Initial ideas on the Maple Leafs hiring Jim Hiller as head coach

TORONTO — Considering his title had barely come up in discussions of candidates to turn out to be the subsequent head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the information of Jim Hiller’s rent caught nearly everyone exterior the group off guard.

Hiller had been an assistant coach within the NHL for a decade earlier than getting his first head job in Los Angeles. There, he solely coached one full season in 2024-25 after taking on the job as an interim coach partway by means of 2023-24 and being fired with 23 video games left within the 2025-26 season. Hiller coached the Kings within the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the place they have been eradicated in 5 and 6 video games by Edmonton within the first spherical.

While the outcomes weren’t all the time nice when Hiller coached in Los Angeles — they have been 24-21-14 and out of a playoff spot when he was fired on March 1 — they tended to drive play in a significant manner with pretty middling rosters. 

Hiller has been with the Leafs earlier than, working as an assistant to Mike Babcock from 2015-16 to 2018-19 and that overlapped with my time within the group after I was the Marlies’ video coach. We spent an honest period of time with the Leafs’ workers as a result of we shared a constructing, and so after watching Hiller’s profession by means of that point — and after having some background conversations with others — I’ve put collectively a few of my preliminary ideas on Toronto’s new head coach.

• First off, Hiller can talk. He’s on the intense aspect, however is able to turning on his persona for the gamers, and with these instruments he ought to have the ability to handle each them and the media properly. He handles himself like an expert, and all that stuff is not less than a part of the battle right here. 

• I like that he’s been across the NHL over the previous dozen years, and that he’s obtained head teaching expertise. It was vital to rent somebody who’s had the heartbeat on the day-to-day of the league. Hiring a first-time NHL boss would’ve been a bit an excessive amount of “new” for a corporation that has loads of that elsewhere. 

• Coaches have traditionally carried out finest of their second cease as a head man, and right here we’re — that is Hiller’s second head teaching job, an opportunity to chart a brand new course with that have in his again pocket.

• I had initially tweeted a knee-jerk response concerning the hiring that on reflection used a phrase unsuitable. I stated Hiller was not “particularly creative,” however after chatting with individuals, I didn’t get that half proper. He’s open-minded and has most likely pushed to do extra to open up the sport than shut it down, regardless of what the numbers – typically influenced by his rosters — could mirror.

He’s run a hockey analytics firm (TruPerformance), and cares concerning the knowledge (which is how he met and obtained employed by Babcock within the first place). That connection to the information is clearly an enormous a part of what put him excessive with Chayka and this administration group. 

• Hiller has a enjoying background that features 63 NHL video games, extra within the minors, and 6 years abroad, so he can mix that analytic bent together with his enjoying expertise. He’s in a position to connect with gamers with these items, which ought to in idea assist him get throughout the sport plan he desires to implement.

• The extra I give it some thought, it is attention-grabbing to think about what Hiller’s recreation plan could be with the Maple Leafs.

As talked about, some data-leaning followers anticipate that he’ll be defensive-minded, and a few stats do bear that out. But by all accounts Hiller loves the offensive aspect. That’s probably a part of the explanation why Auston Matthews and William Nylander are OK with this rent — they know he’s not defence-obsessed, and may give them a few of their freedom again after what was a fairly burdensome north-south recreation the previous two seasons.

• Now, is it a very good factor to rent a coach who the celebs already approve of, and who will probably attempt to allow them to go and do their factor? I suppose that relies on should you suppose these guys wanted to be whipped into form, or if a man like Matthews wants the shackles off to re-establish himself because the game-changing participant he as soon as was. 

That second factor – Matthews capable of get going once more, maybe not as a shutdown centre this time – might be a very good factor. Nylander by no means listened to the “defence first” stuff anyway, so I’m undecided this may have an effect on him a lot.

• I do suppose you’ll see DJ Smith be a part of Hiller right here in Toronto. Smith can layer on the defensive facet to what the Leafs’ new coach will wish to construct. They have been collectively in Toronto earlier than and have a very good relationship.

• The extra I take into consideration Hiller, the extra it is sensible. The preliminary shock of the rent got here from not listening to his title within the dialog a lot, and that since he’d been in Toronto beforehand, possibly that will preclude him from coming again. 

But Hiller’s Kings groups gained greater than they misplaced, they simply bumped into the Edmonton Oilers within the playoffs each years, and I’m undecided any coach might’ve pushed these Kings rosters previous prime Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. 

To drive it residence, Hiller coaches with an analytical bent, he’s obtained expertise, and he simply checks a ton of bins that you could see the Leafs’ brass liking.

• I feel Leafs followers wished one thing splashy, a danger. Maybe first-time coach Joe Pavelski, possibly a brash and assured man like Patrick Roy. Both would’ve been actually enjoyable, and definitely might’ve labored. But they could not have panned out, too, and so I feel this eliminates the potential outlier seasons at both ends of the spectrum.

If one factor is for positive, it is that the Leafs obtained some issues unsuitable from behind the bench final season. They have been rigid and operated an excessive amount of on intestine really feel, the latter of which is unimaginable to depend on as info level numero uno each day. Even only a return to listening to knowledge akin to “which lines play well when they’re together” might unlock higher success for the Leafs. 

• I anticipate this to be a breath of recent air for the analytics division that produces stories every day for the teaching workers. All this could faucet into the Leafs’ “latent upside” that Chayka has referred to with out taking any earth-shattering dangers. 

Maybe Jim Hiller will not be probably the most enjoyable rent the Leafs might’ve made, however they’re pushing again towards the elements that noticed them drop out of relevance final season. Climbing again up the Hill(er) can be a battle, however not less than they’re transferring in the best path.