A few picks later, two Southern California players were taken - Gardena's Beau Bennett at #19 and Emerson Etem, of Long Beach, at #20. However, long before they were supposedly putting California hockey on the map, Noah Clarke played for the Los Angeles Kings.
Born in 1979, he had already been playing for a few years when Gretzky was traded to LA in the summer of '88. His hometown of La Verne - about an hour east of the old Forum - wasn't exactly what you would call a 'hockey hotbed.' In fact, the city didn't even have an ice rink. Nonetheless, Noah honed his craft in several different places and was eventually drafted by the Kings in 1999.
After spending time with both Manchester and Los Angeles, he's been playing in Europe the last few seasons. And just this week he left for Germany to get started with his newest team, the Augsburger Panther. Before heading to LAX with his passport and hockey sticks though, he sat down with The Mayor for a reflective conversation - including his thoughts on several current Kings players (Brown, Kopitar and Doughty), a future player (Kevin Westgarth), a former player (George Parros) and even a rumored player (Ryan Malone).
He also talks about life in Europe, why he left North America and tells a story about one of the funnier pranks you'll hear that went down during his playing days with the Monarchs.
MayorsManor presents an exclusive interview with the original California King, Noah Clarke...
Looking back, what impact did Gretzky coming to the Kings have on you as a kid?
