Peter Laviolette Details 2026-27 Coaching Staff & New Hires!

Insiders, sharing some intel from new LA Kings Head Coach Peter Laviolette, regarding the breakdown of the LA Kings coaching staff ahead of the 2026-27 season.

The Kings announced Laviolette’s staff last week, consisting of three new hires – associate coach Phil Housley and assistant coaches Chris Hajt and Ray Whitney – joining assistant coach Derik Johnson, goaltending coach Mike Buckley and video coaches Samson Lee and Travis Culhane. Laviolette was clearly given the ability to have a lot of influence on his staff, with only the latter four staying on board, with Hajt joining as a promotion from the AHL’s Ontario Reign.

Laviolette started with the basics – he prefers to have three coaches on the bench with him during games. The Kings have deviated between two and three coaches over the years and will have three plus Laviolette for this coming season. Johnson and Buckley will be up top for the “eye in the sky” vantage point, with Housley and the two assistants on the bench during games.

“I’ve had three bench coaches for the last couple of stints that I’ve had with different teams and I’ve just found it to be really useful,” Laviolette said. “There’s just so much work, there are so many players, there’s so much video going around now that, in order to get that out efficiently, spreading that work, I feel, is really important.”

One thing I liked about what Laviolette had to say is that there is not only a clear delineation of responsibilities, but there are layers to it. Housley will be in charge of the defensemen with Hajt supporting while Whitney will run the forwards with Johnson supporting. Whitney will also work on the power play with Housley supporting. Hajt will run the penalty kill with Johnson supporting. I think that you sometimes see all of the responsibilities fall on one person in a particular area, but with the way this staff is constructed, each coach brings something different to the table and can contribute in multiple ways, with different pairings in different areas.

Adding multiple layers to the special teams was very important for Laviolette and having multiple coaches with experience and influence into both areas is important. In the AHL, the Ontario Reign led the Pacific Division at 84.2 percent on the penalty kill last season and the bulk of that was Hajt’s direction. Only four teams in the AHL had a better number last season than Ontario. Johnson had some input on the penalty-killing changes the Kings made back in the 2023-24 season, when they ranked second in the NHL during the regular season. Keeping him on staff and putting those two minds together should only be able to help a Kings unit that really struggled last season. On the power-play side, Whitney excelled in those areas as a player, while Housley has the experience behind the bench. Having Housley with that background is a good safety net as Whitney adjusts to being a first-time NHL coach. The Kings have new pieces in place, personnel wise, and were one of the league’s worst units last season. Sounds like a fresh approach there, which could help.

“The power play and the penalty kill are things that we are really focused on, that I have focused on in my hirings, to make sure that we can try and improve in those areas,” Laviolette added. “If you can improve the special teams and get them above the 50 percent line in the league or maybe into the Top-10 or even push further than that, I feel that you can find success and increase your point total in the regular season and have an advantage going into the playoffs.”

The staff building process, in terms of the incomings, started with Housley. This is not a shocker, as Laviolette and Housley worked together in both New York and Nashville, forming a pretty good duo with both clubs.

As noted, Housley will be responsible for the defensemen and will assist with the power play as well. Housley has the most experience on the staff behind Laviolette. He’s been an NHL Head Coach. He’s been an associate coach and he has been responsible for the defensemen and the power plays before in his coaching career. He’s also one of the best offensive defensemen in NHL history and Laviolette believes he should help a player like Brandt Clarke take that next step towards becoming the player he can be, while also introducing some different concepts and philosophies that he believes can help the Kings play the game a little bit differently, with more “motion, activity and movement” with the way they want to play. Think Housley plays a large part in that process. Housley will also take on some of the oversight as it pertains to off the ice details, such as player performance, sleep and nutrition, strength and conditioning, working with the the specialists the Kings have in place in those areas who know what they’re doing.

Laviolette on Housley
There’s a real familiarity with me and Phil, with the way that we go about our business. He was a Head Coach, he has a lot of experience, he’s a Hall of Famer. Phil is going to be responsible for running the defensemen, working with the defensemen and overseeing a larger picture as well, with the player development. It has to do with sleep and nutrition, it has to do with strength and training, it has to do with on-ice play. There’s a lot of information and a lot of coaches and outside of just being on the ice, we’re hired to help the athletes become better. Phil will stay on top of that and corral that. With that way that we’re doing it, he’s been a power-play coach before, I’ve seen him do it and he does a great job. All the coaches are there to help each other, but I think when there are conversations that need to be made, maybe in a smaller group, Ray and Phil will be able to talk that through.

With Hajt, as noted, he oversaw one of the best penalty kills in the AHL last season and he’ll begin to work with a Kings unit in need of improvements. Hajt has had an influence in the development of several Kings defensive prospects over the years. He worked in Ontario when both Mikey Anderson and Brandt Clarke came through the ranks and he’ll work with both players again in Los Angeles. He was there with Jordan Spence and Sean Durzi as well. For the latter three specifically, they were allowed to thrive offensively while also working on the defensive side of the game. Spence and Clarke were selected to to end-of-season AHL All-Star teams and Durzi took massive steps forward before his NHL opportunity came in late-2021. Hajt is also familar with players like Angus Booth and Kirill Kirsanov, who could be in the mix for depth roles with the NHL club this season.

