Luc Robitaille: From "Too Slow" To NHL Hall Of Fame | E89
46:19 Share

I was willing to get better at whatever I did. But I remember playing hockey and practicing things that no one else would practice. So if I would go to the park when we had ice, like all the older kids would go home to dinner, I was still there. I was up at 4:30. When it was a practice, I was up and I would wake my dad up. "Dad, we gotta go."

You know what I mean? No one needed to ever push me for the next practice. You got to be willing to do better than everyone around you every single day to have a chance to make it pro. But if you're not working harder, you won't last in a pro. And then you're, you got to start your life again at 26. My name is Randall Kaplan. I'm a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and the host of In Search of Excellence, which I started to motivate and inspire us to achieve excellence in our lives.

My guest today is my good friend, Luke Robitaille. Luke is an NHL Hall of Famer who is a 19-year-old teenager, went from being drafted in the ninth round, 171st overall to becoming the highest scoring left winger in NHL history with 668 goals over his 19 season career. In his first year in the league, Luke won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and then went on to become the only left wing in NHL history to record eight consecutive 40 goal seasons.

Luke played in eight All-Star games, won a Stanley Cup as a player with the awesome Detroit Red Wings in 2002, and won two more Stanley Cups as an executive with the Los Angeles Kings. Luke, along with his wife Stacia, are actively involved in giving back to our community through their Echoes of Hope Foundation, which has helped thousands of at-risk and emaciated foster youth succeed by providing the resources, love, and support they deserve.

Luke, it's a true pleasure to have you on my show. Welcome to In Search of Excellence. Thank you. Thank you. It's great to see you. Great to see you. You were born and raised in Montreal in a blue-collar family. Your dad, Claude, worked at a scrapyard and worked hard to eventually become an owner of two used car parts yards. Your mom, Madeline, was a stay-at-home mom.

Can you tell us about the values they instilled in you as a kid? And as part of that, can you tell us about your dad's office in his Volkswagen and what the $200 to $300 it cost to send you to hockey school meant to him and how both of your parents coming to every practice and every game helped you develop at a young age?

Yeah, it's funny. That's a great memory. It's great for me to think about that. You know, I think the biggest thing is like we didn't realize then that we didn't have a lot of money. We just didn't miss anything. We had a great life. You know, for me as a kid, I just would go outside and in the summer I'd play baseball, play lacrosse, and in the winter I'd play hockey. And whatever we needed, we seemed to have it.

I think I remember later talking to my mom and her explaining to me like, oh, she would do the grocery and she'd get the Friday and she would run out of food. And then she'd have like a little bit of oatmeal left and some bread. So she'd make for dinner, like oatmeal and toast. And we thought it was the greatest meal. Like she said, you guys would celebrate. She goes, I'd be crying the back that we didn't have enough food. And it's kind of funny how that goes, but

We appreciated the way our life was, and we never heard any complaint or anything like that. And I remember seeing my dad where he would work late at night. One of his things, like in the middle of the winter, it was really cold, he would...

fix these windshield wipers motors of anything like, you know, and we'd have hundreds in the little cabanas and he would fix them every night to make a little bit of extra money to help us. And it was probably just to help us in hockey or me and my brother and, or, or other things. And, uh,

and yeah his first uh like business that he was able to to get his first office was a volkswagen car and they had like a phone book in it and then a phone line and it wasn't a car one of those it was one of those classic volkswagen and it was just parked in there no tires it was there

And then I think the next year he was all happy. They bought the back of a van and that was the office. So that lasted maybe 10 years where we would go there and in the scrapyard, like,

Like that's what I remember being like 11, 12 years old. And we would drive, some of the cars would start. So we drive them down the alley. We'd get in trouble when we hit another car because they were selling those parts. But it, it, funny enough, it was great memories, but we didn't realize that we really didn't have much, but we never seemed to miss anything.

You worked in the scrapyard when you were 13 to 16 years old during the summer. What was that like? How much were you making? What did you do with the money? And is that really a bunch of manual labor? For me, it was mostly manual. It was in the summer, and it was $150 a week, I remember. And then I would calculate. My whole thing was calculating how much I could do when the canteen stopped by, which it would stop twice a day at 9.30 a.m., and it would stop at 1.30 after lunch.

