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Committee Chairman

Kirk Buchner, "The Committee Chairman", is the owner and operator of the site.  Kirk can be contacted at [email protected] .

Kelly Hrudey already had his share of playoff heroics before he became a Los Angeles King.  He recorded 73 Saves in the quadruple overtime win over Washington in Game 7 of the 1987 Patrick Division Semi-Finals.  He earned a chance to go deeper into the post-season when he was traded to L.A. in 1989.

Hrudey was a King for eight years, and for a few of them, he could be classified as one of the better Goalies in the NHL.  In 1990-91, he had a sub-three GAA and was fourth in Vezina voting.  Hrudey followed that with another top-ten finish in Vezina voting, but the year after, he backstopped L.A. to the Cup Finals.  The Kings did not win, but Hrudey had an excellent post-season, but not good enough to defeat Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadiens.

Hrudey remained with the Kings until he joined San Jose as a Free Agent and would have a record of 145-135-55 with a 3.47 GAA.

The Los Angeles Kings was the third team of Jeff Carter’s career, the first being Philadelphia where he was an All-Star in 2009.  The second was Columbus, a team he didn’t play for long, as they traded him at the 2012 deadline to Los Angeles.  Arguably, it was the trade that took the Kings to their first Stanley Cup.

While it can be stated that Carter's best individual seasons were as a Flyer, it was as a King where he had his greatest success.  A natural leader, Carter gave Los Angeles scoring depth and was the leading goal-scorer (8) in the 2012 playoffs.  Carter led the NHL in Game-Winning Goals the following year (8), and again he was a potent force in Los Angeles' 2014 Stanley Cup win.

Following that title, Carter put forth three consecutive 60-Point campaigns, culminating with an All-Star appearance in 2017.  Carter slowed down after that and was dealt to Pittsburgh late in the 2020-21 season.

As a King, Carter scored 383 Points.

Bernie Nicholls might be one of the most potent scorers you forgot entirely about.

There is ample reason for it.  First off, Nicholls was overshadowed by Marcel Dionne and later Wayne Gretzky.  As many Points as the Center scored for L.A. (758), he did most of this on the second line, an impressive feat.  Nicholls was with the Kings throughout the 1990s, scoring over 75 Points seven years in a row (1983-84 to 1989-90), with three of those years seeing Nicholls exceed 100 Points.  

Nicholls had a special year for Los Angeles in 1988/89, where he joined the rare 70 Goal, 150 Point club, which again was incredible for a second line player.  He was fifth in Assists and fourth in Points this year, and his 70 Goals remain the highest amount ever by a King in a season.

Nicholls, who was named to his third All-Star Game appearance in 1990, was traded the day before the contest to the New York Rangers, as Kings ownership felt Nicholls might have been a little soft, and they thought it best to change the makeup of the team.  Nicholls scored 658 Points for Los Angeles with a 1.25 PPG.

A two-time Stanley Cup Champion with Montreal, Rogie Vachon was traded to the Los Angeles Kings one Game into the 1971-72 Season, and it was a King where Vachon cemented his Hall of Fame resume.

Vachon's first year in L.A. was not very good, but he was easily the best player that the Kings had his next four years.  In 1974-75 and 1976-77, Vachon was a Second Team All-Star and a Finalist for the Hart in both years.   Had it not been for the greatness of Ken Dryden, he would have been a First Team All-Star at least twice. On the strength of Vachon, the Kings made the playoffs five times, and while they were not serious contenders, the fact that they made the post-season at all was because of Rogie.

The Los Angeles days of Vachon ended when he signed with the Red Wings in 1978, and Vachon gave them 171 Wins against 148 Losses and 66 Ties.  In 1985, The Kings made him the first player in franchise history to have his number retired when number 30 was taken out of circulation.

Vachon was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016.