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Luc Robitaille: From "Too Slow" To NHL Hall Of Fame | E89 · In Search Of Excellence

• 0:00
  Luc Robitaille: I was willing to get better whatever I did, but I remember playing hockey and practicing things that no one else was practiced to if I would go to the park and weed out ice, like all the older kids would go home to dinner, I'd still there.
• 0:14
  Luc Robitaille: I was up at 430 when it was a practice, I was up and I would wake my dad up, Dad, we gotta go. You know, 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 your your you got to start your life again at 26
• 0:42
  Randall Kaplan: 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 life.
• 0:49
  Randall Kaplan: My guest today is my good friend Luke Grover tie. Luke is an NHL Hall of Famer who is a 19 year old teenager went from being drafted the ninth round 100 and 71st 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 his rookie of the year, and then went on to become the only left wing in NHL history to record eight consecutive 40 goal seasons.
• 1:18
  Randall Kaplan: Luke played and eight all star games won the Stanley Cup as a player with the awesome Detroit Red Wings in 2002. And one two more Stanley Cups as an executive with the Los Angeles Kings. Luke along with his wife, Stacy are actively involved in giving back to our community through their echos of Hope Foundation, which has helped 1000s of at risk and emancipated 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 insertive. Excellent,
• 1:46
  Unknown: thank you. Thank you.
• 1:46
  Unknown: It's great to see you.
• 1:48
  Randall Kaplan: Great to see you. Great to see you. You're born and raised in Montreal and 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. And your mom Madeline was a stay at home mom. Can you tell us about the values instilled in you as a kid? And as part of that? Can you tell us about your dad's office in his Volkswagen?
• 2:10
  Randall Kaplan: Can you tell us about it? Can you tell us about your dad's office and his Volkswagen? What the two to $300 it cost to say the hockey school mentum. And how both of your parents coming to every practice and every game helps you develop at a young age. Yeah.
• 2:30
  Luc Robitaille: It's funny, that's great memory. It's great for me to think about that. A and I think the biggest thing is we didn't realize then that we didn't have a lot of money. We just didn't miss anything. We, we we had a great life. You know, for me, as a kid, I just would go outside and in the summer play baseball, play lacrosse. And in a winter, I played hockey and whatever we needed, we seem to have it. I think I remember later talking to my mom and her explain to me like she would do the grocery.
• 3:00
  Luc Robitaille: And she gets 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 a greatest meal. Like she said, You guys were celebrated.
• 3:13
  Luc Robitaille: She goes I'd be crying aback that we didn't have enough food.
• 3:16
  Luc Robitaille: And it's kind of funny how that goes. But we appreciate it. Like the way our life was. We never never heard any complaint or anything like that. And I remember seeing my dad where he would work late at night, the one of his thing, like in the middle of the winter, it was really cold, he would fix these windshield wipers, motors or anything like you know, and we'd have hundreds in a little cabanas. 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 other things and and uh yeah, his first like business that he was able to get. His first office was a Volkswagen car and they had like a phone book in it and a phone line and it wasn't a car. One of them. It was one of those classic Volkswagen and it was just parking there, no tires, it was there. And then I think the next year he was all happy day, they bought the back of a van and Tao was the office.
• 4:19
  Luc Robitaille: So that lasted maybe 10 years, where we would go there and in a scrap yard like that. That's what I remember being like 1112 years old and we would drive some of the cars would start to drive them down the alley. We get in trouble when we hit another car because they were selling those parts. But it funny enough it was great memories, but we didn't realize that we really didn't have much but we never seem to miss anything.
• 4:47
  Randall Kaplan: You work in the scrap yard when you were six years old. 16 years old during the summer. What was that? Like?
• 4:52
  Randall Kaplan: How much were you making? What do you do with the money and is that really a bunch of manual labor and
• 4:57
  Luc Robitaille: it was mostly for me was mostly manual It was in it was in the summer, and it was 150 bucks a week, I remember. And then I would calculate like, my whole thing was calculating, like how much I could do in the canteen stop by which it would stop twice a day at 9:30am. And it would stop at 130 after lunch. But I would try to get a little bit of cash to buy like, 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 130. And then we'll go to McDonald's or Burger King every lunch and like, I had my money for the week, no 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 but it was it was mostly manual labor. And I remember I got upgraded at 13 or 14, where they would give me a card. And whenever the way the scrap your works in the in that world is you buy as many cars as you can, but they're mostly smashed. And you sell the parts that are good to garage mostly.
