you know, he still was hired to get the Kings over the hump
as general manager.
And one of the biggest things he can do towards helping that happen
is to hire the right head coach.
And in hockey and all sports, I suppose,
but it seems particularly hockey that a hiring the right head coach
can be very impactful very quickly,
which is probably why we see usually a lot of head coaching changes
in the NHL.
We haven't seen that many this year, which we'll get into in a moment.
But whether those big time coaches,
which are going to talk about more, we'll give you some names.
Whether those coaches are interested in the LA Kings,
I think is the real question.
Now, what would a veteran established head coach
who has a resume?
What is he looking for when he joins an organization?
Well, he's going to be looking for a right fit
in terms of what is this team all about?
Are they going in the right direction?
What's the situation?
I'm kind of walking into what's this organization look like?
And then the other thing is how much is he going to get paid?
So let's start with that part.
Because I don't think that's an issue.
Now, coaches, salaries in the NHL usually aren't made public.
Sometimes they are Mike Sullivan of the New York Rangers
reportedly is the highest current head coach in the NHL,
6.5 million per season.
There were reports that Amheim Doug said coach Joel Quinnville
is getting around 6 million per year.
And considering, you know, there's the best coach in the league,
most likely John Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
He's making just north of 5 million.
But the Kings are looking for an experienced veteran head coach
that has had a lot of postseason success.
They're going to have to pay around 6 million per season,
probably for that head coach.
Now, will the Kings organization will ownership pay that?
I believe they will.
Former Kings head coach Todd McClellan was reportedly
one of the highest paid coaches at the time.
When he was in LA, he was making around 5 million per year
and Todd had a good resume.
But he'd never been to a Stanley Cup Final.
He'd never won a final before.
But the point is that ownership has been willing to pay.
They, I believe Darryl Sutter was amongst the highest paid coaches
when he was in the NHL with the Kings in comparison
to what the time was as far as highest paid coaches.
Now, I have no idea what Jim Hiller made.
My guess is for somebody in his situation
where this was the first time he was an NHL head coach.
It was probably like one or two million at most
and maybe there were incentives as far as playoff success
that were maybe built in the contract.
But I believe if a qualified experienced successful NHL head coach
wants to come to LA, I don't think the amount of money
that he's going to be looking for is going to be an issue.
As for the other part, an experienced head coach looking for
a solid organization and an opportunity for success.
You want to go to a place that has some kind of stable ownership.
I don't think there's an issue there with the Kings,
although there's always these rumors about maybe the team being sold.
It's always kind of there, but it never seems to go anywhere.
You want to go to a place that has been successful of late.
Now, obviously, you're taking over a job a coach has been fired
so there's a reason for that.
It's not like you're going to walk into a team
that's on the verge of winning a Stanley Cup and they say,
here you go, you're going to take over a team that's had some sort
of issues, but it doesn't mean that that team can have had success as
well.
So a coach that comes in this off season will be taking over
a Kings team that either has just had a streak of four straight seasons
of making the playoffs snapped or has made the playoffs five years
in a row if the Kings do affect sneak into a playoff spot.
So a coach coming here is not taking over a rebuilding team.
I know some people want that.
That's not going to be the case.
Certainly not taking over, you know, an elite team either,
but like I said, that's usually not the situation when coaches
take over.
So what are the other options out there or a sought after head coach?
As it stands right now, and this will almost certainly change,
but the Kings are kind of the only opening for a head coach at the
moment.
Now again, barring some miracle run by the Kings.
They're looking for a new head coach.
I would bet anything on that.
Now, there will likely be an opening in Las Vegas,
which we're going to touch on more in just a second.
There could be an opening in Columbus, but neither one of those
are certain.
Toronto could be looking for a head coach who had a development on that
situation today.
We'll tell you about.
And there could be head coaching changes in Nashville and maybe
even Edmondson if they don't have any playoffs success.
But again, we'll see as it stands right now,
I think the Kings are the team that is clearly looking to make a
change.
And I think the Kings job is an attractive job.
I think the coach will get well paid.
He'll take over a roster that could at least have a decent
chance of being a playoff team.
And of course, you get to live in LA.
That's not all that bad either.
But I do think the Kings job is a job that some of these coaches,
some of these coaches at the top of the list that are available
will be interested in.
Now, who are some of these names specifically?
We will get into that next here.
I'm locked in only Kings, your team every day.
What's up, everybody?
This is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcasts Network.
And if you haven't heard yet, we started a club and we would love
for you to join.
It's called the Every Day or Club.
And one of the things that you get as a member is an ad-free
version of the podcast that you're listening to right now.
It works with whatever podcast app you already used.
Same episodes every day, just no ad.
There's also a member's only group chat for fans of your team
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Well, before last season, I said there were some coaching candidates out there
that the kings should consider to be their next head coach.
