The Kings targeted McLellan, 51, after they dismissed interim coach Willie Desjardins following their worst season in more than a decade. This is McLellan’s third NHL coaching stop. He was fired from the Edmonton Oilers in November with one year remaining on a reported $3-million annual contract.
The bulk of McLellan’s resume was built in San Jose, where he took the Sharks to the Western Conference finals twice, in 2010 and 2011, and won at least 50 games three times. McLellan and San Jose squandered a 3-0 first-round series lead to the Kings during the Kings’ 2014 Stanley Cup-winning season.