• 6:02
  Luc Robitaille: But when a car they've sold most of the parts, there's only four or five or 10 parts left, 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. And I got to dismantle the whole card and the whole car and keep just the good parts. But it was kind of fun when you're a kid because 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 the next summer was my my grandpa worked with my dad and we had to build racks and those II was a welder. So my job was to hold everything for him and I had a good eye on measuring so before you would level it he would ask me and then he would attack it.
• 6:43
  Luc Robitaille: But like I did learn like quickly that after a night that arraign you you don't put your two feet on the ground and hold the two poles this way any a tax ID there they would wake me up every day but that was my job there it was. It was actually great memory but it was definitely manual labor.
• 7:00
  Randall Kaplan: Work instruction one summer summer before college I dug ditches for the World Headquarters weightwatchers headquarters building in on Telegraph Road in Michigan. I know you've been to Detroit a bunch of times and I remember thinking out of my shirt off I thought oh this little scrawny kid I'm I'm with the guys I made six bucks an hour's cash and I come home filthy rich that 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 a living and I thought that was really cool these were tough guys they were all really nice they treated me well but I also realize I definitely didn't want to do that but it was a great lesson.
• 7:46
  Luc Robitaille: Yeah it was hard when you see a lot of these guys they you know they they go paycheck to paycheck and but but you realize like how how how much it takes to work and you know to do it right and what 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 100 yards long so we got to make sure like it was done right to start.
• 8:13
  Randall Kaplan: Let's talk about your earliest memories playing hockey which you were playing on the street in the schoolyard not only your eyes but with a tennis ball. He tell us about cutting the seats of old cars using foam and rubber bands why 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 to go from the streets to the ice. Yeah.
• 8:35
  Luc Robitaille: And that's it.
• 8:35
  Luc Robitaille: Those are great memories to have before us. Like I said we didn't have a lot of money so we like one tennis ball was was gold. He couldn't lose it so we would chase it wherever we couldn't afford to lose it. So the more you played with at some point, defer on it liquid were were out to when that would wear out and some it would lose a little bit of air it didn't bounce as much.
• 8:58
  Luc Robitaille: So it was more fun to play with that ball. And that was the thing like as far as the tennis ball My my, my dad being from the scrap yard he would cut like seeds that he wasn't going to sell and inside of it like on dirt. On top of the springs there was a cushion of air foam about you know a couple inches thick. So he would bring him home we would roll him in two three and we would throw a couple rubber bands that was our goalie pads and we'd have a hockey gloves and a mitt and that's that's how your goalie i I actually love to play goalie so I was always wanted to be a goalie as a kid and that was our equipment and if we just played all day in a in a school yard and on you know, but we made sure we didn't lose that ball because we didn't have to. You made sure you chased it wherever it went. You know if if you missed a shot and they weren't in somewhere and you couldn't find it, we'd literally chase that ball.
• 9:54
  Randall Kaplan: What's the first memory you have holding a stick in your hand and actually taking the stick and getting out onto the ice
• 10:00
  Luc Robitaille: I think the first memory I have is what what you were talking about the fireman is in my neighborhood like about a block from us there was a park. And when he when it got to a point where it was really cold, the firemen would come at night and, 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. So
• 10:23
  Randall Kaplan: because it's Canada, yeah, we'll
• 10:25
  Luc Robitaille: play hockey Canada and you played hockey and in a park everybody ever 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 and not from that standpoint. But it's just it was a great experience just to, to be able to get out of bed and you know, we'd put our skates and and we'd literally walk on the summit all the way there.
• 10:48
  Luc Robitaille: And I remember five, six years old like 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 and equipment set. And we were so excited. And the next morning when we were going to go, they got a call that the machine had to recut broken down. So that it took three days to fix it. And then we start again. So and I 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 I go and a few days later, I got the play and from then on I just I love to play the game. But there's a defenseman and you know, it took a while for me to kind of get to the next level.
• 12:34
  Randall Kaplan: Where were you like as a kid from the time you were five to 15 years old? And in terms of the hockey, when did you realize that you are better than most kids your own age?
