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Kings get permission to talk to former Flyers coach John Stevens

By Helene Elliott
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John Stevens, dismissed as coach of the Philadelphia Flyers last December, is “a strong candidate” to join the Kings’ coaching staff as an assistant next season, Kings Assistant General Manager Ron Hextall said Wednesday. However, no announcement is expected today.

The Kings requested and were given permission to talk to Stevens for the opening created when Mark Hardy resigned last week. Hardy voluntarily entered an alcohol treatment program after he was charged with felony fourth-degree sexual abuse May 21 in Washington, D.C.

Stevens was fired 25 games into the season after the struggling Flyers had compiled a 13-11-1 record. Under his successor, Peter Laviolette, the Flyers rebounded to win the Eastern Conference championship and lost a six-game Stanley Cup final series to the Chicago Blackhawks last week.

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Adding Stevens would turn the Kings into Flyers West: Hextall, General Manager Dean Lombardi and Coach Terry Murray previously worked for the Flyers.

-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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