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Friday, February 17, 2012

Feb 17--Luc Robitaille

Luc Robitaille





Selected by Los Angeles Kings round 9 #171 overall 1984 NHL Entry Draft.


The Kings got a bit "lucky" when "Lucky Luc" Robitaille's career blossomed following his draft year. Doubts of his skating ability still plagued him but he managed to shake that reputation in 1987 as he won the Calder trophy as the National Hockey League's best rookie. Robitaille made up for any skating deficiencies with one of the most accurate shots in NHL history. He was a regular leader in shooting percentage, thanks to a number of reasons. He worked himself into high percentage scoring areas, often down low and in tight. Though a defender might have been draped all over him, he always kept his stick unchecked. He would release his shot in the blink of an eye, usually just burying passes and rebounds with no backswing at all.
He reached the 500-goal milestone in a game against the Buffalo Sabres on January 9, 1999. Only the sixth left winger in league history to reach the plateau, Robitaille scored the goal in his 928th NHL game, making him the 12th fastest ever to accomplish the feat.
With 557 of his 668 career NHL goals coming in a Los Angeles uniform he retired as the Kings all time leading goal scorer. He later became the fifth King to have his jersey #20 retired, joining Gretzky, Rogie Vachon, Marcel Dionne and Dave Taylor.




CAREER NHL STATISTICS
YearsTeamsGPGATPPIM
1986-2005LA, PIT, NYR, DET1,3806587201,3781,133
CAREER NHL PLAYOFF STATISTICS
YearsTeamsGPGATPPIM
1987-2003LA, PIT, NYR, DET1595869127174




Received these black sharpie autos IP. Don't remember where but I believe at the NHL SloPitch tourney.

3 comments:

  1. I have NEVER seen the Topps version of his rookie before....Are the colours that different in person?

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    1. Yes, they are--if you look at the Feb 14 Walt Poddubny cards from the same year, you can notice the difference also--I think it has to do with the different card stock they were printed on--from looking at the backs, the OPC is a lot whiter than Topps

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