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Detroit assistant Hiller to join Babcock in Toronto

Detroit Red Wings v Arizona Coyotes

Detroit Red Wings v Arizona Coyotes

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Mike Babcock is bringing former Red Wings assistant coach Jim Hiller with him to the Toronto Maple Leafs, per the Detroit News’ Ted Kulfan. That might help Toronto considerably with the man advantage.

Detroit had a mediocre 17.7% power-play success rate in 2013-14, but they finished second this season with a 23.8% conversion rate and Hiller, who was in his first campaign with Detroit, got a lot of the credit for that.

“Jim Hiller played in the NHL at one time, was a college player, was a long-time junior coach, and he’s about offense every single day,” Babcock said back in February.

“He had lots of ideas. We had to tweak them a little bit for the NHL, to build our program and get some trust for our guys, but he’s done a real nice job.”

Hiller will have his work cut out for him in Toronto as the Maple Leafs’ power play was only successful 15.9% of the time this season. Toronto was also one of the league’s worst teams offensively with an average of 2.51 goals per game.

Related:

Babcock predicts ‘pain’ for Leafs, who are a ‘massive, massive challenge’

Babcock wants to ‘put Canada’s team back on the map’

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