So I would try to get a little bit of cash to buy. Like I, it wasn't a coffee. It was maybe a drink and a donut in the morning and then a bag of chips and a Coke at one 30. And then we'll go to McDonald's or Burger King every lunch. And like, and I had my money for the week and the rest, I tried to save it because I want to buy a car when I, when I turned 16, that was my, my big thing. And, um, but it was, uh,

it was mostly manual labor and and i remember i got upgraded at at 13 or 14 where they would give me a card and whenever so the the way the scrapyard works in the in that world is you buy as many cars you can but they're mostly smashed and you sell the parts that are good to garage mostly but when a car they've sold most of the part there's only four five or ten parts left they

They would bring him up the yard and then they would, they would give me the card of what they want to keep my dad and his partner. Then I got to dismantle the whole card, the whole car and keep just the good parts. But it was kind of fun when you're a kid, cause you could smash the windows. They don't want them. You could do whatever you want with it. But it was, so that was my job for one summer. And then the next summer was my, my grandpa worked with my dad and

We had to build racks and those, he was a welder. So my job was to hold everything for him. And I had a good eye on measuring. So before he would level it, he would ask me and then he would tack it.

But I did learn quickly that after a night that it rained, you don't put your two feet on the ground and hold the two poles this way. And he taxied there. They would wake me up every day. But that was my job there. It was actually a great memory. But it was definitely manual labor. I worked construction one summer before COVID.

I dug ditches for the World Headquarters Weight Watchers headquarters building on Telegraph Road in Michigan. I know you've been to Detroit a bunch of times. And I remember thinking, I had my shirt off. I thought, oh, it's this little scrawny kid. I'm with the guys. I made six bucks an hour's cash.

And I'd come home filthy each day. I'd have to hose off my clothes before I went inside the house. But it taught me the value. I think the value of manual labor is very important for us. And it taught me also, I knew as I looked around, these were construction workers. They did this day in, day out for workers.

living and I thought that was really cool these were tough guys they were all really nice you know treated me well but I also realized I definitely didn't want to do that but it was a great lesson yeah it was hard when you see a lot of these guys they you know they they go paycheck to paycheck and they're but but you realize like how how much it takes to work and you know to do it right and with my grandpa we had to do it right it had to be very precise because they were racked

to hold like front end of cars and doors. And, and they were, you know, they were a couple hundred yards long. So we've got to make sure like it was done right to start. Let's talk about your earliest memories playing hockey, which you were playing on the street in the schoolyard, not on the ice, but with a tennis ball.

can you tell us about cutting the seats of old cars using foam and rubber bands while using worn tennis balls were better than new tennis balls why didn't step on cracks in the sidewalk and how the local firemen helped you go from the streets to the ice yeah and that's uh those are great memories to have but for us like i said we didn't have a lot of money so we like one tennis ball was was gold do you

So you couldn't lose it. So we would chase it wherever. We couldn't afford to lose it. So the more you played with it, at some point the fur on it would wear out.

So when that would wear out and it would lose a little bit of air, it didn't bounce as much. So it was more fun to play with that ball. And that was the thing, like as far as the tennis ball. But my dad, being from the scrapyard, he would cut like seeds that he wasn't going to sell. And inside of it, like on top of the springs, there was a cushion of air foam about a couple inches thick.

So he would bring him home. We would roll him in two, three, and we'd throw a couple rubber bands. That was our goalie pads. And we'd have hockey gloves and a mitt, and that's how you were a goalie. I actually loved to play goalie, so I always wanted to be a goalie as a kid. But that was our equipment. We just played all day in the schoolyard. But we made sure we didn't lose that ball because we didn't have two.

So you made sure you chased it wherever it went. You know, if you missed a shot and it went somewhere and you couldn't find it, we'd literally chase that ball. What's the first memory you have holding a stick in your hand and actually taking the stick and getting out onto the ice? I think the first memory I have is what you were talking about, the firemen, is in my neighborhood, like about a block from us, there was a park.

And when it got to a point where it was really cold, the firemen would come at night and just hose off like an area that they had actually put little boards before. And then you'd wake up the next morning and it'd be ice and it'd be ice for a couple of months. Because it's Canada and people play hockey. It's Canada and you play hockey and in the park, everybody, every kid around the neighborhood will go there and play. For me, I was really young, so I would always play with older kids. That was good for me from that standpoint.

But it was a great experience just to be able to get out of bed. And we'd put our skates and then we'd literally walk on the cement all the way there. And I remember five, six years old going there. I don't remember the first time I grabbed the hockey stick, but I remember the first time we were going to play hockey for real. I think I was four and my dad had bought my brother. My brother was a year older. My brother and I had an equipment set.

And we were so excited. And then the next morning when we were going to go, they got a call that the machine at the rink had broken down. So it took three days to fix it. And then we started again. So...

And that was my first experience of playing for a team. But for some reason, I have that memory of being so excited in the morning and looking at my equipment and then being disappointed and not go. Then a few days later, I got to play. And from then on, I just, I love to play the game. But started as a defenseman and, you know, it took a while for me to kind of get to the next level.

