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John Stevens, former Flyers coach, remains Kings’ top choice for assistant coaching job

By Helene Elliott
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John Stevens is the Kings’ choice to fill the assistant coaching vacancy created when Mark Hardy resigned, and his hiring could be announced next week, an NHL source confirmed Friday.

Stevens was fired by the Philadelphia Flyers in December after the team had a weak start. The Flyers went on to win the Eastern Conference title but lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup final.

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Key Kings executives know him well. Kings Coach Terry Murray, previously part of the Flyers’ coaching staff, worked with Stevens in Philadelphia, and Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi and assistant GM Ron Hextall are familiar with him from their past employment in the Flyers’ organization.

Next week could also bring a contract extension for Lombardi and his staff. Lombardi has one year left on the deal he signed in 2006 and he’s coming off his most successful season so far. The Kings made the playoffs for the first time since 2002 and made significant progress in a long and tortured rebuilding process, stockpiling young talent at the NHL and minor-league levels.

-- 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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