The Los Angeles Kings made a coaching change on Sunday, firing Jim Hiller and replacing him with D.J. Smith on an interim basis.
While Smith was promoted from associate coach to head coach, it isn’t a permanent hire by the Kings and GM Ken Holland. However, Smith does have the advantage of being the next official head coach of the Kings, or “pole position” as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman put it in the latest edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast.
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Regardless of Smith having the lead in the coaching carousel for the role of the Kings’ bench boss, Friedman name-dropped former Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft as someone who could be next in line.
“There’s going to be talk about Woodcroft if Smith doesn’t grab hold of the job,” Friedman said on the latest 32 Thoughts episode.
Woodcroft is currently the assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks, who looks after the team’s offense and power play specifically, alongside head coach Joel Quenneville.
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With the help of Woodcroft’s offense-minded guidance, the young Ducks have looked like one of the fastest and most threatening teams up the ice.
Furthermore, Anaheim’s style has helped its young forwards progress and grow into real difference makers in the NHL. Cutter Gauthier, Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson are all 22 or younger, yet they are the three scoring leaders for the Ducks. In fact, Sennecke leads all NHL rookies in scoring with 51 points in 61 games.
Jay Woodcroft (Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images)
Before becoming a member of the Ducks’ coaching staff, Woodcroft was the Oilers’ head coach for parts of three seasons.
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He spent 133 games behind Edmonton’s bench, with just one full season with the team. That full campaign was in 2022-23 when he led his team to a 50-23-9 record. The Oilers went on to accumulate 109 points that year, the team’s most in a regular season since 1985-86.
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Woodcroft had two playoff campaigns in 2022 and 2023. The 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs were his first as a head coach, and he was able to help the Oilers get to the Western Conference final for the first time since they advanced to the Stanley Cup final in 2006.
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Along the way, Woodcroft’s Oilers knocked out the Kings in the first round of the playoffs twice over the last four seasons.
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