Kings Assistant Coach Chris Hajt on the importance of special teams, building a strong penalty kill and more!

The LA Kings went into this offseason with a number of priorities. One of which - while it was obvious - has been stated numerous times. 

Ken Holland referenced it on several occasions. Peter Laviolette spoke about it as well and the hires he made on his staff put actions behind his words. 

What I’m talking about here is special teams. Only one team in the entire NHL ranked in the bottom-five both in power play and penalty kill last season. That team was the LA Kings. Holland put it bluntly – the Kings will not reach the postseason with a repeat of that statistic. I think that's probably even understating things.

We’ll get to the power play later on this month but for today, let’s look at the penalty kill, led by new Kings assistant coach Chris Hajt. Hajt earned a promotion this summer from the AHL’s Ontario Reign, where he became one of the best defensive coaches in the league over the years. Hajt has NHL experience – on Phil Housley’s staff in Buffalo – but has spent the bulk of his coaching career working with the young defensemen in the Kings system, first in Manchester and then in Ontario.

Hajt oversaw the Pacific Division’s top-ranked penalty-killing unit last season, working with what was largely a group of younger defensemen in Ontario. He now inherits one of the NHL’s worst man-down units from the 2025-26 season, despite being a group that was built to play defense first, which was certainly concerning. With Hajt now overseeing that unit, alongside Derik Johnson, who played a big part in the strength of the Kings penalty kill a couple of years back, there is an understanding that things need to improve. 

“Those little things, 3-on-3 and special teams, they're huge, right, they allow you to have one extra goal a game possibly to make a difference,” Hajt detailed. “If our power play gets an extra goal then we're not going into overtime, then you're lessening the amount that the Kings went into overtime last year. We allow one less power play goal per game, that's going to allow us to have more success. So, I think there's definitely a focus on that.”

Hajt spoke about last season’s Ontario team, which won the Pacific Division, as having excellent special teams, which helped to cover up some deficiencies the group had offensively. Only one team in the AHL ranked above Ontario in both special teams metrics and being good on special teams helped to collect points perhaps on nights when maybe the 5-on-5 game didn’t deserve them. The Kings rarely did that last season. It was 5-on-5 or bust just about every night and that factored into an NHL-high in overtime games played and an NHL high in overtime/shootout losses. 

With a new staff in place, while you can’t forecast success, it’s certainly a major point of emphasis, which is refreshing to hear. 

“I can compare it to last year with the Reign, we were a good defensive team, offensive numbers weren't very good, we were opportunistic, we found ways to score, but our special teams and goaltending were outstanding and that allowed us to have a really good record and allowed us to finish first in the division. I think that's a big reason, you get a few more points just by having better special teams and a better 3-on-3 record, you're going to be pushing to get to the top.”

Hajt will lead half of that charge, while Ray Whitney will lead the push on the power play. As noted when we spoke with Peter Laviolette, his staff will have multiple coaches providing input on both special teams units, which shows the value he places in those areas. The Kings don’t need to lead the league to find success. But think about what league average numbers could do.

Last season, using the number of power plays and times shorthanded the Kings had, league-average numbers would’ve meant nine more power-play goals and 17 fewer shorthanded goals against. For a team that went to overtime 33 times, that adds up more than you’d think. Frankly, league-average special teams might've been the difference between Wild Card 2 and winning the Pacific. It’s a huge factor and that’s why it’s such a big focus of the new coaching staff. 

Hajt’s input will be within half of that but he’s got a great track record in the AHL and is highly-thought of within the organization. He also understand Housley’s approach from their time together in Buffalo, while providing first-person insight into many of the younger players who came through the AHL and who will come through the AHL, which is valuable for a staff that is otherwise completely new to Los Angeles.

Hajt on taking things that were successful in the AHL and implementing them in the NHL
I think there's a very similar way of operating between both leagues. I think having that time in Ontario allowed myself and the other coaches to play with things a little bit, with certain structures and setups. The thing is, whether it's AHL or NHL, they're both evolving, right? Power plays are adjusting to what penalty kills are doing and vice versa. There's definitely a bunch of different scenarios and reads and things that the power plays are trying to do in order to mess up penalty kills and we’ve got to make sure that we're in a position to understand, during a certain type of play, this is what our responsibilities are, this is what you need to look for. I think that time in Ontario allowed me to study the game or see different things that teams are doing and I think something that we did a lot of too is we weren't just watching AHL games when we were down there, we were watching what the Kings were doing and watching what other top penalty killing teams were doing across the NHL, Carolina or New Jersey or Pittsburgh or whoever it was, to pick out certain ideas. As coaches, we steal from other teams, whether it's drills or plays or how to defend certain things. I can definitely take things from the American League and implement it in the NHL, but without reinventing the wheel either.

Hajt on his approach to building a strong penalty-killing unit
You’ve got to have balance to it. You have a bunch of guys that have played it for a long time and I think the important thing is that we have a belief and a structure that everyone believes in, that we teach, where it's very clear what everyone's responsibilities are. The other thing is, there's going to be things and times in the game where [players] see something that we might not see and having that relationship and building that trust amongst players and coaches, where we can have that conversation between periods, saying, “hey, we're going to make this adjustment or that adjustment, regardless of where we've been in the past or how it was last year or three years ago.” I think players want to be coached. They want to have structure but they also want to be able to trust their instincts and have an ability to go and make the plays they need to make in order to be successful. So, me personally and us as a staff, I think that's a really important balance to what we do.

Hajt on his experience with Phil Housley and what makes him an effective communicator
He can relate to every single player that he's coaching. The amount of effort and time he spends with every player, the amount of care he has with the players that he coaches, not only on the ice but off the ice as well. It goes beyond just saying, "hey, play fast, play that aggressive style.” It takes time. It's going to take a little bit of time for some of the guys to adjust to that, but once they get it and Phil will do a great job of painting that picture for everybody and what is needed, just like he did in Buffalo. He was very clear on his expectations, whether it was Rasmus Ristolainen or it was Rasmus Dahlin. Everyone knew what they were doing and had those expectations within the system, but also within their own play and how they can get better. He's an excellent teacher with that.