A person with direct knowledge of the situation tells The Associated Press that the Los Angeles Kings will name associate head coach John Stevens their next head coach.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Sunday because an announcement had not been made.
Stevens replaces Darryl Sutter after serving as a Kings assistant and then associate coach for the past eight seasons, which included two Stanley Cups. He was interim head coach for four games in 2011-12 after Terry Murray was fired and before Sutter was hired.
The 50-year-old was long considered Sutter's eventual replacement, though the firing of general manager Dean Lombardi and Sutter earlier this month put everything into question. When assistant Davis Payne was fired, the door was open to promoting Stevens.
Stevens' Flyers ties run deep.
He was drafted by the Flyers with the 47th pick in the 1984 draft and played nine NHL games with them from 1986-88. He came back to the organization in 1996 to play for the AHL's Phantoms for three seasons, including captaining the 1998 Calder Cup title team, before retiring in 1999.
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Stevens moved behind the Phantoms bench in 1999 as an assistant before he took the reins as their head coach in 2000. Stevens was the coach of the star-studded 2004-2005 Phantoms led by Mike Richards, Jeff Carter and Patrick Sharp that won the Calder Cup.
Stevens then caught his first NHL head coaching break in 2006 when Ken Hitchcock was fired and the Flyers promoted Stevens from Lehigh Valley to become head coach of the big club. He went 120-109-34 in three-plus seasons as the Flyers head coach, a tenure that included a run to the 2008 Eastern Conference Final a year after the Flyers were the worst team in the league. Stevens was fired by the Flyers in December 2009 after a poor start and replaced by Peter Laviolette, who helped lead the Flyers to the Stanley Cup Final that year.
ESPN first reported the Stevens' hiring by Los Angeles.
- CSNPhilly.com contributed to this story.
