Los Angeles Kings: Recapping their 1967 first season
By Ryan Sikes
With the NHL adding the Seattle Kraken, we looked back at the Los Angeles Kings inaugural year in 1967.
The NHL has formally added the Seattle Kraken as the 32nd franchise beginning in the 2021-2022 season. And for the second time in five years, the Los Angeles Kings will be subject to losing another player to an expansion team.
In 2017, the Golden Knights plucked Brayden McNabb from the Kings, who has yet to materialize into his projections. We’ve already mentioned several players that could be exposed for the Kraken and thought it might be fun to also look at the Kings inaugural year.
The early stages
Los Angeles, along with five other cities, was awarded an NHL franchise on February 9, 1966, with Canadien entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke becoming the owner of the organization for a cool $2 million. Kent Cooke had already purchased a share of the Washington Football Team as well as the Los Angeles Lakers in 1961 and 1965, respectively.
Cooke was spurned to utilize the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in response to Rams owner Dan Reeves being outbid for the NHL franchise. Instead, Kent Cooke opted to build The Forum in Inglewood, which would later house both the Lakers and Kings until they moved to the Staples Center in 2000.