The Toronto Maple Leafs weren't leaving anything to chance in selecting their next head coach -- and that brought them back to a familiar face in Jim Hiller.
General manager John Chayka and his staff met with more than 25 candidates and worked the phones to canvass everyone from players to training staff throughout the league about their top choices. By Wednesday, Toronto had formally announced that Hiller -- a previous assistant with the Maple Leafs from 2015 to '19 -- was their pick to take the job.
And it was good word of mouth about Hiller that ultimately set him apart -- and has given the Leafs confidence that he can turn them back into a contender.
"What separated Jim was that the players [who] had been around him really valued who he is as a person," Chayka said Wednesday. "They really felt like they could trust [him] and that he had their back. They felt like he was committed to making them the best versions of themselves, and that he was a coach that was going to be player-centric, but also a coach who pushed, who wanted the best out of people, and he was creating an environment that brought that out."
It was also critical that Hiller's vision for Toronto matched what Chayka has been putting in place since coming on board with the Maple Leafs in May.
When Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley spoke after firing former GM Brad Treliving in March, he emphasized a lack of cohesion within the organization was holding it back. Chayka took over for Treliving in May and, along with newly hired senior adviser Mats Sundin, fired former coach Craig Berube later that month after just two years in Toronto.
In a short time, Chayka has put his fingerprints all over the Leafs. And he has faith that Hiller, 57, will embrace the direction that Toronto wants to go now.
"It starts with alignment -- alignment about standards, alignment around development, and alignment around the daily habits that ultimately will determine whether a team reaches its potential," Chayka said. "Jim understands that sustainable success isn't built through anything he says, it's built through consistency, it's built through clarity, it's built through relationships by his values, his approach, his vision for how a team should function fit naturally with what we are trying to build here."
Hiller has developed a strong reputation despite a relatively limited coaching résumé. This will be just his second head coaching stint following his tenure with the Los Angeles Kings from 2023 to '26. He was fired by Los Angeles on March 1 in the wake of a cratering 8-1 loss to the Edmonton Oilers that dropped the Kings to sixth place in the Pacific Division.
He joined the Kings in 2022 as an assistant for Todd McLellan, whom Hiller replaced on an interim basis when McLellan was fired on Feb. 2, 2024, and got the head coach job ahead of the 2024-25 season.
Hiller was 93-58-24 with Los Angeles over those combined three seasons.
Before that, Hiller's other coaching role had been as an assistant with the New York Islanders for three seasons after leaving Toronto in 2019.
Hiller said Wednesday that conversations with the Leafs' top players -- including captain Auston Matthews and top winger William Nylander -- haven't happened yet, but he'll take his time getting to know a roster that, while not totally foreign, isn't the perennial winner of its past.
Toronto missed the playoffs last season for the first time since Matthews was drafted first overall in 2016, but Hiller isn't convinced Toronto is doomed to stay outside the postseason picture for long.
"They played some really good hockey, and I think a lot of the same players that played on that team are currently on [it] and played extremely well," Hiller said. "... [Matthews and Nylander] are a couple of stars in the league. But you can go up and down [the roster] and see some tremendous players, too. Guys who've played for a lot of years, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I'm not here to tear up the roster. There's good players there, and they've shown that in the league."
The trick now is whether Hiller can capture enough buy-in from the group to put Toronto back on a winning track. In Berube's first season with the Leafs, he turned them into a reliable defensive unit that advanced to the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Toronto didn't execute the same way for Berube last year, and the team struggled without an identity for much of the year.
Hiller won't let those past failings dictate his approach to implementing a new system. Eventually.
"I think there's room to play different styles ... but that's not the job one," Hiller said. "Job one is to be able to get the team to play and thrive, and to be excited about playing whatever style and system there is. I've done a bunch of different things. I've coached with coaches who've tried things just a little bit differently, and we'll experiment with all that.
"At this point, we're early. We're going to have lots of discussions, and we'll have a style of play that the players will be excited to play, and I think that's most important."
Toronto has a reputation for being a tough place to play -- and coach -- and Hiller is prepared to tackle that challenge again with mounting pressure on his shoulders. At this point, he hasn't decided whether assistants Derek Lalonde or Mike van Ryn will remain.
"It's bigger [in Toronto], there's more volume of media, there's no question," Hiller said. "But I think how you approach it, your honesty, your relationships with [folks], that doesn't change. I know it's a big job, and it's a big market, but it's not something that I think I'm going to personally have to change much to deal with."
Having Hiller in place checks off an important task for the Leafs going into a crucial stretch. Toronto holds the No. 1 overall pick in next week's NHL entry draft, and Chayka had prioritized getting the bench settled before then.
Hiller remarked on his excitement about the potential to add another "generation talent" to Toronto's lineup, should Chayka decide to make the pick. From a wider lens, however, Hiller hoped to bring a spark back to Toronto that dimmed during their dismal 78-point showing in 2025-26 -- so that whoever is lining up on the ice will feel empowered to be at their best.
"Once you start feeling success, when everybody's doing it together in certain ways, I just start to think the spirit just naturally starts to grow," Hiller said. "And everybody feels it. Everybody who's been on a winning team, they feel that and they know it. They know that this was special for some reason. This year maybe wasn't as special for some reason, but it could be a lot of times the same group of players [turning it around]. You want the job [of each guy] to be celebrated, and that helps the team grow."