And those coaching candidates are still available.
But I wanted to get started with the big news in the NHL.
And that was the biggest goal tonight's doing something pretty shocking
even for them and even for the NHL.
They fired their head coach Bruce Cassidy with eight games left in the regular season
and the team currently holding a playoff spot.
And I'd say they have a pretty decent grip on a playoff spot.
That said, the team has under achieved this year.
They were only five, ten and two since the Olympic break.
It's not unprecedented that a team would do something like this.
You might remember back in 2007, the New Jersey Devils,
famously fired head coach Claude Julie.
And with three days left in the regular season
and the team in first place in their division
because their GM Lula and Marillo didn't like the way they were playing
going into the post season.
So while the Vegas move isn't someway shocking,
it was also on brand for Vegas.
For better or for worse, Vegas is a cutthroat organization
when it comes to trying to win, which is good and maybe not so good.
I mean, on the one hand as a fan,
you have to appreciate that your team is going to be committed to winning.
And that's obviously not a bad thing.
But on the other hand,
there is something to be said for treating people the right way
and having loyalty to, you know,
I know it is professional sports.
But I mean, Vegas,
like I said, this is on brand for Vegas.
They are aggressive and they kind of don't care.
No F's given, I guess you could say, for Vegas.
They pulled the rug out from under one of the most popular players
in recent NHL history when they shipped out
Goli Mark Andre, Florey a few years back,
who had just won the Vesna trophy
as the league's top goalie and was immensely popular in Vegas.
And they traded him because they felt they had some other goalies
and he was making too much money.
And that move did not work out for Vegas.
And there are a lot of their fans that are still upset about that to this day.
So sometimes the things they do work out sometimes they don't.
But you can always say there's no question that they are an incredibly aggressive team
that is willing to be controversial.
And I'm sure there are some Kings fans out there
that would love to see the King's organization be more like that.
Personally, I think there is some middle ground.
Yeah, sure.
I think the King's organization could be more outwardly committed to winning.
But I also think there needs to be some loyalty too.
I think there's the Golden Knights are at one extreme of that situation for me anyway.
So that being said,
as soon as I heard the news that Bruce Cassidy had been let go as their head coach,
I immediately thought he'd be a good choice to be the LA King's next head coach.
Now Cassidy has coached parts of 12 seasons in the NHL,
assuming Vegas makes the playoffs this season.
His teams will have qualified for the playoffs 11 of 12 times.
He has guided two different teams to the Stanley Cup final,
lost with the Bruins in 2019, one at all with Vegas in 2023.
He has an intense coach.
He's got an edge to him.
He's very demanding.
I would not be displeased at all if Bruce Cassidy was the next head coach of the LA King's.
Now Cassidy, along with Jim Hiller and Dean Everson and Columbus,
have been the only coaches fired so far this season.
And it's possible, depending on how the playoffs go,
that a couple more coaches will be let go as well.
Teams at fall short of expectations.
But again, it could be a small list of vacancies,
which is a good thing for the LA King's,
because there are some quality coaches available,
and they may not have a ton of competition,
as far as trying to hire one of these guys.
So I mentioned Bruce Cassidy.
Pete DeBoer is a name we've talked about a lot.
Peter Lobby a lot, I think, should be in the conversation as well.
All these guys have been to Stanley Cup finals.
Two of them have won it.
You know, Pete DeBoer.
I don't see him.
And when you look at the other vacancies,
it might be available.
If Vegas does end up being available,
DeBoer was fired by Vegas.
And I don't see him wanting to go back there,
and I doubt Vegas would try and double dip with him.
I mean, you never know.
It's not unprecedented that a coach would be rehired
by his old team Buffalo did it with Lindy Ruff,
and he's having a great season.
But I know DeBoer had said when he got fired in Vegas,
that it had blindsided him.
And I don't know if I would say he left on bad terms,
necessarily,
but I don't know that he felt like that was the right move
or the fair move for him.
He had had a lot of success there in Vegas,
but I would be surprised if he was an option for Vegas.
I know we did have the every day, or I'm sorry,
the name is escaping me at the moment,
but he was very hot and heavy for the Kings
to bring in John Torturella.
Well, Torturella replaced Bruce Cassidy in Vegas.
It's supposedly for just the rest of the season.
Now, the Columbus Blue Jackets were the first team
to make a coaching change this year.
They hired Rick Bonus at a retirement,
kind of like John Torturella.
They're hoping that that works as far as Vegas goes,
because Rick Bonus has been phenomenal in Columbus.
They are right in the thick of things as far as a playoff spot
in the East.
And so he was supposed to just come in for the rest of the season,
but he's been so good there that Columbus might stick with him
after the season.
