Lethbridge, AB - Every kid dreams of one day hoisting the Stanley Cup and for former Lethbridge Hurricane Dwight King, his dream came true Monday night as the LA Kings won their first Cup in franchise history. One by one every player took their turn hoisting Lord Stanley over their head; kissing the NHL’s most coveted trophy. It's a moment King won’t soon forget.
After wrapping up his WHL career with the Hurricanes, the 22-year old who hails from Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan spent most of the next 3 years with Manchester in the AHL. After 50 games with the Monarchs this season, everything changed when he was called up by the Kings late in the year and he made the most of his opportunity scoring 5 goals (and 8 points) in 20 playoff games and he was a key contributor in helping LA win the Cup.
We had a chance to catch up with King from LA just a day after fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Canes: First of all, it’s barely been 24 hours, what is going through your mind, has it sunk in yet?
DK: Yeah, it’s been great, obviously to cap it off and have the big celebration on the ice, it really sets the goal into place of having your family and friends there makes it so special and it’s been awesome.
Canes: When you look back to the beginning of the season, where you were and you get the call up, could you have dreamed this is how it would go for you and how it would end?
DK: No, obviously when I got called up, the biggest goal was just to try and stay around as long as I could and uh once the new year passed and the trade deadline and everything started falling into place and we were battling for a playoff spot and once playoffs got started the success we had it’s been unbelievable.
Canes: Some people may have been surprised at how well you played and your production, we saw that out of you here in Lethbridge and how important was it for you to contribute to your team and to this win.
DK: Yeah you know you always want to contribute to the team that you’re on in any way that you can. Scoring and being productive on the ice is a huge part of that and uh for me, getting the opportunity to chip in here and there and leading to the success we had was what you want and it couldn’t have gone any better.
Canes: There’s so much going on; what are you thinking about with the parade and all the things coming now & media requests and attention is it even possible to stay even keel with all the excitement going on.
DK: Uh ya, obviously you enjoy it, um … it’s still awhile away til you have to refocus so everybody, myself included, is going to enjoy this one for as long as we can and take it all in, it doesn’t happen very often so it’s going to be an exciting next couple of days for sure.
Canes: Have you even started to think about what you’re going to do in Meadow Lake or … I know your fans here want you to come here!!
DK: Ya, it would be nice but I think we’re going to be going back to Meadow Lake. I haven’t made any plans, haven’t thought about anything yet, but it’s a pretty small community and they’ve all shown their support over the playoff run as everybody in Lethbridge too, but … uh it’ll be good. I’m not entirely sure what’s going to happen yet, but uh it’ll definitely be a day there that will be remembered.
Canes: You have so many fans that are still here. Twitter was blowing up last night because everyone was so excited for you (and Coach Darryl Sutter who’s a Lethbridge Broncos alum) so they send their congratulations, so any words for your fans here?
DK: I just want to say thanks for the support. I’ve had great memories and great uh, great years in Lethbridge and they’ve helped me to become the person I am now and I’m very grateful for the opportunity and the experiences that I had there and the people I met along the way.
