- Peter Laviolette is the new head coach of the Los Angeles Kings
- Toronto and Edmonton were both in on him before LA closed the deal
- Read below for the three-year deal, the Panarin reunion and what LA needs from him
Peter Laviolette is the new head coach of the Los Angeles Kings.
LA made it official Tuesday, capping a search that had three teams chasing the same guy. Elliotte Friedman reported Laviolette was Los Angeles bound, with Toronto and Edmonton also kicking the tires.
General manager Ken Holland landed him on a reported three-year deal. Laviolette becomes the 32nd head coach in franchise history and takes over for D.J. Smith, who ran the bench on an interim basis after the Kings fired Jim Hiller on March 1.
This is the seventh NHL stop for the 61-year-old, who ranks seventh all-time with 846 regular-season wins.
David Pagnotta saw the direction a day earlier, reporting Smith was out of the running and floating Laviolette and Jay Woodcroft as the names to watch.
Toronto looked like the likeliest landing spot for a while. Friedman said the Leafs were close before the read flipped to LA, and the club had a second round of in-person interviews lined up with about five candidates.
Laviolette won the Stanley Cup with Carolina in 2006 and has reached the Final with three different franchises, joining Scotty Bowman, Dick Irvin and Mike Keenan as the only coaches to pull that off. He also took the Flyers to the 2010 Final and the Predators to the 2017 Final.
He gets a familiar face in LA. Artemi Panarin, traded to the Kings on February 4, played for Laviolette with the Rangers.
The job comes with a clear assignment. Los Angeles has reached the playoffs five years running and lost in the first round every time, most recently a four-game sweep by Colorado.
Edmonton, another team that wanted him, is still sorting out its own bench and has been linked to Mike Babcock.
His track record says he wins early. Now Laviolette has to get a team that keeps losing in round one to finally push deeper.
