NHL mock draft: How all-time greats fit 2018 needs
Maurice Richard. 20. player. 67. . Right Wing.
The Los Angeles Kings improved quite a bit last season. They were the league’s best defensive team, allowing the fewest goals against. However, the Kings were still a below-average goal scoring team. Though they improved from 25th to 17th in goals scored, that’s still below the mean. Also, the Kings got swept by the Kings, losing 1-0 twice in the process.
With an obvious need, Los Angeles selects arguably the NHL’s most famous goal scorer ever — Maurice Richard. The league’s goal-scoring trophy is named after him. Richard was named to 14 consecutive All-Star teams from 1943 to 1957. During the 1944-45 season, he pulled off what many thought to be impossible — he scored 50 goals in 50 games. Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Brett Hull are the only others to pull it off.
Richard was able to be an outstanding goal scorer despite having inferior equipment. With better equipment, including sticks that wouldn’t break, he could easily be an excellent goal scorer in today’s game. In an era when scoring goals was very hard to do, Richard broke the 40-goal plateau three times.
The Kings need a goal scorer. Having just missed out on Bobby Hull, Richard is their next best bet. He was also great defensively, which would make him a perfect fit in the Kings system.