Owning the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2027 first-round pick, the Philadelphia Flyers could not have asked for better news to start their Wednesday morning.
On Wednesday, the Maple Leafs announced that they had hired former Los Angeles Kings head coach Jim Hiller as their new head coach, marking a stark departure from more accomplished candidates such as Peter Laviolette, Patrick Roy, and even Jay Woodcroft.
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This comes on the heels of even stranger hiring, where John Chayka took over the Maple Leafs as general manager after being out of the NHL for years.
Hiller, 57, has three years of head coaching experience at the NHL level, guiding the Kings to a 93-58-24 overall record under his watch and going just 3-8 in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Hiller was dismissed by the Kings 59 games into the 2025-26 season, when the Kings were struggling to a paltry 24-21-14 record.
The only full season Hiller coached at the helm of the Kings was the 2024-25 season, when the team went 48-25-9, thanks in large part to their 203 goals against, which ranked second in the NHL.
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Those Kings were also just 14th in the NHL in goals for (249), and without the elite goaltending he got from Darcy Kuemper, Hiller’s head coaching resume looks wholly unimpressive.
Flyers Trade Acquisition from Maple Leafs Could Play Even Bigger Role: ‘Why Not?’
Flyers Trade Acquisition from Maple Leafs Could Play Even Bigger Role: ‘Why Not?’ The Philadelphia Flyers swung a big trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, and one of their new additions could play an even bigger role than advertised.
The Flyers just pried Joseph Woll away from the Maple Leafs at the cost of Emil Andrae, Sam Ersson, and a third-round pick, which leaves Hiller and Toronto stuck with the injury-prone Anthony Stolarz and the unproven Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov.
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Now, the Flyers were already in a good spot with the Maple Leafs’ 2027 first-round pick, as Toronto had sold off veterans Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton, and Nicolas Roy ahead of the 2026 NHL trade deadline.
A Maple Leafs team with a lower-tier head coach, gutted forward depth, and uninspiring goaltending doesn’t look like it’s on the path to some great success, and certainly leans closer to a rebuild than contention.
While we don’t know which of the Flyers and Boston Bruins get the Maple Leafs’ 2027 and 2028 first-round picks, assuming it lands in the top 10, there is a very real possibility that both of those draft choices end up being high selections.
And, we can reasonably assume that the Maple Leafs would not choose to give the Bruins the 2027 pick if it falls in the top 10, as they are a direct division rival, and a hated one at that.
The trade conditions benefit the Flyers in virtually every scenario, and if Hiller’s hiring tells us anything, the Maple Leafs won’t be seeing much success any time soon.
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