They've said they'll address it after the season,
but I could see Rick Bonus absolutely coming back for another year.
And who knows?
If John Torturella goes into Vegas and turns that around,
I could see him getting that job next season as well.
Now, Craig Barube is a name that I was hoping the Kings would hire
when he was let go by the St. Louis Blues.
And that was, you know, when the Kings were deciding
were they going to bring back killer
or were they going to look for somebody else.
He ended up taking the job in Toronto.
It's been a very disappointing year for the Maple Leafs
and they could be looking to make a coaching change as well.
They just fired their GM today on Monday.
And usually when you do something like that,
the head coach may not be far behind either.
So if Craig Barube is available,
he would be on my list as well as possible replacements
for the Kings next head coach.
But the question is,
are any of these guys on Kent Hollins list?
We know in sports past relationships can play a big factor in coaching
as far as I know,
Hollin has no connections with Bruce Cassidy.
We did hear reports during the season
that Pete DeBore had been contacted by the Kings
about a possible coaching vacancy.
That report was shot down by Ken Hollin for what that's worth.
As far as I know,
Ken Hollin and Pete DeBore don't have any kind of
a past working relationship.
DeBore like Bruce Cassidy,
very demanding coach,
typically doesn't have a real long shelf life,
but has been successful everywhere he's gone.
Stanley Cup finals twice,
including once against the Kings in 2012.
Nine of the last 10 seasons,
he was a head coach,
San Jose Vegas Dallas,
his team made the playoffs every year,
six conference finals appearances
for Pete DeBore as a head coach.
No specific ties that I could find between Ken Hollin
and Peter Lobby-Elet.
Lobby-Elet won the Stanley Cup with Carolina back in 2006.
His last 14 seasons,
Paul Delphi and Nashville Washington,
New York Rangers,
his team's only missed the playoffs three times.
He went to the Cup finals with Nashville,
and his last season in New York,
they went to the conference finals
they won the President's trophy.
That was his last coaching stop.
So he's been very successful as well.
So all those guys,
very successful,
Barubei won a cup in St. Louis.
So we're talking guys who have had postseason success recently.
I think all those guys would be good candidates.
Now, if you're looking for someone who does have
high eyes with Ken Hollin,
and by the way,
I don't think Craig Barubei has any ties to him either.
One name that has been mentioned,
matter of fact, Elliott Friedman,
sports net hockey insider,
said that Anaheim Ducks assistant coach,
Jay Woodcroft,
could possibly be on the King's radar.
He was a former hire by Hollin in Edmonton.
Only two seasons had head coached the Oilers.
They did make the playoffs each time.
They made it to a conference finals in one of his seasons.
So he could be someone that does have ties to Ken Hollin
that he might be interested in rehiring.
And if you want a real outside the box hire,
and you're looking for someone who has a connection to Ken Hollin,
Mike Babcock would be one.
He was head coach of the Red Wings in 2005 hired by Ken Hollin.
The resume certainly is there.
He took the Mighty Ducks to the finals way back when,
when they were still the Mighty Ducks,
and they won a cup in Detroit with the Red Wings in Ken Hollin in 2008.
16 seasons, his teams made the playoffs 14 times.
That said, he's had some really dicey off ice issues
with players in Toronto.
And then his most recent chopper was in Columbus,
where they fired him before he coached a single game
because of some weird player stuff going on in the off season.
Personally, I don't think he's an option,
but just, again,
it would be a very, very outside the box hire.
I thought it was a name I would throw out there,
and you know, I'll throw another name out there,
which, you know, why not?
If the Ontario Rain have a great postseason,
maybe Rainhead coach Andrew Lord gets some consideration.
He's had an amazing first year in the AHL with the Rain.
We'll see how it goes.
Maybe he is a hot coaching prospect right under the King's nose.
We'll see.
But I would be thrilled with Pete DeBor, Bruce Cassie,
Peter Lobby, let Craig Baroube if he's available.
I think all those guys will be great head coaches for the Kings,
not big on Jay Woodcraft personally,
and a very hard no to Mike Babcock.
But I think, like I said,
there's four if Baroube is available for qualities,
you know, either Stanley Cup winning or Stanley Cup coaching
candidates veteran guys who have won in multiple locations
that could be available for the LA Kings.
And I think could be a part of the solution for the Kings going forward.
All right.
The Kings are looking to bounce back from that disastrous game against Utah.
And fortunately, they haven't lost any ground since that game as well.
We'll tell you about that next year and locked in Lee King's
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Well, the Keith got some more help over the weekend.
The national predators lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning three to two.
And after winning a season high five in a row, the Preds have now dropped three straight.
Nashville is off until they face the Kings in that huge game on Thursday in L.A.
The first of two meetings in a span of four days between the two teams that are currently one Nashville holding the final
all car spot in the Kings are the team that's right on the outside looking in.
