LA Sports: The five greatest rookies of the decade

The LA Sports landscape has plenty of superstars heading into the 2020s, some of which spent their rookie years in the city of Los Angeles as well.

The 2010s brought the arrival of fresh faces to the LA Sports landscape. Rookies were able to put their stamp on the teams and on the decade.

Only the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels were able to produce rookie of the year players in the decade but that doesn’t mean there weren’t other outstanding rookies who made an impact in their first year of the pros.

Over the decade the Anaheim Ducks produced two top goalies, the Dodgers not only boasted rookie of the year winners but a “Wilde Horse” from Cuba, and Angels reeled in a “big one” and perhaps the best ballplayer of his generation.

These were the top 5 LA sports rookies of the decade.

Honorable Mention:

2013-14 Frederik Andersen Record: 20-5-0 GAA: 2.29

2015-16 John Gibson Record: 21-13-4 GAA: 2.07

Some NHL franchises go years without developing a top-line goaltender (Ask a Kings or Flyer fan they will tell you). Somehow the in the past decade the Anaheim Ducks managed to develop two rookie goaltenders one after the other.

In the 2013-14 season 2012 NHL Draft pick Frederik Andersen debuted for the Ducks playing mostly backup to Jonas Hiller. Andersen was outstanding winning 20 of the 25 games he started and even won his first playoff start Game One in the first round against the Dallas Stars. For his efforts, Andersen was named to the NHL-All Rookie Team in the off-season.

Two years later Andersen’s backup achieved the same accomplishments John Gibson who had a few NHL games under his belt was brought up permanently in the 2015-16 season. He won 21 games and lead all rookies with a 2.07 GAA. Gibson was named to the All-Rookie Team and was the only rookie to place in the top 10 of the rookie of the year voting ballot.