• 12:43
  Luc Robitaille: What was it like as a kid? I think as a kid, I didn't know then but you know, if you read a book, I think it was at that tipping point and 1000 hours. I was willing to get better whatever I did. You know, I think school I was okay. But I remember playing hockey and practicing things that no one else was practice. So if I would go to the park and weed out 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 school yard and I would shoot the ball against the wall over and over and over again. The guy 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 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 rollerblades etc.
• 13:43
  Luc Robitaille: There was two kinds of wheels he said there's a hard wheels that you'll go faster. And as a shorter, softer wheels that you'll work harder. I told my dad I want the software we're funny and like my mentality at 1213 Was I want the the harder work. So my mentality was all ski with the skates all the time. So get me better on the ice. And I just I was always that way like I remember playing baseball and practicing and over and over putting like on the school wall like a wood with like, some type of clay like, like a target and I was a pitcher SEC is kept throwing over and over again and going to before every game to the batting cage. And you know, he put a quarter and picking the hardest one that would throw I think 80 miles an hour but we were kids.
• 14:31
  Luc Robitaille: Because I knew if I could hit a few going to play that pitcher was probably pitching 65 miles an hour. So the ball would be this big. I decided to 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
• 14:49
  Randall Kaplan: get a natural drive to succeed and be the best we can be. But were you born as a gift with hand eye coordination. You know, you watch these guys skating on the ice. They're scanning as fast as they can. They're got all kinds of gear on and 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 got to shoot it. I think hand eye coordination if you think about football, yeah, you need a basketball unit. But this is a whole nother level.
• 15:16
  Luc Robitaille: I think. I think there's some 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 every day. I mean talking about when when a tennis ball was was brand new, I would go against the one play tennis with a hockey stick. You know, it's kind of funny, like, like when I when I my friends were somewhere else on the Sunday. That's what I would do all afternoon. So 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 weigh in on a three to call in the ninth inning when your team is down in baseball. And that's hard to teach because it'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 some something, but there's a lot of it. I think athletes can improve that, you know, or any like anyone are
• 16:18
  Randall Kaplan: talking about dreams and many of us have them or 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 US they have a dream of becoming a professional athlete someday. Another survey from 2018 found that 61% of kids ages six to 17 have aspirations of becoming a 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 only three players, which means that there are only 736 active NHL players at any one time.
• 17:11
  Randall Kaplan: Before making it to the NHL.
• 17:15
  Randall Kaplan: 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 point 0016 Or point one 6% of this number. Well under 10% of players from top to your junior leagues, like the Canadian hockey league of the United States, how can we 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 change when a guy named Stefan Richter got hurt?
• 18:06
  Luc Robitaille: Yeah, I it's 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 like I saw one game growing up, because it seems so far away. There was it was so big, how far away was it geographically
• 18:25
  Randall Kaplan: from where it
• 18:25
  Luc Robitaille: was downtown Montreal, so we're on the island, but it's just seem, you know, to get to the NHL goal, like that wasn't even part of my, my thinking and, 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.
• 18:43
  Luc Robitaille: And it was kind of funny, like all of it just went all the time and hard to do. But yeah, it's really hard. Not I know. But it's, 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 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 lived more each moment like, like, I remember being in band time I'm like, I'm going to try to make Bantam double A. But I didn't think if I can make Bantam double A, I could play Junior major or in the NHL, I was more trying to make that team than be the best player on that team. And tomorrow, I gotta have the best game and then tomorrow to best practice. And I was living moments the 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.
• 19:40
  Luc Robitaille: But it was never work. It's funny, like sometimes we 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 you're looking 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 6am practice and if he says, I 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 430 when it was a practice to I was up I would wake my dad up, Dad, we gotta go. You know, I mean, no one needed to ever push me for the next practice.
• 20:26
  Luc Robitaille: It was just me if you if you have to be pushed to work harder. At 12 you know, even though you might be really good.
• 20:35
  Luc Robitaille: 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 got to 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 a few better than everybody. But if you're not working harder you won't last in a pro and then you're here. You got to start your life again at 26 You know what I mean? That's even harder.
• 21:08
  Randall Kaplan: So your dream change Stefan Richter gets hurt.
• 21:10
  Randall Kaplan: Yeah, happened there.
