The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired Jim Hiller to be their new head coach. In a shocking move, they are going with someone who has been here before.
Announced by the team shortly after Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman got to the news, the Maple Leafs have named Hiller to be the 41st coach in team history. No one really saw this coming.
Jim Hiller has been named the 41st Head Coach in franchise history!
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) June 17, 2026
Hiller served as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs under Mike Babcock from 2015 to 2019 and was eventually fired after the 2018-19 season when Toronto shifted its preference to Sheldon Keefe and got him to bring in his own assistants.
Since then, he was an assistant coach with the New York Islanders from 2019 to 2022, and was then immediately hired after leaving Long Island by the Los Angeles Kings as an assistant. He then was the interim head coach in the middle of the 2023-224 season when the team fired Todd McLellan. Hiller was then named permanent head coach of the Kings for the next season, but after a disappointing playoffs last year and barely scraping the top of that team's potential, was fired in the middle of last season.
Since he earned his first job in the NHL as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings in 2014, Hiller has not gone a season without being behind a bench in some capacity. Players and staff must like him a fair bit to keep him around and multiple teams to give him a job.
Hiller's previous stint with Toronto may have given him an edge in the hiring process, as he already has established relationships with key players such as Auston Matthews and William Nylander. He also shares a connection with new general manager John Chayka.
According to Friedman, after leaving the Maple Leafs organization, Hiller interviewed for an assistant coaching role with Chayka's Arizona Coyotes. Although Chayka wanted to bring him aboard, the New York Islanders offered a more lucrative opportunity, leading Hiller to head to Long Island instead.
Maple Leafs make surprise hire as head coach
Again, no one saw this coming. There were zero reports of the Leafs being interested in Hiller or even that the team was interviewing him at all. All we heard out in the public and from the media were names like Jay Woodcroft, Patrick Roy, Dallas Eakins, and Joe Pavelski as a final little group.
Even just on Tuesday, hours before the Leafs made it official, Friedman named Western Michigan head coach Pat Ferschweiler as a candidate. Clearly, no one knew at all what the Leafs were doing and who they were talking to.
Hiller has his warts and there is a reason why he didn't last long in Los Angeles as their assistant coach, as he just got out-coached during the Kings-Oilers series last year and the season got off to a rough start.
It of course all depends on the moves that Chayka does this summer to improve this team, but it is a curious hire to say the least.
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