Color of Hockey: Kim's approach to development breeding success

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog for the past eight years. Douglas joined NHL.com in March 2019 and writes about people of color in the game. Today, he profiles Alex Kim, a prominent skills development and junior team coach in California.

When Toronto Maple Leafs rookie forward Nicholas Robertson scored his first NHL goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers on Aug. 6, teammates Kasperi Kapanen and Alex Kerfoot received assists.
But Alex Kim deserves a stick tap.
Kim is a skills development and junior team coach in Southern California who has been working with Robertson on his shot for the past three years during the offseason.
"One of the things he does well is the shooting aspect of the game," said Robertson, who was selected by Toronto in the second round (No. 53) of the 2019 NHL Draft. "One thing I learned from him is the weight transfer and just the power. I think I underestimated how much force you could put into a shot. With 'Kimmer,' he didn't tweak it. He just honestly motivated me to shoot the puck more. He just makes the game a lot easier."
Kim, 41, has been working with players from prospects to pros for nearly 20 years on their skills and approach to the game.

His clients include Robertson, older brother
Jason Robertson,
who was selected by the Dallas Stars in the second round (No. 39) of the 2017 NHL Draft, Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Nieto and former NHL forward
Emerson Etem
.
Kim is also director of player personnel for the Anaheim Jr. Ducks and coach of their Under-16 AAA team, a chief scout of the United States Hockey League's Central Scouting Program and director of hockey operation of Optimum Hockey Academy, which he co-founded with former NHL player
Craig Johnson
.
"I always had a passion for skills development," Kim said. "I guess that led me to coaching because it was an easy transition from playing. My first couple of years, my mission was to try to really help players move on because I know how hard it is to be from California to make it. I wanted to find a way to contribute, and that was the best way to do it."
Kim has contributed to the growing number of players of color coming out of California to play elite-level hockey, said Rod Braceful, assistant director of player personnel for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.

Colorado College defenseman Chad Sasaki and Connecticut College forward Patrick Choi played for the Jr. Ducks under Kim. James Hong, a Jr. Ducks forward, was selected by Waterloo in the third round of the 2020 USHL draft in May.
"He's producing players that are going to the USHL … and going on to Division I colleges, and I think the greatest part about that is he's doing it with players that look like him," Braceful said. "That organization (Jr. Ducks) has had many Hispanic and Asian-American players in it, and it's California."
Kim's parents immigrated to California from South Korea in the 1970s. He got involved in hockey after a hockey director at a public rink spotted him on the ice, where his sister was taking figure skating lessons.
"The hockey director at the rink approached my mom and asked if I'd like to play," Kim said. "My mom said no at first, but I was pretty persistent, proactive about it. I'd bring home signup sheets."
Kim became part of the Southern California youth hockey scene that was burgeoning following the trade of
Wayne Gretzky
to the Los Angeles Kings from the Edmonton Oilers in August 1988.
He played on one youth team so diverse that parents said it resembled a mini-United Nations.

"We had a Samoan player, two African Americans, two Asian Americans, a couple of Jewish kids, a couple of Caucasian kids," Kim said.
He experienced culture shock when he progressed to AAA junior hockey in 1995 and played in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where he said he was the only minority member in a high school with 1,000 students.
"I would experience racial slurs every day," Kim said. "But I went there as a sacrifice to pursue my goals of trying to play college hockey."
Kim moved on to Des Moines of the USHL the following season, scoring 47 points (25 goals, 22 assists) in 50 games. He was selected to play in the USHL All-Star Game and chosen for the All-Rookie Team.
His performance helped him achieve his goal of playing NCAA hockey. He spent 1997-99 at Miami University and 2000-02 at Colorado College, finishing with 119 points (59 goals, 60 assists) in 151 NCAA games.
Though Kim wasn't drafted, he still managed to get a taste of the NHL. The Kings invited him to player development camps while he was in college and to a pro camp afterward. He went to the minor leagues, spending most of his North American playing career bouncing around the ECHL, with stops in Reading, Peoria, Long Beach, San Diego and Bakersfield. Kim also played a handful of games for Milwaukee and Portland of the American Hockey League in 2005-06.
"I had some experiences in the [ECHL] -- some that I'll remember and some I'd like to forget," he said. "I experienced [racial taunting], a lot of it, from fans. Opposing teams every now and then. It was rampant from fans. It was really bad."
Looking for a change, Kim signed with High 1, a South Korean team in the Asia League, in 2007.

"I think part of it was getting to understand the culture my parents grew up in, the heritage," he said. "It was more of an identity search, to find out about myself as an individual."
Kim became a star in South Korea. He led the Asia League in scoring with 51 points (23 goals, 28 assists) in 30 games in 2007-08 and 75 points (29 goals, 46 assists) in 35 games in 2009-10.
"Hockey-wise, he was one of the best players who ever played in the Asia League," said Choi, who lived and played in South Korea until he was 11 years old.
Kim is so highly regarded in South Korea that he's returned over the years to conduct hockey schools there. In 2014, he helped arrange for Korea University hockey players to visit Southern California and train with him and coaches from the Ducks' development staff.
He retired in 2012-13 after playing in Austria and almost immediately went into skills development training and coaching, which he'd already been doing as a player in helping teammates. Johnson, director of coaches for the Jr. Ducks and a member of the Kings' development staff, observed Kim working with players and hired the Ducks' Under-16 AAA in 2014-15.
"He's very organized, he studies the game, he can see little things that guys are doing where he can help them," said Johnson, who played 557 NHL games with the Ducks, Kings, St. Louis Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals from 1994-2004. "He's willing to go outside the box a little bit, which I think is really important in development. He pushes them out of their comfort zone."
Choi, who moved from South Korea to pursue a hockey career, said Kim always pushed him when he played for the Jr. Ducks in 2014-15. But he came to understand later that Kim was preparing him for the future.
"He always tells me stories of how it was not easy to play hockey as an Asian-American in the states," said Choi, who finished with four points (one goal, three assists) in 17 games as a freshman this season at Connecticut College, an NCAA Division III school. "I think he saw himself in players like me. I think that's why he helped me, because he knew how tough it is to be an Asian-American hockey player."