• 21:11
  Luc Robitaille: So what happened is I was playing junior major and and I had my first year I get drafted. And then my second year I get cut from the LA Kings and, and had a really good year lead my team in scoring and sizzlin. You're playing junior junior hockey and what happened is in the summer, there was a one a biggest tournament and junior hockey is the World Junior Championship. And to play for Team Canada was the ultimate dream. And so in the summer, I didn't get invited to the camp even though I had like 150 points that was they were inviting 40 players for make a team that would play during the holiday and Christmas. So they had a one week camp. And a day before a day and a half before the camp Pat burns. That was my coach and Jr. Ended up coaching in the NHL. He's in the Hall of Fame call me he says are you in shape? And I said, you know, I said yes, no matter what I was never gonna say no. And and he says the one of the guy from Quebec, the province his name was to foundry che 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. So do you want to go on go? Yeah, well 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 on that roster. And we they made two teams. And we played seven days in row seven scrimmages a couple of practice along the way to a day, but it was really about the scrimmages. And after the seven games, I was leading the whole group and scoring that kind of forced them to invite me for for the holiday. And I made the team and I 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.
• 23:11
  Luc Robitaille: So when I came back in my League after playing the 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 we had like something like 50 or 60 games left and I got like 130 points I think I average like three points a game or something like four points
• 23:36
  Randall Kaplan: a game to be exact. Yeah, four points or game okay. This episode of In Search of Excellence is brought to you by sandy.com s a n d e.com.
• 23:41
  Randall Kaplan: 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 and 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.sand.com the link is in our show notes. Stay Sandy my friends. This point you're killing it. You're 18 years old and then comes NHL draft. And despite all of your incredible success, you are projected to be a late round draft pick. I remember being in your retirement party at the Ritz Carlton. Marina del Rey was having for a hockey guy like me to see Mark Messier in the hallway and being able to say hello to them. I remember Marty McSorley reading your scouting report and the effect it had on me and all the others in the room. The scouts said you were too small to escape well lacked hand eye coordination. One of the scouts even said they 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.
• 25:06
  Randall Kaplan: You got there at 10am and you had to sit there and listen as the players got called one by one. And the fourth round the Kings drafted future Hall of Fame baseball player Tom Glavine, which is odd. You'll see a baseball player getting drafted into NHL too much.
• 25:20
  Randall Kaplan: Finally, 100 pics later and the ninth round at 7pm. After nine hours of torture sitting there, they called your name as 100/71 Pick. Take us through that night with your dad sitting in the nosebleed seats. The khaki pants you are wearing your interaction with a policeman a guy named Alex Martin 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.
• 25:48
  Randall Kaplan: It's
• 25:51
  Luc Robitaille: before that it was kind of funny because time went and had other teammates that were rank higher than me.
• 25:57
  Luc Robitaille: You know, like people rank you on the rank a player on what the expectations are like they don't rank strictly on what you just did. You're like scouts look at okay, can he be in at some three years, I'm assuming ever Scout says they didn't know internally how much drive I had, because it's impossible for them to know, they probably looked at and Well, this guy can't skate, he won't be able to skate in five years, you know. And I think that's why it was ranked so low. But for me, I do remember in 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 ranking, the secondary didn't come out. So then, 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 friends 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 will be okay. You know, and so it's like kind of it. It kind of made me forget about me, you know, like it was in a way it was good. But But I do recall every time la came. I was nervous. I thought it was it was going to be me.
• 27:03
  Luc Robitaille: Because that was the only came at talk 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 LA, I would, I would go oh, maybe that's it, and then it will go and then he ate Brown. rogie VASHAUN speaks French so my, even though everybody in US calls me Luke in Quebec, they called me Look, that's how you pronounce it. The Rogi goes to the stage and he goes the and anybody that would know Rogi VASHAUN he smoked a ton of cigars without he was always coughing, CBI DE LA Kings are happy to drive and he goes, Look, and I go, 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.
• 27:46
  Luc Robitaille: I never asked rogie but I do recall hearing my name. So the name another guy's name was Shannon Deegan I had played against so I that's how I remembered a name. And then then we went into a whole round and then the ninth round. Then he said my name. So I never asked rogie about about it. But I remember hearing my name, and I just jumped. I was so happy. And the old forum and there was like, the bottom section was all read. The second section was white. And the third section a 300, let's say was blue. So I sat in a white because, you know, I just by that time, there was no one left beyond the building. So I ran all the way down. It was very steep. And when I got to go in the eyes, there was a policeman, he blocked me. And I said, No, I just got drafted by the LA Kings and the policeman. He's looking at me he's not believing that there's anyone left, you know, to appear like what I was a well known agent at the time we became a GM for Colorado. He recognized me he goes, Hey, look, he goes like congratulation. And he told the policeman, he goes, it's okay.
