This morning, the Kings announced that John Stevens will be taking over as head coach.
There will be a press conference tomorrow, but Rob Blake released this statement today:
“John and I had very productive dialogue this last week in relation to his head coaching philosophy and specifically how he would implement a strategy to activate our players offensively while maintaining the defensive philosophies we have come to be known for,” said Blake. “I am confident that we are both in agreement on how that can be executed. With that said, we believe John has the ideal qualities to lead our hockey club. His wide array of coaching experience, including success as an NHL head coach and his inherent knowledge of our players and those in our development system, is very appealing to us. We are confident he is the best person to lead our hockey club forward.”
Earlier this week, I made the case for Stevens's hire. Obviously, the former associate coach was able to convince Blake that despite being part of this year's goal-starved squad, he will be able to get a few more goals out of Anze Kopitar and company going forward.
Goaltending coach Bill Ranford will stay on board, but Stevens will have to fill at least two assistant coach roles, vacated by himself and recently-fired Davis Payne.
Kings never expanded search past John Stevens, however, Rob Blake did speak with Jim Montgomery about a role as an assistant coach in LA...
However, Montgomery himself has said that he won't jump from University of Denver for anything less than an NHL head coaching position.
Another intriguing name in the wind is Joe Mullen, who was just let go after a very successful decade in charge of Philadelphia's power play. Mullen actually ran the Flyers' man advantage for Stevens from 2007-09, then impressively, held the same position under Craig Berube, Peter Laviolette, and Dave Hakstol. From 2007-17, the Philadelphia power play was third in league (20.5%).
Stevens will be the second head coach in franchise history to hold the position twice for the Kings. The other was Rogie Vachon, who enjoyed three interim coaching stints in Los Angeles (1984, 1987, 1995). Stevens was the interim coach between Terry Murray and Darryl Sutter in December 2011.
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The Kings are expected to officially announce the signing of 25-year-old defenseman Oscar Fantenberg soon.
Most recently, the Swede suited up for KHL side HC Sochi, earning an All-Star Game selection. Despite missing 16 regular season games, the 6'0" left-hander tied for 10th in the league in assists among defensemen (20 in 44 appearances). He was also Sochi's most-used blueliner and a special teams fixture.
However, a highly-placed KHL source doesn't expect Fantenberg to make a noticeable NHL impact:
See him more as a depth player...7 guy...
Solid overall...missing any real top quality...
Size is average, speed is above-average, not too hard defensively....
Sees the ice and moves the puck well, reads the game fine...
Will have troubles...against big and strong forwards...
Plenty...like him try to make the NHL and just a few of them are able to make it...
Patrick Conway, who covers the KHL comprehensively for Conway's Russian Hockey, is more optimistic:
Second-pairing is his top limit, but he could prove very useful on the power play...
He's a good playmaker...
His situation may have helped him inflate his numbers a bit...
His numbers this season were above and beyond what he had previously done in his pro career, and they came on a team that really likes to let playmaking defensemen do their thing. His coach at Sochi, Vyacheslav Butsayev, is known for having a very loose style, and allowing players to improvise as they wish...
For what it's worth, the majority of Fantenberg's production this season came on the power play. He scored 16 (3-13) of his 23 points on the man advantage.
These are some of his more exciting puck-moving highlights from this year (he's #6):
For the Kings, Fantenberg could provide a more offensively-inclined bottom-pairing option. But it seems just as likely that he'll be sent to Ontario, destined to be forgotten like last year's KHL import Patrick Bjorkstrand.
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