The Toronto Maple Leafs completed their offseason overhaul on Wednesday by naming Jim Hiller the 41st head coach in franchise history, a hire that Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman described as a surprising choice and that was nonetheless the conclusion of a search that covered more than 30 candidates over several weeks.
Hiller, 57, is a native of Port Alberni, British Columbia who spent four seasons as a Maple Leafs assistant under Mike Babcock from 2015 to 2019, then went to the New York Islanders, then to the Los Angeles Kings, where he went 93-58-24 as head coach over parts of three seasons before being fired on March 1 following an 8-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
He was fired by the Kings three months ago.
He was hired by the Maple Leafs this morning. In Toronto, there is no offseason in the emotional sense, only the next thing.
"I'm incredibly excited for the opportunity to return to Toronto and lead the Maple Leafs," Hiller said. "This is a special organization with great players, passionate fans and high expectations. I'm looking forward to getting to work with our players and staff and doing everything we can to help this team reach its full potential."
New general manager John Chayka, who was himself hired less than two months ago to replace Brad Treliving, described the choice as clear. "Jim is an experienced coach with a strong understanding of what it takes to win in today's NHL. He has worked with successful teams throughout his career, connects well with players and brings a clear approach behind the bench. We believe he's the right person to lead our team and help us reach our goals."
The Situation That Required This Hire
The Toronto Maple Leafs finished the 2025-26 season 32-36-14, last in the Atlantic Division, 28th overall in the NHL and out of the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.
This followed a 2024-25 season in which the Leafs won the Atlantic Division and made the second round of the playoffs, which made the subsequent collapse one of the more shocking single-season reversals in recent franchise history.
Craig Berube had been hired in 2024 when the organization fired Sheldon Keefe following yet another first-round playoff exit.
Berube delivered immediately in his first season, Atlantic Division title, meaningful playoff run, and then the 2025-26 season happened.
He was fired on May 13, ten days after Chayka replaced Treliving as GM. "An opportunity to start fresh" was how Chayka framed it.
Chayka then conducted what LeBrun reported was an extensive search involving more than 30 coaching candidates.
The Leafs interviewed names across multiple categories, experienced head coaches, prominent assistants, candidates from outside the usual Toronto network, before landing on someone who knows the organization and knows the building and has been here before.
Who Is Jim Hiller?
Hiller spent eleven seasons coaching junior hockey in British Columbia and the WHL's Tri-City Americans before breaking into the NHL as a Mike Babcock assistant in Detroit.
When Babcock was hired by Toronto in 2015, he brought Hiller with him, a connection that placed Hiller in the Leafs organization for four seasons, primarily managing the power play during a period when the franchise's core of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander was being assembled.
When Babcock was fired in November 2019 and replaced by Sheldon Keefe, Keefe brought in his own staff and Hiller moved on. He spent three seasons as an assistant with the New York Islanders under Barry Trotz, then joined the Kings in 2022 on Todd McLellan's staff.
When McLellan was fired in February 2024, Hiller stepped in as interim coach, and when the Kings evaluated what they had seen from him in that interim stretch, they handed him the permanent job heading into 2024-25.
His Kings record across those parts of three seasons, 93-58-24, a winning record, playoff appearances, represents a solid body of work that was ended abruptly when the 8-1 loss to Edmonton in March became the occasion for the organization to make a change.
The NHL is unforgiving about those moments. He was available. Toronto came calling.
The Draft Pick That Frames Everything
The coaching hire arrives alongside one of the most significant assets the Toronto Maple Leafs have held in years: the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
The 28th-place finish that cost Berube his job produced the lottery position that the team converted into the top selection.
Who that pick becomes, and who Hiller is as a coach when surrounded by that player and the veterans already on the roster, is the specific question the 2026-27 season will begin to answer.
The familiarity that Elliotte Friedman cited as a possible deciding factor for Chayka is real in the specific sense that coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs is a different experience from coaching any other NHL franchise.
The market pressure, the media coverage, the fan expectations that accumulate around a franchise that has not won the Stanley Cup since 1967, all of it creates an environment that coaches who have not been in it sometimes underestimate.
Hiller has been in it. He knows what Scotiabank Arena in November feels like when the team is struggling. Chayka may have valued that knowledge.
"This is a special organization with great players, passionate fans and high expectations," Hiller said. He did not flinch at any of those three descriptors. He has been in Toronto before. He knows what each of them means.