The Los Angeles Kings are close to signing head coach Todd McLellan to an extension, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. The veteran head coach was entering the 2023-24 campaign on an expiring contract.
The move comes ahead of a pivotal season for the Kings, who have yet to win a playoff series exiting their retool/rebuild over the late 2010s. Stakes haven’t been this high in Los Angeles for quite some time, with immense pressure on the team to perform with Pierre-Luc Dubois added down the middle and youngsters like Quinton Byfield looking for statement seasons.
McLellan took over behind the Kings bench in the summer of 2019 after he was fired midseason by the Edmonton Oilers during the 2018-19 campaign. That meant his first truly full season with the team didn’t come until 2021-22 – his first two seasons in Hollywood were shortened due to COVID-19. He has coached 290 games for the Kings over the past four seasons now, accomplishing a 141-115-34 record in the regular season and a 5-8 record in the playoffs over their last two defeats, which, ironically, came at the hands of the Oilers.
With the Kings making linear progress over the past three seasons, the organization evidently feels McLellan has earned the opportunity to see things through and guide the team deeper into the postseason. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2014, Los Angeles has made the playoffs just four times and has yet to win a playoff series.
The 56-year-old McLellan has plenty of experience. He surpassed the 1,000 games coached mark in 2021-22 and now has a total of 1,096 regular-season games of head-coaching experience between the Kings, Oilers and San Jose Sharks. McLellan’s 575 career wins rank 23rd in NHL history, but his teams have historically fallen flat in postseason play – he’s posted a career playoff record of 42-46 despite overseeing the dominant Sharks squads of the early 2010s.
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