What were you like as a kid from the time you were 5 to 15 years old? And in terms of the hockey, when did you realize that you were better than most kids your own age? What was I like as a kid? I think as a kid, I didn't know then, but if you read the book, I think it was at the tipping point, 10,000 Hours.

I was willing to get better at whatever I did. You know, I think school, I was okay. But I remember playing hockey and practicing things that no one else would practice. So if I would go to the park when we had ice, like all the older kids would go home to dinner, I'd still there. I was still playing more than the other one. I remember playing lacrosse.

and I would go to schoolyard and I would shoot the ball against the wall over and over and over again. Like I had seen someone switching hands and I just had this mentality of just like it wasn't work. I was just trying to get better. I remember when the first pair of rollerblades came out and I saw this one kid skating on the streets and my dad knew the guy that was selling them and

We bought a pair of rollerblades. He said there was two kinds of wheels. He said there's the hard wheels that you'll go faster and there's the softer wheels that you'll work harder. I told my dad I wanted the softer wheel. It's funny, like my mentality at 12 or 13 was I want the harder work. So my mentality was

I'll skate with these skates all the time so it'll get me better on the ice. And I just, I was always that way. Like I remember playing baseball and practicing over and over, putting like on the school wall like with some type of clay, like a target. And I was a pitcher, so I just kept throwing over and over again. And

going to before every game to the batting cage and, you know, you put a quarter and pick in the hardest one that would throw, I think, 80 miles an hour. But we were kids because I knew if I could hit a few,

going to play, the pitcher was probably pitching 65 miles an hour, so the ball would be this big. I just had all these things to get better every day that no one ever pushed me. It was just for some reason I was trying to get better at whatever I did. You had a natural drive to succeed and be the best you can be, but were you born

as a gift with hand-eye coordination. You watch these guys skating on the ice. They're skating as fast as they can. They've got all kinds of gear on them. They've got people checking them. And you're flying on the ice and putting these laser precision passes on someone else's stick. And then you've got to shoot it. I think hand-eye coordination, if you think about football, yeah, you need it. Basketball, you need it. But this is a whole other level. I think there's some...

The hand-eye coordination, I'm a big believer that's something you can work on. You know, I think I probably had it, but I worked on it every day. I mean, talking about when the tennis ball was brand new, I would go against the wall and play tennis with a hockey stick. You know, it's kind of funny, like when my friends were somewhere else on a Sunday, that's what I would do all afternoon. So,

Um, there's some things that, you know, sense of a game of where to be at the right time. That's hard to teach, whether it's football or the sense of like taking the pressure away and on a three, two call in the ninth inning when your team is down in baseball and,

that's hard to teach because that's something inner that you're able to absorb the pressure. But things like hand-eye coordination and getting stronger and more powerful, you're born with something. But there's a lot of it I think athletes can improve that, like anyone. I want to talk about dreams that many of us have when we're kids, dreams to become professional athletes when we're older. And I want to start with some statistics.

According to a Gallup poll in 2021, about 34% of kids ages 10 through 12 in the U.S. say they have a dream of becoming a professional athlete someday. Another survey from 2018 found that 61% of kids ages 6 through 17 have aspirations of becoming professional athletes. Other estimates suggest that playing in the NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL is their dream career choice for 25 to 30% of kids in the United States.

These dreams are awesome, but the dreams don't usually become reality. The reality is that less than 1% of high school athletes end up playing professional sports.

Here are some specific stats about hockey. There are 32 teams in the NHL and each team can have 23 players, which means that there are only 736 active NHL players at any one time. Before making it to the NHL, more than 95% of players have to play in junior hockey leagues first, usually for a couple of years with guys like Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid being the exception to the rule.

What are the odds of playing junior hockey? There's significantly less than that. Only one in 625 hockey players make it to the junior leagues, which is 0.0016 or 0.16%. Of this number, well under 10% of players from top tier junior leagues like the Canadian Hockey League or the United States Hockey League make it to the NHL. The number who make it to the NHL is under 1% for the lower tier leagues. In other words, the odds of playing in the NHL are incredibly low.

You weren't like most kids. When you were growing up, you didn't dream about making it to the NHL. Your dream was to play junior hockey. Can you tell us how that goal changed when a guy named Stefan Richter got hurt? Yeah, it's funny. Like my goal, because it goes back to what you can afford to go. So we couldn't afford to ever go see the Montreal Canadiens. So

i think i saw one game growing up because it seemed so far away there was it was so big how far away was it geographically from where it was downtown montreal so we were on the island but it just seemed you know to get to the nhl goal like that wasn't even part of my my thinking and then and they won the stanley cup every year when i was on the time i was 10 to 14 they won four years in a row

We thought that was normal. You know, it's kind of funny. Like, oh, they just win all the time. Hard to do. Yeah, it's really hard. No, I know. But it's interesting. Like, I wanted to play junior major because that was what we can afford to go watch. My dad and I, we would go watch every game locally. And Mario Lemieux played. And then we had other players that we knew.