• 28:54
  Luc Robitaille: It's okay. He just got drafted by the LA Kings. He goes, let him online let him go to a table. So he points me to where the table is. And I run to the table and, and by the time I got there, for summary, LA was either on a break or something.
• 29:08
  Luc Robitaille: And it was no one on a table.
• 29:11
  Luc Robitaille: There was one man his name was John Wolf. And his he was the assistant GM so he goes to 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.
• 29:24
  Luc Robitaille: He goes, Oh, really? He goes, What's your name? And I go Luke rota and he looks at his list.
• 29:27
  Luc Robitaille: He says my ego congratulation young man. He goes, welcome aboard. And then he looks any he pulls a box on the need is the table. He goes, I we don't have any hats or anything laugh. He goes, I can't give you 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, you have an agent, I'll call you agent for training. I go. I don't have an agent because my uncle who kind of knew the gym in Montreal search have already says Trudy have an agent mind search of us.
• 29:59
  Luc Robitaille: You don't need to waste that money on a nature just to see if he ever gets drafted. I'll help you. I'll tell you what to do.
• 30:06
  Luc Robitaille: So I said I don't have an agent.
• 30:09
  Luc Robitaille: He said, Okay. And he gives me a piece of paper and a pencil. It wasn't a pen. He says Write down your name and your address and I'll send you the information for training camps. I run down my name, the address, and then he you know, I shake his hand and I leave and I go my dad, we took the subway back home and I remember I had my pin I was so happy to. I was my whole thinking as a kid Damn, okay, I'm on the list. They have to look at me. For some reason.
• 30:33
  Luc Robitaille: 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 it in my office and but that's kind of like that's how it started for me and going on. Um, I remember we went to an ice cream shop and this guy looks at me, he goes, You got drafted, I go, Yeah, he goes, what round I go, 90 go.
• 30:58
  Luc Robitaille: I'll never happen. But you. But that was my thinking just as long as my name is on the list.
• 31:07
  Luc Robitaille: Now it's up to me.
• 31:09
  Randall Kaplan: So you get drafted, you play a couple of years in the minors. He's wanted you to develop more, then you're 20 years old when you finally make it to the bigs. Give me 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.
• 31:32
  Randall Kaplan: You guys weren't doing that.
• 31:36
  Randall Kaplan: People said, What was it like when you moved to LA? So talk to us about where you lived?
• 31:40
  Randall Kaplan: English who you drove to the stadium with and then and then what you did for fun? Well,
• 31:48
  Luc Robitaille: we, we didn't do anything for fun. We just, we played hockey. I think Jimmy Carson myself, and it was Steve to Shane. 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 I at the time, Marcel Dionne was my roommate during training camp and Dave Taylor, which they were two veterans to all star on a team. That was Jimmy Carson's roommate. And I remember
• 32:15
  Randall Kaplan: Dave was a 10th round pick, by the way, ya know?
• 32:20
  Luc Robitaille: And, and I remember Marcel Dionne asking me during Can we go a few make a team kid? What do you what 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, why 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.
• 32:41
  Luc Robitaille: I just want to play, you know, and I know it's gonna be hard.
• 32:44
  Luc Robitaille: 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 open one bank account in my life, you know, like, I had a car, but my dad had helped me.
• 32:59
  Luc Robitaille: And that was it. There was no other worry about life. So I knew that coming to us was going to be a lot of stuff. And I wanted to just focus on hockey.
• 33:07
  Luc Robitaille: So Marcel came to me, and I think he had talked to Dave Taylor and talked to a few people and he said, Why don't you come at near the end of camera goes, wants to come and stay at 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 to Steve just changed. 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, okay, 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 Yes, he's a great good meal. So really made our life easy, where we would just focus on on hockey and he lives in Palos Verdes. So we never got out of that bubble until Christmas. So we started September. I never went anywhere, and we went to practice the games. Once in a while, we'd go to dinner with Marcel somewhere and I was at and we just slept all the time.
• 34:16
  Luc Robitaille: As it turned out, as kids helped me speak to learn to speak English. I didn't help the poor kids speak French at all. But we got along really good. But that was a really helped our transition. But Marcel told me, he had asked those questions to many draft kids, 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.
