EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Los Angeles Kings president Luc Robitaille expects coach Jim Hiller to remain in charge after the team selects its new general manager.
Robitaille expressed strong support for Hiller on Tuesday, one day after GM Rob Blake and the Kings mutually agreed to end Blake's eight-year tenure.
“Your general manager, you want to give him the freedom, you don’t want to lock up a new person that’s coming in, but the record of what Jimmy has done this year is really, really good,” Robitaille said at the Kings’ training complex. “It would be really hard for any GM to say, ‘Well, this guy shouldn’t come back.’ He’s been really good. I think Jimmy’s a great coach, and I fully think that this guy is coming back, for sure.”
Hiller has been in charge of the Kings' bench since February 2024, when the former assistant took over for the fired Todd McLellan. The Kings are 69-37-10 in Hiller's first job as an NHL head coach, and they matched franchise records with 48 victories and 105 points this season before losing to Edmonton in the first round for the fourth consecutive postseason.
Robitaille emphasized that the new GM would have the final say on the coaching staff, but the longtime team president reiterated his overall happiness with the state of the Kings' roster, their coaching staff and even their style of play despite their repeated playoff disappointments.
Robitaille made it clear that Blake supported the decision to seek new team leadership. Robitaille plans to hire a general manager who can provide a fresh perspective on how to change a talent-filled roster that can't get it done in the postseason.
“Blakey and I have been talking about it for probably a year,” Robitaille said. “He always said he wanted to wait to sign (a contract extension). I'm not going to get into detail about our conversation, but it's something we talked about ... and we both agreed this was better for the franchise.”
The former Kings teammates agreed that “it was time to probably bring a new voice just to get us to that next level,” Robitaille added.
Los Angeles hasn't won a playoff series since raising the Stanley Cup in 2014, and the Oilers have bounced the Kings in four straight springs. Los Angeles has won only eight total games in those four first-round series, and Hiller's club lost its final four in a row last week after winning the first two at home.
Robitaille didn't sound close to hiring Blake's replacement. He plans to examine multiple candidates, including Marc Bergevin, the former Montreal GM who was a senior adviser to Blake for the past 3 1/2 years.
Robitaille isn’t waiting until he hires a new GM to begin preparations for next season. Working with assistant general manager Nelson Emerson, Robitaille has already spoken to pending unrestricted free agents Andrei Kuzmenko and Vladislav Gavrikov, who both played significant roles in Los Angeles’ late-season success.
When asked what he sought in a replacement for a general manager of a team coming off one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, Robitaille emphasized the importance of evaluating the Kings' roster with fresh eyes.
“We had a good year ... but it’s sports, and you want to win the last game of the season,” Robitaille said. “That’s our goal.”
Robitaille doesn't necessarily want to see the Kings abandon their regimented, defense-oriented style of play under McLellan and Hiller, however.
Fans often criticize Los Angeles' style as old-fashioned and not offense-forward, but Robitaille offered a passionate defense of a team that stopped relying so heavily on the neutral-zone trap this season and finished 14th in the NHL in goals scored (249).
“We had three of the best lines in hockey,” Robitaille said. “We scored goals. We had a 40% power play (at the end of the season). We felt like we needed to tweak our power play, and credit to our guys, they figured it out. Some teams have a 60-goal scorer. We don't, but we have a lot of guys that can score goals. We play hard. We forecheck. We don't sit back. ... We want to push.”
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FILE - Los Angeles Kings general manager Rob Blake speaks to reporters at the NHL hockey club's training complex in El Segundo, Calif., May 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Greg Beacham, file)
Los Angeles Kings left wing Andrei Kuzmenko (96) celebrates his goal with teammates during the second period in Game 2 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series Edmonton Oilers, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”
Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”
Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.
With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.
Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.
In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.
Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”
Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.
“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.
The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.
The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.
Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.
In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