And, and I was hoping I would get a chance to go, to go there. But I kind of, I would think I, I lived more each moment. Like I, like I remember being in band time. I'm like, I'm going to try to make band time double A, but I didn't think if I can make band time double A, I could play junior major or in the NHL. I was more trying to,

make that team, then be the best player on that team. And tomorrow I got to have the best game and then tomorrow the best practice. And I was living moments to moment. And that's really how I think I looked at it this way. And like I said, I was always trying to get better, but it was never worked.

It's funny, like sometimes we talk about dreams or kids and we see a lot of kids. We manage numerous hockey rinks here in Southern California. And sometimes I'll be there and a dad will come to me and they'll say, look at my son. Like he's, you know, what do you think? And then you look and the kid can really fly out there. And I'll be like, yeah, how old is he? Like 11. I go, how hard is it to wake him up to go to 6 a.m. practice? And

if he says uh oh it's really hard that's really tough i'm always like just just make sure he has fun because like i know i was up at 4 30. when it was a practice i was up and i would wake my dad up dad we got to go you know i mean no one needed to ever push me for the next practice it was just me so if you if you have to be pushed to work harder at 12

you know, even though you might be really good, you might make it pro, but you might not be happy because it's, it's really, like you said, the percentage is so minimal. You gotta be willing to do better than everyone around you every single day to have a chance to make it pro. It's hard. And work harder than everybody. Yeah. Every single day, even though you're better, you guys still work hard and everybody.

because you might make it pro if you're better than everybody but if you're not working harder you won't last in the pro and then you're you're you got to start your life again at 26. you know what i mean that's even harder so your dream changed stefan richter gets hurt tell us what happened there so what happened is i was playing junior major and uh and i had a my first year i get drafted and then my second year i get cut from the la kings and

And I had a really good year, led my team in scoring. And this is when you're playing junior hockey, junior hockey. And what happens in the summer, there was a, one of the biggest tournament in junior hockey is the world junior championship. And to play for team Canada was the ultimate dream. And, uh,

So in the summer, I didn't get invited to the camp, even though I had like 150 points. They were inviting 40 players to make a team that would play during the holiday and Christmas. So they had a one-week camp. And a day and a half before the camp, Pat Burns, that was my coach and junior, ended up coaching in the NHL. He's in the Hall of Fame. He called me and he says, are you in shape? And I said, you know.

He said, yes, no matter what, I was never going to say no. And he says, one of the guys from Quebec, the province, his name was Stéphane Richer, got invited to go to camp, and he hurt his shoulder, and he can't go. He says, they want one more guy from Quebec, and you're the guy. He said, do you want to go? I go, yeah, we'll go. So I flew to Toronto the next day. I didn't speak much English.

And I remember sitting in that room and it was a lot of first round draft choice on that roster. And they made two teams and we played seven days in a row, seven scrimmages, a couple of practices along the way, two a day, but it was really about the scrimmages. And after the seven games, I was leading the whole group in scoring. It kind of forced them to invite me for the holiday. And I made the team,

And that really changed my life. And the reason was that tournament was closer to the NHL. I still didn't know if I could make the NHL, but I knew my name was on the list at the time. And it was up to me. But...

Playing for the World Junior Championship, the speed of the game was faster than my league. So when I came back in my league after playing in that tournament, it just seemed like everything slowed down even more. And I had probably the best second half in the history of my career for sure. I think we had like something like 50 or 60 games left and

I got like 130 points. I think I averaged like three points a game or something like that. Four points a game to be exact. Yeah, four points a game. Okay. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by Sandee.com. S-A-N-D-E-E.com. We're a Yelp for beaches and have created the world's most comprehensive beach resource by cataloging more than 100 categories of information for every beach in the world. More than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries.

Sandy.com provides beach goers around the world with detailed, comprehensive, and easy-to-use information to help them plan their perfect beach getaway at home and abroad and to make sure you're never disappointed by a beach visit again. Plan the perfect beach trip today by visiting sandy.com. That's www.sandee.com. The link is in our show notes. Stay sandy, my friends. At this point, you're killing it. You're 18 years old, and then comes the NHL draft.

