On Thursday, the Los Angeles Kings suffered one of their biggest losses of the offseason so far when it was announced that Marco Sturm would be the next head coach for the Boston Bruins. It was a move that wasn't necessarily a surprise as he had been interviewing and it was an opportunity that Sturm could not afford to pass up.
However, he was a big part of the Kings' success the past few years as he was head coach of the Ontario Reign. During that time, he had a big part in the development of key players on the Kings now like Quinton Byfield and Brandt Clarke.
Sturm originally joined the Kings in 2018 as assistant head coach for Los Angeles before moving to head coach of the Ontario Reign prior to the 2022 season. In those three seasons with the Reign, they would make the playoffs every year and would guide them to 90 or more points in the past two seasons.
It always seemed it was a matter of not 'if' but 'when' for Sturm as he had interviewed previously with other teams for their head coaching job. This is a chance for him to return to a franchise that he was with as a player from 2005-2010 and played over 300 games during that span.
The Los Angeles Kings haven't won a game against the Bruins in Boston since the 2022-23 season and next season will have to do it against one of their former coaches.
LA Kings shouldn't have to make any other changes to their coaching staff
The good news for the Kings is that it seems like Sturm will be the only coach they have to replace this offseason. After the season, it seemed possible the Kings could let Jim Hiller go after the way the playoffs went but new general manager Ken Holland has made it clear he will be returning.
In addition, assistant head coach D.J. Smith will be back as he was interviewing with the Pittsburgh Penguins, but they elected to hire Dan Muse.