Joel's Story

The LA Kings are North of the border in Quebec City to close out their pre-season schedule with a pair of neutral-site games, after which they’ll remain on the road for an additional two weeks to open the 2024-25 season away from Los Angeles. Three weeks on the road for any NHL team is a bit of an anomaly and it has Joel Edmundson a little nervous.

Edmundson and his wife, Ebony, who is originally from Scotland, are expecting their first child in a couple of weeks. The soon-to-be dad knows that he’ll need to be home for the birth, which means he may have to abandon the Kings’ east coast road trip to do it.

The Edmundsons settled into a Hermosa Beach home about a month before the Kings opened training camp and have spent all their free time since readying the nursery for the arrival of their newest addition. Although they’re new to the neighborhood, the local delivery drivers are surely now quite familiar with their residence, thanks, in part, to the plethora of Amazon orders that were necessary to complete the jungle-themed nursery. The Brandon, Manitoba native has been busy putting up wallpaper to compliment the palm trees, monkeys, giraffes and elephants that will welcome Baby Edmundson, whose gender will remain a surprise until he or she is born.

“No, I don’t,” asserts Edmundson on whether he has a gender preference. “We’re pretty easy-going. In a perfect world it would be an older brother and maybe two girls. I definitely want a girl, or maybe two boys and a girl. I would like one and one, that’d be cool.”

The 31-year-old defenseman signed with the Kings as an unrestricted free agent on July 1st after having played last season for the Washington Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Prior to that, he spent three years with the Montreal Canadiens after his first four seasons with the St. Louis Blues. He was drafted by the Blues in the second round, 46th overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019.

Coming to Los Angeles was an easy decision for Edmundson.

“They made it very clear that I was the guy that they wanted, and it feels good to be wanted,” explains Edmundson, who will likely be paired with a younger defense partner this season. “I reached out to several guys that have played here in the past and/or are currently on the team and everyone raved about it. So it was kind of a no-brainer for me.”

The hockey scene in Montreal and Toronto, compared to LA, couldn’t be more polar opposite.

“I was only in Toronto for a short period, but I was also in Montreal, too, so same thing there, high-pressure,” adds Edmundson. “They ask a lot of you, but that’s like anywhere. You have to rise to that occasion, right? The media is probably easier down here and you don’t hear stuff on TV everyday, but at the end of the day, you’re playing hockey and you still have to perform every night. So you just try to block that out when you’re up there and you don’t find it too bad.”

There is something else that Edmundson is looking forward to in LA.

“Wearing shorts and flip flops for sure,” Edmundson laughs. “I think we left all the winter coats up in Canada. I think on off-days just getting outside, getting that fresh air, where maybe you wouldn’t do it in Toronto or Montreal in January, February. It’s a long season, it’s stressful, it’s exhausting. But whenever you can get a chance to go outside and check out the ocean, check out the beach or sit on a patio, you just can’t beat it.”

A trip to Disneyland is tops on Ebony’s list of things-to-do in SoCal, which may have to wait until after the baby arrives. However, from all his previous travel to the area, Edmundson has pinpointed that Santa Monica, Venice and Newport Beach are all places he’d love to show his wife, in addition to a football game because she’s never been. As for himself, hitting the links at some of the golf courses in the area are high priority.

Joel and Ebony live on a beach in British Columbia during the summers now, but all of this is vastly different scenery from what Edmundson grew up with in Brandon which is about 135 miles west of Winnipeg. Like a typical Canadian, he was basically born with skates on his feet, and wanted to do everything his older brother Jesse did, including play hockey. The Edmundson brothers would regularly get into trouble for fighting with each other, but that relationship has evolved into a tight bond, present day. Joel followed Jesse into playing hockey, and aside from also being an incredible baseball player as a kid, always knew hockey was his path.

“The school near the house had an outdoor rink, so we’d just go over there, and there are pictures of me - I’m probably this tall with the skates on and a helmet that’s way too big for me and it’s probably minus-40 out,” Edmundson recalls, gesturing with his hands.

The Calgary Flames were Edmundson’s team as a kid and he idolized Jerome Iginla and Jay Bouwmeester, whom he later got the chance to play with in St. Louis.

He does admit that if he weren’t playing hockey he might be a carpenter, which is actually what Jesse does currently. Edmundson enjoys working with his hands, and the coolest thing he’s ever crafted is an Adirondack chair. While he’ll have to put off carpentry as a career for the time being, he will undoubtedly be able to put his craftsmanship skills to good use as he builds toys and new furniture for his growing family.

When he’s not at the rink or building a nursery, Edmundson can be found on his boat, wake surfing in the summer. He loves music, so whatever he’s engaging in at the moment, there are always tunes in the background, whether it’s the Lumineers and Zach Bryan in the mornings, country for the locker room, or Fisher and deeper house if he’s going for that ‘upscale restaurant vibe.’ Edmundson loves watching football and is invested in his fantasy team each year. Also on the tube could be Friends, New Girl, or How I Met Your Mother. His best friend is his Australian Labradoodle named Jimmy, who is, at the moment, loving South Bay life and regular walks on the strand.

Despite his resume, which includes his name having been engraved on the most coveted trophy in sports, the Kings’ new marquee blue liner is a humble, down-to-earth, guy trying to figure out life in a new city while expecting his first kid. The story is as simple as it sounds, and in fact, when asked what his own headline should be, Edmundson had an answer.

“Joel’s story,” he suggests, chuckling.

Very well, then.