LOS ANGELES — For first round draft picks, with the recognition comes the expectations. Many 1st round draft picks will tell you that their high draft position ruined their careers. Many serviceable, talented athletes who are respectable producers are more quickly discarded as “busts” or “flops” if they don’t live up to the often times unrealistic expectations placed on them.
When Los Angeles Kings forward Trevor Lewis was awarded the Silver Stick on Saturday night for playing 1000 career NHL games, I hope the lesson and inspiration to be taken from the accomplishment doesn’t fall on deaf ears of young hockey players and athletes.
Lewis was the Kings 17th overall selection in the first round of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft and selected to be a Top 6 Center who can anchor the Kings Offense for the next 10-15 years. Many times, that expectation is the beginning of the end for world class junior talent who then struggle to produce at the same levels in the best league in the world. But Lewis was going to carve out an NHL career for himself regardless of how his statline unfolded.
Throughout Trevor Lewis’ career he’s only scored more than 10 goals in a season twice, and never more than 15. For a 1st round Draft Pick who was drafted to score, this in most scenarios would be a kiss of death to one’s NHL dreams. But while he objectively never met the offensive expectations he inherited with being a 1st round Draft Pick, his story shows why numbers aren’t everything and in cases like Trevor Lewis, mean very little.
From very early on, Lewis played with a high energy & attention to detail that made him an asset whether he put the puck in the net or not. He established himself as a responsible Center who excelled at keeping the opposing puck out of the net. As Lewis got a bit older and it was clear he was never going to be a real scorer, he was already so embedded into the Los Angeles locker room as an all-world teammate, a no shifts off competitor, and a personification of at the time GM Dean Lombardi’s idea of Stanley Cup winning culture.
Since 2010 Lewis has been a full time NHL’er with no send downs (briefly played for his home state Utah Grizzlies of the ECHL during the 2012-2013 lockout). He has 2 Stanley Cup rings with the Kings, and now 1000 Games played.
If Lewis was a 6th round selection, we may be talking about one of the best 2-way forwards to pull on a Crown, Crest or Chevy logo of all time. We still might.
