Los Angeles Kings give Todd McLellan one-year contract extension

The Los Angeles Kings will be giving head coach Todd McLellan a one-year contract extension, according to Elliotte Friedman.

McLellan, 56, was entering the final year of his contract with the Kings, so Los Angeles needed to get him to another deal to keep him beyond this season. His new contract will carry him to the end of the 2024-25 season, which is the same season that general manager Rob Blake’s contract ends.

McLellan will be entering his fifth season with the Kings in 2023-24, as they hired him in 2019 to replace Willie Desjardins. The Kings have gone 141-115-34 through four seasons under McLellan, and in that span rank 22nd in the league in goals for per game with 2.86, 15th in goals against per game with 2.98, 9th in 5v5 shot attempt share at 51.98%, and 14th in 5v5 expected goal share at 50.77%. The Kings have made the playoffs twice under McLellan in 2022 and 2023, losing in the first round to the Edmonton Oilers on both occasions.

The Kings are McLellan’s third NHL head coaching gig. He first became head coach when the San Jose Sharks hired him in 2008, where he spent seven seasons until they mutually parted ways in 2015, and then he spent the next four seasons with the Edmonton Oilers. He was also an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings under Mike Babcock from 2005 to 2008. He was also the head coach for the 2015 Canadian World Championship team that went on to win gold and Team North America in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

The Kings will hope to win their first playoff series since they won their second Stanley Cup in 2014, as it’s now four straight playoff series’ that they’ve lost in the past nine seasons. They moved on from a lot of players like Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, Rasmus Kupari, Sean Durzi, Sean Walker, Joonas Korpisalo and Cal Petersen, all to make room for Pierre-Luc Dubois up front and Cam Talbot and David Rittich in the crease.