And despite all of your incredible success, you were projected to be a late round draft pick. I remember being at your retirement party at the Ritz-Carlton. Marina Del Rey was having for a hockey guy like me to see Mark Messia in the hallway and being able to say hello to him. And I remember Marty McSordley reading your scouting report and the effect it had on me and all the others in the room. The scout said you were too small, couldn't skate well, lacked hand-eye coordination. One of the scouts even said that you were slower than a Zamboni.

The draft was at the Montreal Forum that year. You knew what the scouts were saying. You didn't really want to go there in person, but you went with your dad anyway. You got there at 10 a.m., and you had to sit there and listen as the players got called one by one. In the fourth round, the Kings drafted future Hall of Fame baseball player Tom Glavin, which is odd. You don't see a baseball player getting drafted into NHL too much. Finally, 100 picks later, in the ninth round at 7 p.m.,

After nine hours of torture sitting there, they called your name as 171st pick.

Take us through that night with your dad sitting in the nosebleed seats, the khaki pants you were wearing, your interaction with the policeman, a guy named Alex Smart and John Wolf and the pin John gave you. And what was the feeling inside of you at that exact moment when your name got called on the loudspeaker? Before that, it was kind of funny because time went and I had other teammates that were ranked higher than me. You know, the people rank you on

They rank a player on what the expectations are. Like they don't rank strictly on what you just did. You know, like scouts look at, okay, can he be in the NHL in three years? I'm assuming every scout says they didn't know internally how much drive I had because it's impossible for them to know. They probably look at him. Well, this guy can't skate. He won't be able to skate in five years, you know?

And I think that's why I was ranked so low. But for me, I do remember in the third round in the break and so forth, seeing some of my teammates and trying to talk them up because they were down. Let's say a guy was ranked in the second round. He didn't come out.

so then i because i was the leader of our team i'd be like don't worry about it you'll be okay and then one of my friend didn't come out to like the fifth round and he was down so every round i was you know sitting or seeing him and go don't worry about it we'll be okay you know and so it's like kind of it kind of made me forget about me you know like it was in a way it was good but i but i do recall every time ellie came

I was nervous. I thought it was going to be me because that was the only team that talked to me the entire year before. And it was only one scholar. His name was Alex Smart, like you said. And...

So every time I went to L.A., I would go, oh, maybe that's it. And then they would go. And then in the eighth round, Rogi Vachon speaks French. So even though everybody in the U.S. calls me Luke, in Quebec, they call me Luc. That's how you pronounce it. So Rogi goes to the stage, and he goes, and anybody that would know Rogi Vachon, he smoked a ton of cigars. He was always coughing. So he'd be like, the L.A. Kings are happy to draft. And he goes, Luc. And I go, what?

And it was, this was the eighth round. And then a scout, someone from the LA Kings go to the podium and said, no. And they give him another name. I never asked Rogi, but I recall hearing my name. So they name another guy. His name was Shannon Deegan. I had played against. So that's how I remember the name. And then,

Then we went in a whole round, and then the ninth round, then he said my name. So I never asked Rogi about it, but I remember hearing my name, and I just jumped. I was so happy. And the old forum, there was like the bottom section was all red. The second section was white, and the third section, the 300, let's say, was blue. So I sat in the white because, you know, I just...

By that time, there was no one left in the building. So I ran all the way down. It was very steep. And when I got to go in the ice, there was a policeman, and he blocked me. And I said, no, I just got drafted by the LA Kings. And to the policeman, he's looking at me. He's not believing that there's anyone left. So Pierre Lacroix, that was a well-known agent at the time who became a GM for Colorado,

he recognized me. He goes, hey, look. He goes, congratulations. And he told the policeman, he goes, it's okay, it's okay. He just got drafted by the LA Kings. He goes, let him on, let him go to the table. So he points me to where the table is, and I run to the table. And by the time I got there, for some reason, LA was either on a break or something. There was no one at the table. There was one man. His name was John Wolfe.

and he was the assistant GM. So he goes, yeah, hello. Like I'm just standing there. Like I said, my English wasn't really good. So he goes, may I help you? I go, yeah, you drafted me? He goes, oh, really? He goes, what's your name? And I go, Luke Rodin. He looks at his list and he sees my name. He goes, congratulations, young man. He goes, welcome aboard. And then he looks and he

He pulls a box underneath the table. He goes, we don't have any hats or anything left. He goes, I can't give you any, but here you go. And he pulls out his pin from his jacket and gives it to me. And I remember I got that little pin. I was so proud, you know. And then he says, do you have an agent? I'll call your agent for training. I go, I don't have an agent because my uncle, who kind of knew the GM of Montreal, Serge Chavard, he says, should he have an agent? Serge Chavard says, no.

