Former LA Kings Hall of Fame trainer Pete Demers remembers the centerman in much the same way.
"He was the most skilled skater the Kings ever had. Right up there with Paul Coffey," Demers said.
"He was in that category," agrees LA's original play-by-play voice Jiggs McDonald. "He could play in today's league, where speed is so essential, without any problem at all."
More than just swift, the 6'1" Widing (pronounced "Vee-ding") is one of just four Kings to lead the team in scoring in his first three full seasons with the club. You might have heard of the other three members of this exclusive group: Marcel Dionne, Wayne Gretzky and Anze Kopitar.
Yet, only one of these stars went through his entire career in Los Angeles with everybody saying his name wrong.
This goes back to February 28, 1970, when Larry Regan traded Ted Irvine to the New York Rangers for the 22-year-old Widing and Real Lemieux.
Rangers GM Emile Francis regretted parting with the Swedish import, who he had watched grow up. Francis had brought over the then-17-year-old in the mid-60s, along with the first European-trained skater to play in the NHL, Ulf Sterner.
"Widing just needs a chance to play. He is a skillful playmaker and will develop into a good one," noted Francis. "I hated to let him go, but we felt Irvine was the player we needed to win the division and the Stanley Cup." (Hafner, Dan. "Irving Traded to Rangers for Widing, Lemieux." Los Angeles Times, February 28, 1970.)
The cellar-dwelling Kings could afford their latest acquisition plenty of playing time. But then-owner Jack Kent Cooke, straining to make a strong impression in a non-traditional hockey market, believed he couldn't afford to call the Finnish-born Swede his proper name. So, Cooke, who dubbed Ken McDonald "Jiggs," Brian Kilrea "Killer," Eddie Joyal "The Jet," and so on, looked toward Widing's luxurious mane.
McDonald recalls, "In training camp in 1970
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Sheng Peng is a freelance hockey writer based out of Los Angeles, California. He covers the LA Kings and Ontario Reign for HockeyBuzz. His work has also appeared on VICE Sports, The Hockey News, and SB Nation's Jewels from the Crown
