Los Angeles Kings promote assistant John Stevens to head coach

The Los Angeles Kings promoted assistant John Stevens to become their next head coach.

The team and Stevens agreed to contract terms on Sunday, new Kings general manager Rob Blake announced.

Stevens, 50, has most recently served as the associate head coach of the Kings and been part of the coaching staff for the past seven seasons.

Stevens was the Philadelphia Flyers' head coach from 2006 to 2010, after which he served as an assistant coach with the Kings, including four games in 2011-12 as an interim head coach. Stevens went 120-109 with the Flyers.

"John and I had very productive dialogue this last week in relation to his head coaching philosophy and specifically how he would implement a strategy to activate our players offensively while maintaining the defensive philosophies we have come to be known for," Blake said in a statement. "I am confident that we are both in agreement on how that can be executed. With that said, we believe John has the ideal qualities to lead our hockey club. His wide array of coaching experience, including success as an NHL head coach and his inherent knowledge of our players and those in our development system, is very appealing to us. We are confident he is the best person to lead our hockey club forward."

After Los Angeles missed the playoffs for the second time in three years with a 39-35-8 mark in 2016-17, the Kings fired coach Darryl Sutter and general manager Dean Lombardi, who helped guide the franchise to its only two Stanley Cup championships.