Kings promote Hajt from Ontario Reign to complete Laviolette staff

The Kings finished Peter Laviolette’s coaching staff on June 30 by naming Phil Housley associate head coach and Chris Hajt and Ray Whitney assistant coaches. The additions completed a bench that already included assistant coach Derik Johnson and goaltending coach Mike Buckley, putting Laviolette in place for his first season behind the Los Angeles bench.

For AHL readers, Hajt is the most direct link between the Kings and Ontario. He had just completed his ninth season with the Reign, across two separate stretches from 2015-17 and 2019-26, and was elevated to associate coach during the summer of 2025. That background matters because he spent those years inside the organization’s daily development structure, working with the prospects who cycle between Ontario and Los Angeles and helping set the standard for what a call-up must already know before he arrives in the NHL.

Hajt’s AHL résumé also runs through Manchester. He spent one season as an assistant with the Monarchs in 2014-15 and was part of the club’s 2015 Calder Cup championship team, giving the Kings a coach who has lived both sides of the franchise’s development ladder and championship standard. His departure leaves Ontario without one of its longest-tenured voices, while Los Angeles gains a staff member who already understands how the affiliate teaches systems, communication and game readiness.

Housley brings a different kind of credibility to the room. He had more than a decade of NHL coaching experience, most recently under Laviolette with the Rangers, and had previously worked for him with the Nashville Predators. Housley’s USA Hockey bio says he helped Team USA win gold at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship as head coach, and NHL.com lists his six World Championship appearances for the United States in 1982, 1986, 1989, 2000, 2001 and 2003. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2015 after finishing his NHL playing career with 1,232 points, the most by any American defenseman.

Whitney rounds out the staff with a long offensive pedigree. NHL.com lists him at 1,330 NHL games and 1,064 points, and he won the Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006. The Kings added him to a group that already blends high-end playing experience with familiar organizational voices, a structure that now stretches from Laviolette’s NHL bench back through Ontario’s development pipeline.

The coaching shuffle began March 1, when D.J. Smith was elevated to interim head coach after Jim Hiller was relieved of his duties. On June 9, the Kings named Laviolette their 32nd head coach in franchise history, and by June 30 they had filled every spot around him with a staff built for both the NHL grind and the next wave of prospects waiting in Ontario.