The biggest responsibilities for Hajt will be on the PK, but he’ll certainly have some influence with the team’s defensemen, as well as player development. Hajt also served as an assistant coach under Housley in Buffalo for two seasons and he got Housley’s endorsement when Laviolette spoke with him on the phone, which only strengthened his case.

Laviolette on Hajt
Chris Hajt was in the organization and he really focuses on the penalty kill and the defensive side of the game. I think that’s important, you need to play good defense to be successful in the game and specialty teams obviously factors into it. He’s got a lot of experience as a coach and inside of the penalty kill. He’s been here for awhile, he knows the young players, coming up through our organization, so for me, there was a connectivity factor with that as well, his familiarity with some of the younger players that are going to be here with the LA Kings. His record on the penalty kill and his ability to teach, from when I interviewed him, it was all pretty clear and evident that he knew what he was talking about. I feel confident with that.

With Whitney, Laviolette understands this is a different kind of hire. Laviolette knows Whitney as a player, having worked together in Carolina for several seasons. Whitney’s playing career as an offensive player speaks for itself but his experience in coaching is at the AAA junior level, on top of scouting experience in Carolina and league-office experience in the NHL. However, this is a hire in a new mold as a coach, a bet on who Whitney is. It’s worked elsewhere, with Laviolette pointing to Rod Brind’Amour and Martin St. Louis as head coaches and a guy like Nick Bonino in Pittsburgh as an assistant.

When Whitney was a player, Laviolette didn’t necessarily see the coaching path, but what he recognized were two key traits that he believes will help him to translate. He referenced Whitney’s “hockey IQ” multiple times, pointing to a player who he feels thinks the game at an elite level. He also spoke about Whitney’s personality within the locker room and being something that was pivotal to the 2006 team in Carolina that won a championship. A coaching staff needs to do a lot of things and a lot of those things are within the walls of the dressing room. Whitney helps in those areas, in Laviolette’s opinion, with veterans in himself and Housley to rely on when help is needed.

Laviolette on Whitney
Ray Whitney was a player of mine back in 2006 when we won the cup in Carolina. From a pro coaching standpoint, he hasn’t taken that step yet……but I think sometimes, somebody’s career can supersede the experience that you can get by doing the coaching and actually getting in there. When I hired Ray, it was in my mind all along that it was for the power play, to work with the forwards, to continue to develop skill with [Johnson] on the forwards end of it. Ray was, in my opinion, always a high hockey IQ and a brilliant player. In the time that I had him, he scored a lot of points and he played a long time in the NHL……he’s been working inside the league office, he’s been watching games, he’s involved in the game, just not from a coaching level. He had interviewed a couple times for management positions, but I think Ray is really good around people. He’s good inside of a locker room. I’ve seen it first hand, the positive impact that his personality can have on other people. I’ve seen the way he plays the game, how he thinks the game, I’ve talked hockey with him and I just think he has a really high hockey IQ. There’s always a learning process, I’m still learning things and there’s going to be a learning curve for him, but Phil Housley has been there and done that and I feel like he can really lean on him. He’s going to lean on all of us, he can lean on me, but there was a lot of thought that went into the staff, how it would be connected and received by the players.

Rounding out the staff are four returnees from the 2025-26 Kings coaching staff. Included is Johnson, who will remain on as an assistant coach. Goaltending coach Mike Buckley returns for his fourth season with the organization while video coaches Samson Lee and Travis Culhane also return.

As noted, Johnson will work more 1-on-1 with players, working on specific skills and specific areas of the game, while supporting what Hajt is doing on the penalty kill. He’ll be up high during games and has a keen eye when it comes to potential challenges and evaluation in that area. Laviolette wanted to make sure Johnson remained on staff for the way he works with players on the ice and his relationships off the ice. Laviolette said Lee and Culhane both came “highly recommended” and both are highly thought of by a number of people, both inside the organization and around the NHL. Lee has been here through several coaching regimes, which should tell you how he has been thought of by many coaches of varying backgrounds and Culhane joined just last season from Denver University, the best-run program in the NCAA, with two seasons of video coaching at the World Juniors as well.

With Buckley, he was on the gold-medal winning staff with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics and we’ve certainly seen strong goaltending in Los Angeles since he’s been here. Cam Talbot, David Rittich and Darcy Kuemper each took noticeable jumps in their numbers during their first seasons with the Kings and you could say that Anton Forsberg has his best NHL season with the Kings as well. Buckley deserves some credit there and it’s important that he sticks around.

“His reputation has been great, he’s done a really good job, I think, with the goaltenders that have been here. That’s such an important position and what I’ve found is that goaltenders improve and they play well, which they have under his guidance, it’s important that those relationships stay in place. I’ve always said that I don’t know a whole lot about goaltending, the position and how to make somebody better, so when you have somebody good like Mike on your staff, that can really help your goaltenders become better, they have that relationship and that connection, I feel like that’s really important.”

So that’s the staff. Tons more in the conversation with Laviolette, embedded below. Will have a second article later in the week with more of Laviolette’s takeaways, beyond the staff. Liked what he had to say and seems to be leading a new direction with the Kings organization.