Maple Leafs fill out Babcock's staff, hire D.J. Smith, Jim Hiller, Andrew Brewer
The Toronto Maple Leafs filled out their coaching staff Tuesday, announcing they have hired D.J. Smith, Jim Hiller, and Andrew Brewer to serve as assistant coaches to Mike Babcock.
Hiller and Brewer make the jump with Babcock after spending last season on the Detroit Red Wings' bench.
The former head coach with the Tri-City Americans, Hiller ran the Red Wings' power play, which paced the league with 70 goals.
Brewer, a former Hockey Canada video coach, was in charge of coordinating Detroit's staff.
Smith is coming off a Memorial Cup-winning third season as head coach of the Ontario Hockey League's Oshawa Generals. He also won back-to-back Memorial Cups with the Windsor Spitfires as an assistant to Bob Boughner.
A former Maple Leafs farmhand, Smith played in 11 games with the organization across two seasons in the late 1990s.
DJ Smith knows these parts pretty well. #TMLtalk #throwbacktuesday pic.twitter.com/W28upiAvEE
— Toronto Maple Leafs (@MapleLeafs) June 16, 2015
Toronto also announced that Matthew J. Herring, who worked for the NBA's San Antonio Spurs last season, will join the organization as the head strength and conditioning coach.