Of all the up-and-comers (Joe Pavelski, David Carle, Pat Ferschweiler) and established names (Patrick Roy, Bruce Cassidy, Peter Laviolette, Dallas Eakins) linked to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ expansive coaching search, said to be more than 25 interviews, no one predicted the winning candidate.
Jim Hiller, 57, is not exactly a retread, nor quite the freshest face.
He is, however, the franchise’s 41st head coach and first big bet in this young but newsy era of John Chayka, who spoke with Cup winners, NCAA studs, junior stars, European bench bosses, and even some guys who retired their whistles before announcing Hiller.
“We were exhaustive in pursuing everybody,” Chayka said Wednesday, via Zoom. “It became very clear that Jim, through his preparation, through his plan, through his knowledge of the market, we just felt like he was the best candidate amongst all of them.”
Make no mistake: The hire of the experienced Hiller, who will need less time to get up and running than most, means the 28th-place Maple Leafs are making an earnest stab at leaping right back into the playoffs in 2027.
And trying to enjoy the ride more than last winter’s slog.
“I believe the biggest impact the coach can have is guiding the spirit of the team,” Hiller said. “The game has to be fun.
“We’ll have a style of play, I think, that the players will be excited to play. And I think that’s the most important.”
There’s certainly calculation behind the risk of hiring a bench boss whose 2025-26 L.A. Kings rallied to qualify for the playoffs only after Hiller was fired on March 1 and replaced by D.J. Smith (now a candidate to reunite and assist Hiller in Toronto).
What could be gleaned from Hiller’s first and only stint as an NHL head coach — 175 games and a .600 points percentage, spread over parts of three campaigns with a middle-of-the-road Kings roster — is that he made the playoffs twice, ultimately falling to Stanley Cup–contending Oilers squads both times.
Hiller’s staff also preached smart, safe defence, prioritized puck possession, and embraced analytics. So, Chayka’s firing of dump-and-chase motivator Craig Berube will be in a different tact in terms of style of play.
“I believe skating is the first chain in competing,” said Hiller, a right wing with 63 NHL games on his résumé. “And when I say skating, it’s up, it’s back, it’s there, it’s quick, it’s stop. It’s as quick and hard as you can do things. That’s how you start to know that your hockey team, and the spirit of your team, is starting to grow.”
That style should suit foundational cornerstones Auston Matthews and William Nylander better than Berube’s meat-and-potatoes attack methods. But that style will require a younger roster than the Leafs dressed in 2025-26. (Tuesday’s trade for young Emil Andrae is a first step.)
And there will be increased pressure on the club’s two biggest stars to bounce back with more dominant performances than they showed last season.
Easing Hiller’s learning curve greatly is the man’s familiarity with, one, a market that hotly scrutinizes its hockey team and, two, a leadership group with whom he worked closely from 2015 to 2019 as Mike Babcock’s assistant in Toronto.
Hiller ran an effective power play then, so it makes sense for Chayka and chief advisor Mats Sundin to run Hiller’s name by Matthews and Nylander before bringing him in.
Asked to keep things hush-hush during the interview process, Hiller is eager to reunite with Toronto’s core players; Chayka says he spoke with players, trainers, massage therapists, and anyone else who would answer their phone to gather opinions on the finalists.
“It was clear that the players who had been around him really valued who he is as a person. They really felt like they could trust that he had their back. They felt like he was committed to making them the best versions of themselves, and that he was a coach that was going to be player-centric,” Chayka explained. “He wanted the best out of people. And he was creating an environment that brought that out.”
As a native of Port Alberni, B.C., Hiller should also be acquainted with the game of presumed No. 1–overall draft pick Gavin McKenna, who spent three seasons in Medicine Hat prior to his Penn State jump.
That Hiller co-founded a hockey analytics company, TruPerformance, and backs up his decisions with numbers, surely appeals to Chayka. The GM wants his coaching staff to be “an extension of our front office.”
The Kings’ expected goals shine kinder upon Hiller than the actual ones, and L.A. did not have as many elite finishers as these Leafs should.
That Hiller arrived at his Leafs interview with a detailed plan and will be more open to incorporating data into his coaching impressed Chayka.
Hiller says that using math to make roster, lineup and style-of-play decisions in such a frenetic sport can be challenging, but it’s a worthy challenge.
“An opportunity of a lifetime,” Hiller said.
Yes, Wednesday’s coaching announcement was a bit of a stunner. But upon closer inspection, it does make some sense.
The GM is aligned, and the players should approve.
Welcome a Spirit of the West. Now, time to uplift the fifth-worst team in hockey.
“To our players, this decision was made with you in mind,” Chayka said. “We didn’t hire to satisfy a narrative or check a box. We hired based on what we believed would be best to support your growth, both individually and collectively.”
Hiller will fly to Toronto and be formally introduced on June 25, one day before the NHL Draft.