The Los Angeles Kings have also fired assistant coach Davis Payne.
Payne was fired late Tuesday, the day after head coach Darryl Sutter and GM Dean Lombardi were relieved of their duties.
As for longtime assistant coach John Stevens, there’s been no decision yet on his future. It’s expected Stevens will receive an interview for the head-coaching position -- and he’s reportedly a legitimate candidate -- though all those years on Sutter’s staff have the potential to work against him.
New GM Rob Blake said yesterday that Sutter’s replacement will be tasked with fixing the Kings’ ineffective offense. The team is open to new ideas and “different philosophies,” said Blake.
Stevens, the former head coach of the Flyers, has been a candidate for other head-coaching vacancies around the league. He was granted permission to interview in 2013, and was considered a front-runner for the job in Vancouver, which eventually went to John Tortorella.
Since then, it’s been widely assumed that Stevens would one day replace Sutter.
But things have obviously changed in the past few days.