• 34:55
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• 35:32
  Luc Robitaille: he's one of the greatest player of all time. 700 Plus goals. He was a superstar in LA he was a superstar in Detroit the meanies just want the greatest player to ever play the game.
• 35:43
  Randall Kaplan: And you're living with him and you're driving with him to the game. So was he ever that must have been so inspirational just to spend all that time with him?
• 35:50
  Luc Robitaille: Oh, he had a Mercedes and 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 but we had a player that year his name was Morris Luca, which, and guys would call me Luke. So whenever they'd be in the locker room for the first couple games, they someone would say Luke would both turn around.
• 36:11
  Luc Robitaille: So Tiger Williams was the revered tough guy in the NHL.
• 36:14
  Luc Robitaille: And I'd heard he didn't like French guy, so I was really nervous around him. But he got to I think he got to like in me or something, I had beaten him in a push up test in a training camp. So he was very surprised by that. And he come in after game two. And he had a kind of a funny way to talk his nose was broken, like 17 times probably call me a lucky, a lucky. And he and the guys are like, Well, why are you calling lucky and he and I remember he said, Well, he scored on a first shop and his first first shift on the as I got a score, and I got a jump on the Eisenia hl. And my first shot on goal I scored and was like, you know, three minutes to the, you know, was my first ship and he says, Danny says, he drives to practice and then Mercedes the nicest car and because he was driving March Sunday on and he goes, and he lives in the biggest house, march 7, he goes, That's lucky to me. So then then all the guys got into calling me lucky the rest of my career. State. That's
• 37:20
  Randall Kaplan: amazing. What was the feeling as you're sitting on their bed, you're in the locker room, it's your first game, you make the team and you're sitting there and you're or you just out of your mind anxious or is it more excitement? And then what you touch the puck for the first time you got it, the wind up, you flick it in, and you see the red light? But I mean, what what were you feeling at that moment?
• 37:41
  Luc Robitaille: I think it's, there's a few for like, that day, when when I knew I made the team and I stepped on the ice for the practice that they might have been a day before. I remember looking, I'm going, this is my team, I'm gonna make a difference. Because there's a challenge to like, I remember going to Hall my junior team.
• 37:57
  Luc Robitaille: Dan never been past the first round when I got there. And I remember thinking, Okay, we're going to make a difference. And we ended up winning the championship three years later.
• 38:08
  Luc Robitaille: And I remember in my mind, that was my goal, you know, you have individual goals, but I wanted my team to make a debt, you know, to change the culture of that friend, and we did and in that franchise, one to have successful the next 30 years, but we started I remember getting to LA and say, 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 enough first game and now suddenly becomes the moment and I'm dressing and I'm like flying you know, in a warm up. I'm like, it was you're so light, the adrenaline's going. And then what happened is when we started the game, Bernie Nichols it was like are really good. Sam Marsa was 3536. That time it was near di D at the tail end of his career. So he was me 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 anyone would I think you went with Jimmy Carson would Dave Taylor's line and Danny went with the the other line like he I think the fourth line was more of a checking line. And he put them on and I'm like on the bench and my legs are and I remember Marcel Dionne 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 Marsa one B took the center and the left winger that was had the puck in our zone, got to the red line, dumped it in and they went behind an end a goalie went behind the net and then a left winger came in. I jumped I mean, I jump I mean I did feel anything. Even notice I wasn't scared I know was flying. And a goalie made a mistake I sigh from the red line that the goalie made a mistake he ran that around and I could see Marcel was going so I sprint as fast as I could to the from the net and typical my type of goal I yell in French as much as I could I go Massa because that's how you pronounce it and Franco bass said, and he kind of looked up in Marseille at a big kind of curve and he had great him. He grabbed the puck almost without stopping and he just swooped it towards me and the goalie was in there. We're still buying it and I just tipped in the empty net.
• 40:26
  Luc Robitaille: And there's a clip somewhere where you see me jump and I'm like so excited that that was it. I went from the bench to the front of the net tipped and it was like it took like three seconds. That was my first ship.
• 40:40
  Randall Kaplan: If only it was that easy, I know. Exactly. You had a dream. The dream came true. Do you still have the puck? Yeah,
• 40:47
  Luc Robitaille: yeah. Funny enough. I had given it to a friend. I had a museum in Newport beach and when he passed away, his wife has sent it back to me. That's
• 40:55
  Randall Kaplan: awesome. Yeah, that's awesome that 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 is named after Frank Cole. They're 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 one to 1000.
