The Los Angeles Kings are set to announce the hiring of Ken Holland, a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, as their general manager on Wednesday, league sources said.
Holland, 69, the former GM of the Detroit Red Wings and Edmonton Oilers, succeeds Rob Blake, who mutually separated from the Kings last week following eight seasons — including four consecutive first-round playoff losses to Edmonton. At a media availability last week, team president Luc Robitaille hinted at going outside the organization for a successor.
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“We’re just going to do the best search we can and find the best candidate to help this franchise to the next level,” Robitaille said. “Doesn’t matter how old the person is. Where they’re from internally, externally. We just got to find the right person.”
While special advisor Marc Bergevin — who worked closely with Robitaille and Blake for the last four years — immediately emerged as a possible candidate, The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported last week that Robitaille brought Holland to Southern California for an interview on Thursday.
Holland is best known for his 34 years in the Detroit Red Wings’ front office, starting as an amateur scout and then running that department before serving as an assistant GM to Jim Devellano and then taking over in 1997. He served as the Red Wings’ GM for 22 years, during which they won the Stanley Cup in 1998, 2002 and 2008. Robitaille played two seasons for the Red Wings (2001-03) when Holland was their GM.
Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder in 2020, Holland moved into a role as senior vice president in Detroit in 2019 — to make room for Steve Yzerman in the front office — but then, less than a month later, Holland moved to the Edmonton Oilers to become their GM and president of hockey operations. Holland spent five seasons with the Oilers, and last year they reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final before losing. But his role had been reduced after Jeff Jackson was hired as CEO of hockey operations, and Holland and the Oilers agreed to part ways after last season.
While in Edmonton, Holland was criticized for signing goalie Jack Campbell and defenseman Darnell Nurse to outsized contracts, but he did well in landing Zach Hyman as a free agent and trading for Mattias Ekholm. Hyman has scored 144 goals over the last four seasons, including a career-best 54 in 2023-24, and Ekholm has been a great defensive partner for Bouchard, which also put Nurse in a better-suited second-pairing role.
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One of Holland’s first decisions figures to be whether to retain Jim Hiller as Kings coach. After taking over in an interim role midway through the 2023-24 season, Hiller led the Kings to a 48-25-9 record and 105 points in 2024-25 — both tying franchise records.
After Hiller’s decision-making came under fire during the Kings’ six-game loss to Edmonton, Robitaille said he believed Hiller would return as coach. But he also alluded to his new GM having the autonomy to make that call. Hiller signed a three-year contract last year when he got the full-time job.
“You want to give him the freedom,” Robitaille said. “You don’t want to lock up a new person that’s coming in. But the record of what Jimmy has done this year is really, really good. That’d be really hard for any GM to say, ‘Well, this guy shouldn’t come back.’ He’s been really good.
“I think Jimmy’s a great coach. I fully think that this guy is coming back for sure.”
In Edmonton, Holland hired Jay Woodcroft as coach in February 2022 – but also fired him 13 games into the 2023-24 season after a 3-9-1 start. Woodcroft coached the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl-led Oilers to the Western Conference final in 2022 and to the second round in 2023. He has interviewed for openings in New Jersey, Columbus and Anaheim in the last two offseasons.
Woodcroft and Holland have a lengthy history, going back to Detroit, where Woodcroft served as the Red Wings’ video coach for three years before leaving to spend seven seasons on Todd McLellan’s staff in San Jose. Hiller was an assistant coach in Detroit to Mike Babcock in 2014-15 while Holland was there before he and Babcock left for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Whatever he decides, Holland is back in a position of power after working for the NHL in hockey operations last year.
Robitaille believes Blake left the Kings’ roster in good shape. While Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty continue to be the franchise bookends, the Kings have other high-performing veterans, such as Adrian Kempe, Kevin Fiala and Mikey Anderson, and younger players such as Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere are increasing in prominence. Holland now must decide about re-signing Vladislav Gavrikov and must work on an extension for Adrian Kempe, the Kings’ top scorer and best player.
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“A new GM will come in, but we’re in good shape,” Robitaille said last week. “I really mean it. I think the moves that Rob did and the group did last summer really changed our team. Got more of an edge and so forth. But that being said, it’s not enough. We’re going to have to figure out exactly what needs to be tweaked to get this team to the next level.”
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
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