So the Kings will be no worse than one point back of Nashville.
Or that final lock are spot in the West when they meet.
If the Kings can beat the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday, the Kings would have a one point lead on the Predators before they meet in that big crucial game coming up on Thursday.
Now that game against St. Louis on paper, you might think that's an easy opponent.
It's a blues team that was thought to be out of the playoff picture.
Well, they're trying to get back in it.
They're running out of time, but the Blues have one for a row.
And they are they're right there.
They probably would have to win out, frankly, but they're not dead yet.
So that that game may be a lot more competitive than we might have thought.
The Blues might actually be playing for something.
Now they are on a four game winning streak heading into their game Monday night against the sharks.
So we'll see how they do in that game as far as a couple of quick Kings notes forward Samuel Holenius apparently is nursing an undisclosed injury.
And it's considered day to day.
If he can't go on Wednesday, look for Alex Turkot to draw on the lineup as the fourth line center.
Also Adrian Kempe did not practice on Sunday, but he hasn't been practicing lately ever since he suffered that injury a few games ago.
He has been playing in the games, though.
I would expect him to play on Wednesday.
They're just giving him as much rest as possible.
I did think he looked better in that game against Utah.
He had had a few games where he just didn't look like himself.
I thought he looked a bit more like himself in that loss to the mammoth.
No word on who's going to start in net on Wednesday.
Kings again back to back games Wednesday and Thursday.
So we know we're going to see Ants on Forsberg and Darcy Kemper, which goalie will start in which game remains to be seen.
Maybe when the Kings return to practice on Tuesday will have a better idea of how that goes.
Quick update on a couple of Kings prospects.
The frozen floor is set for Las Vegas, April the 9th.
I don't know if you're a fan of college hockey.
Look, if you're a West Coast hockey fan, college hockey is probably not something that you get all that excited about.
There are certainly groups of fans here and there about it.
It's something that I think is pretty cool.
I wish we had more of a presence of it on the West Coast.
Arizona State has a team.
That's pretty good.
UNLV is trying to get in on that with the division one program.
I would love to see, you know, USC and UCLA.
And I've got no ties to those schools, but I would love to see major division one college hockey here in Los Angeles.
I don't know if it'll ever happen.
It's been talked about a lot.
But it doesn't seem like it's something that's necessarily on the horizon.
You would think though with USC and UCLA now in the big 10 because hockey is so big in the big 10 that maybe that would help something but anyway.
But I didn't want to mention the frozen four is the final four of college hockey.
And they're going to have it in Las Vegas.
So local here on April 9th.
It starts.
If you are a hockey nut and you want to get out and see something unique.
I would highly encourage you to go do that.
But there are three Kings prospects taking part in the frozen four.
They all play with the CM team.
That's the University of Denver.
Got James Reader, seventh round pick in 2024.
He's a sophomore.
Kristen Epperson, third round pick in 2025.
A freshman and Brandon McMurrow, seventh round pick in 2025.
Also a freshman on that Denver team.
They'll be taking on number one ranked Michigan in one national semi final.
Again, that starts on April the ninth and we'll keep you updated on how they do.
Also King's goalie prospect Hampton.
Slikinski.
His defending national champion Western Michigan Broncos lost in the regional final to Denver by score of six to two.
So it is now possible.
That with his season over.
That Hampton Slikinski could sign an entry level contract and do what Carter George did last season.
And that was joined the Ontario Rain for some late season professional action.
I did see that John Hoeven over at Mayor's Manor reported that after that lost to Denver.
That that was going to be Slikinski's last game that he was going to sign with the Kings and turn pro.
So if that does happen, that makes for a very interesting situation because you'll have Slikinski.
Well, I've Carter George.
You've got Eric Portillo.
And you've got two goalies at the NHL level that are both signed through next season.
Darcy Kemper and Antonis Forsberg.
So there's five goalies for basically four spots two in the NHL two in the NHL.
I think Phoenix Copley is playing his last season with the Kings organization.
So what will the Kings do if you've got five goalies and four spots.
Makes sense that you're going to have to move somebody.
So if again, if Slikinski does sign.
And you've got Carter George and Hampton Slikinski both looking to turn pro and play in the NHL next season.
That means what Eric Portillo has to at least be the backup for the Kings.
I would guess that either Darcy Kemper and Antonis Forsberg needs to be traded in the off season.
So again, very interesting to see if in fact that happens.
What will fall off the L.A. Kings for the future in net for that team.
All right. Thanks for tuning in.
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We got a couple more days off before we get into recap of some more NHL games.
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Maybe a special interview. We're working on that.
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EDDIE.
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Locked On Kings - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Kings

Locked On Kings - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Kings

Locked On Kings - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Kings
