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ASSISTANT COACH
All-Time Kings Coaching History
Mark Hardy returned to the Kings as an Assistant Coach on August 4, 2008. Hardy has followed a 15-year NHL playing career – which included two stints as a Kings defenseman (1979-88 and 1992-94) – with a successful coaching career that includes serving as a Kings Assistant Coach from 1999-2006.
During his first coaching tenure with the Kings, Hardy’s responsibilities focused on defensive play, penalty killing and overall play without the puck. Hardy’s penalty killing unit ranked third in the NHL for the 2001-02 season with an 86.6 percent success rate (the second best in Kings history).
Hardy from 2006-08 served as an Assistant Coach with the Chicago Blackhawks, where he successfully oversaw the development of a young blueline that played a major role in the Blackhawks team goals-against-average going from 3.40 during the 2005-06 season to 2.82 during the 2007-08 season. He also served as an Assistant Coach with the Long Beach Ice Dogs (IHL) for four seasons (1995-96 through 1998-99).
As a player, Hardy ranks 17th on the Kings all-time scoring list (and third on the Kings all-time defensemen scoring list) with 303 points in his 11 seasons with the Kings. The Semaden, Switzerland, native also played in 41 career postseason games with the Kings, and he was a member of the Kings club that advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993.
Originally selected by the Kings in the second round (30th overall) in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, Hardy, 49 (2/1/59), recorded 368 points (62-306=368) and 1,293 penalty minutes in 915 career regular season games with the Kings, Minnesota North Stars and New York Rangers. With the Kings, he was twice named the Kings Outstanding Defenseman (1984-85 and 1986-87). In addition, he ranks second in assists (250), third in games played (616), fifth in penalty minutes (858) and fifth in goals (53) amongst Kings defensemen all-time.
Mark and his wife Kristina reside in Manhattan Beach. They have two children, daughter Jessica and son Kevin.
