1967-68 Los Angeles Kings

The 5 Numbers Retired By The Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings have gone one less season without a Stanley Cup victory than the Toronto Maple Leafs. Of course, this is because the Kings entered the National Hockey League the following year after the Maple Leafs won their last Cup in 1967. Since the start of the 1967-68 season, the Los Angeles Kings have gone without winning the Stanley Cup for over four decades.

The Kings entered the NHL with five other expansion teams for that 1967-68 season, expanding the league from its ‘Original Six’ to twelve teams. The team did make it to the Stanley Cup finals on one occasion, a loss to the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.

This does not mean that Los Angeles has not seen its fair share of great hockey players since 1967. The city has been quite blessed to have some truly great stars don a Los Angeles Kings uniform. Of all those greats, the Kings have retired the numbers of just five.

Goaltender Rogatien ‘Rogie’ Vachon was the first to have his number raised to the rafters. Vachon’s number 30 was retired on February 14, 1985. Rogie played for Los Angeles from 1971-72 to 1977-78. Vachon’s NHL career spanned from 1966-67 to 1981-82 with the Montreal Canadiens, Los Angeles, Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins.

Rogie Vachon still holds team single season records for most shutouts in a season with eight in 1976-77 and lowest goals against average with 2.24 in 1974-75. He is the Los Angeles Kings all-time leader in games played by a goaltender (389), minutes played by a goaltender (22,922), wins (171), losses (148), ties (66) and shutouts (32).

After his playing career, Vachon returned to the Kings to serve as General Manager from 1983 to 1992. Considering his accomplishments with Los Angeles and the fact the he was part of Stanley Cup winning teams in Montreal as well as winning a Vezina Trophy there, it is truly hard to believe that Rogatien Vachon is not an honoured member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The next player to have his number retired by the Los Angeles Kings was Marcel Dionne. The number 16 of Dionne was taken out of circulation by the club on November 8, 1990. Marcel played for Los Angeles from 1975-76 to 1986-87. He began his NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1971-72 after the Wings took him second overall in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft. He ended his NHL career with the New York Rangers.

Marcel Dionne won the Lady Byng Trophy with the Kings in 1976-77 as the NHL’s most gentlemanly player. That season, Dionne sat just twelve minutes in the penalty box. In 1979-80, Marcel won the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s top point getter with 137. Although the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP eluded him throughout his career, on two consecutive occasions (1978-79 and 1979-80), he was awarded the Lester B. Pearson Trophy as the best player in the NHL as voted on by the players.

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