You don't need to waste that money on an agent. Just, just if he ever gets drafted, I'll help you. I'll tell you what to do. So I said, I don't have an agent. He said, okay. And he gives me a piece of paper and a pencil. It wasn't a pen. And he says, write down your name and your address and I'll send you the information for training camp. So I wrote down my name, the address and,

Then he, you know, I shake his hand and I leave and I go with my dad. We took the subway back home and I remember I had my pin. I was so happy that I was on my whole thinking as a kid. Then I'm like, okay, I'm on the list. They have to look at me. And for some reason, that's the way I thought I'm on the list. They got to look at me. And now it's up to me. No one else. And that was my thinking going home and,

and I still got the pin by the way which is kind of cool yeah I got in my office and but that's kind of like that's how it started for me and going home I remember we went to an ice cream shop and this guy looks at me he goes you you got drafted I go yeah he goes what round I go 90 go oh that'll never happen for you but that was my thinking just as long as my name is on the list now it's up to me so you get drafted you play a couple years in the minors

Kings wanted you to develop more. Then you're 20 years old when you finally make it to the bigs.

Jimmy Carson came up with you. You guys moved to Los Angeles together. He's told me he's like a deer in the headlights out here. The guys are out there partying, going to nightclubs every night. They're drinking. You guys weren't doing that. People said, what was it like when you moved to LA? So talk to us about where you lived.

English, who you drove to the stadium with, and then what you did for fun. Well, we didn't do anything for fun. We just, we played hockey. I think Jimmy Carson, myself, and there was Steve Duchesne. But Jimmy was really focused, like me. And our main goals, we were going there to play hockey. We weren't going there for anything else. So,

At the time, Marcel Dion was my roommate during training camp and Dave Taylor, which they were two veterans, two all-star on the team. I was Jimmy Carson's roommate. And I remember... Dave was a 10th round pick, by the way. Yeah, I know. Crazy. And I remember...

And Marcel Dion asking me during camp, he goes, hey, if you make a team, kid, where do you want to live? What do you want to do? And I remember without a thought, just because I knew that was my focus. I said, well, I want to live in a boarding house. He said, really? Why? I said, because I don't want to have to worry about anything. I just want to play, you know, and I know it's going to be hard. Like I knew that for some reason.

and I knew what I meant by that like you know we were making 50 bucks a week in junior major and you know we'd never I had opened one bank account in my life you know like I had a car but my dad had helped me and that was it there was no other worry about life so I knew that coming to the U.S. was going to be a lot of stuff and I wanted to just focus on hockey so Marcel came to me and I think he had talked to Dave Taylor and talked to a few people and he said uh

why don't you come at near the end of camp? He goes, why don't you come and stay in my house? He goes, you can help my kids to learn to speak French. And then he told Jimmy, he had like a neighbor that he knew this lady. So he asked her if Jimmy could stay there. And she said, yes. And then he found another boarding house for Steve Duchesne. So all three of us stayed in a boarding house. So it was an easy transition. We went from staying in a hotel during training camp

to go to his house where we had no worries. I think he was charging us 400 bucks a month. It was like nothing. Food included, by the way. And so... His wife's a good cook, I heard. Yeah, she's a great cook. Carol is a great cook. She cooked some good meals. So it really made our life easy where we would just focus on hockey. And he lived in Palos Verdes, so we never got out of that bubble until Christmas. So we started in September. I never went anywhere. We went to the practice, the games,

Once in a while, we'd go to dinner with Marcel somewhere, and that was it. And we just slept all the time. As it turned out, his kids helped me to learn to speak English. I didn't help the poor kids speak French at all. But we got along really good. But that really helped our transition. But Marcel told me he had asked those questions to many draft kids before.

draft picks for the Kings over the years. And every one of them would be like, I want to live in Hollywood. I want to have fun. I want to, I want to enjoy the city. That was always their answer. And we were the first one to say, I want to play hockey. So I want to, I don't want to be focused on anything else, but just that. And that's why he took, took it upon himself to, to help us.

Are you looking for your next great gift to surprise a friend, colleague, or loved one? Bliss Beaches makes the perfect gift. This best-selling bright and beautiful coffee table book by Randall Kaplan features stunning drone photography from exotic beach locations around the world. It's the perfect housewarming gift, a great addition to any home or office, and a fun and creative alternative to bringing a bottle of wine to somebody's house for dinner. Bliss Beaches is available for purchase on Amazon, where it has glowing reviews and a five-star rating.

Get your next amazing gift and order a copy of Bliss Beaches by clicking the link in our show notes. And Marcel, for those viewers and listeners who don't know, Marcel was a big deal. I mean, for free to drive with him for a game. He's one of the greatest players of all time. 700 plus goals. He was a superstar in LA. He was a superstar in Detroit. I mean, he's just...

