Kings Finally Select Coach, Take Melrose : Hockey: Team’s front office will be shuffled, moving Vachon up and replacing him with Beverley.

The Kings, often criticized during their prolonged search for a head coach, ended that quest Wednesday by hiring 35-year-old Barry Melrose, coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings’ top minor league affiliate in Glens Falls, N.Y.

Melrose will be introduced today at a news conference in which the Kings will also announce that General Manager Rogie Vachon will be replaced by assistant general manager Nick Beverley. Vachon, who has been the general manager since 1984, will be elevated to a new position, that of King owner Bruce McNall’s assistant, a team official said.

In another move in an organizational shake-up, Executive Vice President Roy Mlakar, as expected, will become the Kings’ new president, taking owner McNall’s place.

The front-office changes have been in the making for quite some time. The Kings’ scouts were informed of the moves at last week’s league meetings and draft in Montreal. Once McNall was elected chairman of the NHL’s Board of Governors Monday, the Kings were able to put the other pieces in place.

Melrose is the Kings’ 17th coach since the team joined the NHL in the 1967-68 season. The Kings had to pay dearly to get Melrose, offering a four-year contract worth about $1,000,000, according to sources. That deal is believed to be the most for a first-time NHL coach.

“If you think the guy is the one--and we did--we said you’ve got to do what you can to get him,” said a team official, explaining the sizable contract.

Getting Melrose from Detroit’s organization was difficult. Melrose was well-entrenched there, finishing his playing career with the Red Wings in the 1985-86 season as a defenseman. Later, he moved into coaching junior hockey and went on to lead the Adirondack Red Wings to a 40-36-4 record and the American Hockey League championship this past season.

Detroit wanted to keep him, and Bryan Murray, the Red Wings’ general manager and coach, said he would step down as coach after next season if that would prevent Melrose from going to Los Angeles.

Then McNall opened his wallet and that was it.

Although Tom Webster was making between $225,000 and $250,000 in his last season as the Kings’ coach, the offer to Melrose was unusually high. The Red Wings were stunned by the size of the offer to a first-time NHL coach. So were Melrose and his wife, Cindy. “It’s overwhelming,” said Cindy Melrose, from their home in Glens Falls, N.Y. “All of our crying was done by midnight.”

Before the Kings’ offer, the Melroses clearly were leaning toward staying. As it turned out, the Red Wings couldn’t even come close to matching the Kings. If the Red Wings had come within range, it is believed that the Melroses would have stayed one more season in Adirondack.

With the decision to hire Melrose, the Kings seemingly have come full circle in their philosophy concerning head coaches. They had a taskmaster in Robbie Ftorek in 1989 and opted to replace him with the hands-off Webster, who got along well with the star players but did little else.

Melrose has been known as a disciplinarian but not as unyielding as Ftorek.

Another thing about Melrose: He isn’t a close friend of Wayne Gretzky.

“This is not a Bruce McNall hire,” one source said. “And it’s not a Wayne Gretzky move. It’s not someone that Wayne Gretzky hates or loves.”

That, coupled with Melrose’s outstanding minor league record, was enough for the Kings to get Melrose in Los Angeles, no matter what the cost.

NHL Notes

The Eric Lindros hearings broke off Wednesday and will continue. “It will go at least until (Thursday) night--and I stress the ‘at least,’ ” said the arbitrator, Toronto lawyer Larry Bertuzzi. “There are more witnesses to be heard from. It’s difficult because this is a very important matter for the clubs involved. It’s taking time, but I do believe progress is being made. Each side is getting a chance to tell their side of the story so at least they can be assured that the judgment will be fair.” Lindros, 19, is caught between two clubs--the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers--that claim to have made deals for him with the Quebec Nordiques.