• 41:24
  Randall Kaplan: How fucking good did that feel?
• 41:34
  Luc Robitaille: Good did that feel? I remember, I didn't think I was gonna 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 Ron Hextall.
• 41:44
  Luc Robitaille: I'd seen that got nominated to be on the first all star team. I was on a 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 saw was on the first all star team, I'm like, I'm not gonna win tonight.
• 42:03
  Luc Robitaille: You know, it doesn't make sense.
• 42:03
  Luc Robitaille: I was really relaxed at the idea warden. And then they named me I even I was kind of working on a speech. But I stopped because I'm like, I'm not gonna 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 is Okay, I gotta get better. I gotta 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 a time and think, Okay, this I, you know, I showed everyone I wasn't about that. I still had that fear. I better be good. I'm not gonna be here.
• 42:52
  Randall Kaplan: 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 they stepped on the ice. He scores 79 points this first season. You guys were both new to La live 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. Well, we get along with others and bond with them and both our personal lives and our professional life.
• 43:25
  Randall Kaplan: You guys have that special bond?
• 43:32
  Randall Kaplan: Do you tell us about the importance and strategy about staying close to the middle of the bench? During games? Yeah.
• 43:41
  Randall Kaplan: And also as part of that, what it meant when you guys were on the ice and one of you y'all Mario to the other? Yeah. So we
• 43:49
  Luc Robitaille: we were we were really good. It's kind of funny.
• 43:52
  Luc Robitaille: We were totally different background like than me. His dad was a like very successful businessman. He was he was a tax man. I can't remember what he Jimmy was aware of different things, reading different things in me. So I was very intrigued.
• 44:08
  Luc Robitaille: He was teaching me a lot. He was two years younger than me and way smarter. And so we but the one thing we share, we share a bond on the ice to get better.
• 44:16
  Luc Robitaille: 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, we were constantly whenever we was up there, we'd still be practicing shots and everything.
• 44:32
  Luc Robitaille: Then our second year in a summer in September, there was the World Cup a hockey was called Canada cup at a time. And Mary O'Meara and Wayne Gretzky, you know, played together. And Wayne led the tournament in scoring and men who had the most goals.
• 44:48
  Luc Robitaille: And they had a way to do a two on one where Wayne would kind of weight off of it a little bit.
• 44:55
  Luc Robitaille: And Marissa would just kind of turn the other way in and one time it and kind of wait long enough for the goalie not to go.
• 45:02
  Luc Robitaille: So him and I would pick that up more like, I think we're probably both thinking we're not as good as these. Yeah, 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 noun number 10. We would just yell marry, we'd know we'd vote flip flop on our offense and whoever had the puck would wait, and then the other guy would, instead of crashing the net or doing the thing we would literally wait and then there was a time for some unknown reason what the defenseman stick would change.
• 45:33
  Luc Robitaille: So the lane would become open.
• 45:33
  Luc Robitaille: And we learned we must have scored 15 or 20 goals together that year with that trick that we would literally yell at each other Marielle and that was our signal.
• 45:46
  Randall Kaplan: What about not moving to the end of the bench
• 45:49
  Luc Robitaille: just hanging out? Yeah, we would hang out. We would hang out in the Build a bench. So the coach would see us because we always want to get back on the ice. So he
• 45:56
  Randall Kaplan: told me that you made him do that.
• 45:58
  Luc Robitaille: Because if Jimmy would would sit at the end of the bench and and what happens is, there's four lines in hockey and you go every minute. But coaches get caught up. There's a Pelling as there's there's a power play, and they shift guys.
• 46:14
  Luc Robitaille: And so you better be really good to be at the end of bench. So the coaches looking for you.
• 46:18
  Luc Robitaille: That was my thing is like, let's sit in the middle of so he sees us. So the longer you there is, is going to you it's close. It's easy for him to tap you when he tapped you in the back, you just jump. So I'd be like Jimmy, let's sit in the middle of bed.
• 46:32
  Luc Robitaille: So like we might get an extra shift every game. That was my idea. And he would just look at me like you're nuts. I'm like, Yeah, we liked we might score goals or an extra shift. And it worked it did it work like the coach would just like he'd see us we were going in a good game and we were always in the middle of the bench. So he would just tap our back and we go.
• 46:54
  Randall Kaplan: Thanks for listening to part one of my amazing conversation with Luke Grover tie 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