LA Kings Fire Coach Darryl Sutter And GM Dean Lombardi

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Kings fired head coach Darryl Sutter and team president and general manager Dean Lombardi on Monday.

The duo led the Los Angeles Kings to the club’s first Stanley Cup victory in 2012. Under Sutter and Lombardi over the last six years, the team won two cups and made it to the Western Conference Finals. But the Kings underperformed in the last three years, failing to make it to the playoffs this year despite a star-powered roster.

Hall of Fame former Kings player Luc Robitaille has been named the club's president and will oversee all hockey and business operations while Hall of Fame former Kings defenseman Rob Blake has been named vice president and general manager and will direct day-to- day hockey operations.

“This was an extremely difficult decision and was made with an enormous amount of consideration for what we have accomplished in our past. But the present and future of our organization is the highest priority,” said Dan Beckerman, president and CEO of AEG, the parent company of the LA Kings. “Words cannot express our gratitude and appreciation for what Dean and Darryl have accomplished for the Kings franchise. They built this team and helped lead us to two Stanley Cup Championships and will forever be remembered as all-time greats in Kings history. But with that level of accomplishment comes high expectations and we have not met those expectations for the last three seasons. With the core players we have in place, we should be contending each year for the Stanley Cup. Our failure to meet these goals has led us to this change.”

Both Sutter and Lombardi had a year left on their contracts. In recent years, Lombardi took heat for the hefty contracts given to keep the team’s core players following the Stanley Cup victories. Those contracts made it a challenge for him to move players to meet the team’s changing needs.

Sutter, who took over the team in the middle of the 2011-12 season, leading the 8th-seed team to the most dominating postseason in NHL history, was frequently blamed for the team’s perennial struggles with scoring. Famous for his cantankerous press conferences, he’s known as a hard-driving coach who emphasizes puck possession and a defensive system.

Robitaille, a fan favorite, has been the team’s president of business operations for the last 10 years. He is the highest scoring left wing in NHL history with 1,394 points. Under him, the Kings were named the Sports Team of the Year at the Sports Business Journal’s Sports Business Awards event in 2015, according to a statement released by the Kings. The team retired his jersey in 2007.

Blake rejoined the club as vice president/assistant general manager in 2013. As a player, the former Kings captain left the team under controversial circumstances due to a contractual dispute and was frequently booed by fans upon his return with opposing teams.

Blake has served as the general manager of the Kings’ AHL team, the Ontario Reign, earning him credibility with fans when the franchise won the Calder Cup Championship in 2015. He has a winning record as a general manager, leading Canada’s National Men’s Team to the 2014 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.

A news conference is scheduled for Tuesday to discuss the changes.

City News Service contributed to this report; Photo: Los Angeles Kings coach Darryl Sutter, center, looks on during an NHL hockey game against the Edmonton Oilers, Tuesday, April 4, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Michael Owen Baker/Associated Press)