One of the greatest players to ever play the game. And you're living with him and you're driving with him to the game. So was he, that must've been so inspirational just to spend all that time with him. Oh, he had a Mercedes. I'd never been in a Mercedes. So it was kind of fun to drive there to practice in a Mercedes. Actually, we, that's all my nickname over the years was lucky. And, uh, but we had a player that year, his name was Morris Lukowich and guys would call me Luke. So whenever they'd be in the locker room for the first couple of games, uh,

Someone would say Luke would both turn around. So Tiger Williams, that was a revered tough guy in the NHL. And I had heard he didn't like French guys, so I was really nervous around him. But I think he got to liking me or something. I had beaten him in a push-up test in the training camp, so he was very surprised by that. And he come in after game two,

And he had kind of a funny way to talk. His nose was broken like 17 times probably. And he started calling me, hey, Lucky, hey, Lucky. And the guys were like, well, why are you calling him Lucky? And I remember he says, well, he scored on his first shot and his first shift on the ice. Like I scored, I jumped on the ice in the NHL and my first shot on goal, I scored. And it was like, you know, three minutes to the game, that was my first shift. And so he says, then he says,

he drives to practice and the Mercedes the nicest car and because he was driving Marcel Dion and he goes and he lives in the biggest house Marcel he goes that's lucky to me so then then all the guys got into calling me lucky the rest of my career it's gonna just stay that's that's amazing what was the feeling as you're sitting on that but you're in the locker room it's your first game you know you make the team and you're sitting there and you're are you just

out of your mind anxious or is it more excitement? And then what, you know, you touch the puck for the first time, you got it, you wind up, you flick it in and you see the red light going on. I mean, what, what were you feeling at that moment? Uh, I think it's, there's a few fall like that day when, when I knew I made the team and I stepped on the ice for the practice, I think might've been the day before I remember looking, I'm going,

This is my team. I'm going to make a difference here because there's a challenge to like, I remember going to hall my junior team. They had never been past the first round when I got there.

And I remember thinking, okay, we're going to make a difference here. And we ended up winning the championship three years later. And I remember in my mind, that was my goal. You know, you have individual goals, but I wanted my team to make a dent, you know, to change the culture of that franchise. And we did. And that franchise won to have success for the next 30 years. But we started it.

so i remember getting to la and saying i want to make a dent i want it this team has never won i want to be part of this that was my thinking so then you go to the first game and now suddenly becomes the moment and i'm dressing and i'm like flying you know in the warm-up i'm like it was you're so light the adrenaline is going and then what happened is when we started the game bernie nichols it was like our a really good saint marcel was 35 36 that time he was near the

the tail end of his career. So he was made technically a second line center. And Jimmy was playing with Dave Taylor on a third line. So the coach started with Bernie Nichols lines and I wasn't, I was playing with Marcel and he stayed, they stayed for a minute. Then he went with, I think he went with Jimmy Carson with Dave Taylor's line.

and then he went with the the other line like yeah I think the fourth line was more of a checking line and he put him on and I'm like on the bench and my legs are and I remember Marcel Dion kind of grabbed my leg he goes hold on kids we're gonna be there we're gonna get going we're gonna get going and and as he went on the ice Marcel won he took the center and the

The left winger that had the puck in our zone got to the red line, dumped it in, and it went behind the net. And the goalie went behind the net. And then the left winger came, and I jumped. I mean, I jumped. I mean, I didn't feel anything. Even though they said I wasn't scared, I knew I was flying. And the goalie made a mistake. I saw from the red line that the goalie made a mistake. He rimmed it around, and I could see Marcel was going.

So I sprinted as fast as I could to the front of the net. And typical, my type of goal, I yell in French as much as I could. I go, Marcel, because that's how you pronounce it in French. I go, Marcel. And he kind of looked up and Marcel had a big kind of curve and he had great hand. He grabbed the puck almost without stopping and just swooped it towards me. And the goalie wasn't there. He was still behind the net. I just tipped in the empty net and...

there's a clip somewhere where you see me jump and I'm like, so excited. That was it. I went from the bench to the front of the net, tipped it in. It took like three seconds. That was my first ship. If only it was that easy. I know. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. The dream, the dream came true. Do you still have the puck? Yeah. Yeah. Funny enough. I had given it to a friend that had a museum in Newport beach. And when he passed away, his wife, I sent it back to me. That's awesome. That's awesome.

So you're 20 years old at this point, and the guy who the experts said was too slow and lacked hand-eye coordination ends up that year with 45 goals and 39 assists, 84 points. You win the Calder Memorial Trophy for the Rookie of the Year, which is a little factoid. It's named after Frank Calder, the first president of the league, which has been awarded since the 1936-1937 season. From the 171st pick, the Rookie of the Year. On a scale of 1 to 1,000,

How fucking good did that feel? How good did that feel? I remember, I didn't think I was going to win like the rookie of the year because I went to the awards and Ron Hextall and Jimmy Carson were the other two that were nominated. And Ron Hextall, I had seen that got nominated to be on the first all-star team.

so i was on the second all-star team for the whole year as a left winger yeah and i was a rookie but that's the whole all-star team and so when i say he was on the first all-star team i'm like oh i'm not going to win tonight you know it doesn't make sense so i was really relaxed at the idea warden and then they named me i didn't even i i was kind of working on a speech

But I stopped because I'm like, I'm not going to win. And then they named my name. I'm not sure I felt good. It was more like,

it happened. I was overwhelmed by it. And then I had, I moved on. I think I was always in my career moving on to the next thing. So, okay, I got to get better. I got to get a little faster. I got to work on it. I think later in life, you're like, oh, that was pretty cool. I want it. But I didn't really stop it at the time and think, okay, I just, I,

You know, I showed everyone. I wasn't about that. I still had that fear. I better be good or I'm not going to be here. Your rookie year, you play with another incredible rookie, my good friend Jimmy Carson, one of your closest friends as well, who was one of the first guests on my podcast and who introduced us 20 years ago.

Like you, he was a superstar from the second he stepped on the ice. He scored 79 points his first season. You guys were both new to LA, lived next door to each other, drove with Marcel to games, became great friends and future hockey stars together. I think chemistry is underrated as a part of our success. How well we get along with others and bond with them in both our personal lives and our professional lives. You guys had that special bond. Yeah.

Tell us about the importance and strategy about

staying close to the middle of the bench during games. Yeah. And also as part of that, what it meant when you guys were on the ice and one of you yelled Mario to the other. Yeah. So we, we were, we were really good. It's kind of funny. We were totally different background. Like Jimmy, his dad was a like very successful businessman. He was a, he was a tax man. I can't remember what,

Jimmy was aware of different things. He was reading different things in me, so I was very intrigued. He was teaching me a lot. He was two years younger than me and way smarter. But the one thing we share, we share a bond on the ice to get better, and we would practice constantly.

It wasn't something that we push each other to practice. We just did it. It was fun. You know, we were kids. And we constantly, whenever we was off the air, we would still be practicing shots and everything. Then our second year in the summer, in September, there was the World Cup of Hockey. It was called Canada Cup at the time. And Mario Mew and Wayne Gretzky played.

you know, played together. And Wayne led the tournament in scoring and Mario had the most goals. And they had a way to do a two-on-one where Wayne would kind of wait off of it a little bit and Mario would just kind of

turn the other way and one time it and kind of wait long enough for the goalie not to go so him and i would pick that up we're like i think we're probably both thinking we're not as good as these guys but we could do that you know so we started practicing it so in game when we would end up on a kind of a now number 10 we would just yell mary we'd know we'd both flip flop on our offhand and whoever had the puck would wait and then the other guy would instead of

crashing the net or doing a thing, we would literally wait. And then there was a time for some unknown reason when the defenseman's stick would change so the lane would become open. And we literally, we must have scored 15 or 20 goals together that year with that

trick that we would literally yell at each other mario and that was our signal what about not moving to the end of the bench just hanging out in the middle yeah we would hang out about we would hang on the middle of the bench so the coach would see us because we always want to get back on the ice so he told me that you made him do that oh yeah because jimmy would would sit at the end of bench and and what happens is there's four lines on hockey and you go every minute but

coaches get caught up. There's a penalty, there's a power play, and they shift guys, and so...

You better be really good to be at the end of the bench so the coach is looking for you. That was my thinking. So I was like, let's sit in the middle of the bench so he sees us. So the longer you're there, he's going to – it's close. It's easy for him to tap you. When he taps you in the back, you just jump. So I'd be like, Jimmy, let's sit in the middle of the bench so we might get an extra shift every game. That was my idea. He would just look at me like, you're nuts. I'm like, yeah, yeah, whatever.

We might score goals or an extra shift. And it worked. It did. It worked. Like the coach would just, like he'd see us, we were going on a good game and we were always in the middle of the bench. So he would just tap our back and we'd go. Thanks for listening to part one of my amazing conversation with Luke Robitaille, one of the greatest hockey players in the history of the NHL and the president of the Los Angeles Kings. Be sure to tune in next week to part two of my awesome conversation with Luke.