Hockey Hype Australia spoke to three members of the Los Angeles Kings organisation about the NHL’s exploration of the Australian hockey market. All three members had positive comments on the foundations and future of the sport down under.

LA Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, Head Coach Todd McLellan, and COO Kelly Cheeseman each responded to Hockey Hype Australia at press conferences and media scrums held following the team’s open practice at Rod Laver Arena on Friday, September 22, 2023.

Drew Doughty

Hockey Hype Australia: Drew, there’s a lot of excitement about the Kings this season. What’s it like to get someone like Trevor Lewis back, who’s a former cup winner at the club?

Drew Doughty: Super. I think he’s super key for our team, though. We needed some veteran presence. I think we needed a player who plays where he plays, where he’ll do anything for the team to make the team better. And then he’s one of my best friends.

So I lost a lot of, like, basically all my buddies from over the years, there’s only a couple of us left, and to get Lewis back, it’s super exciting for me personally. Like I said, he’s going to be super important for our team.

Hockey Hype Australia: Drew, I saw earlier that someone had sent you a photo of someone wearing a Drew Doughty jersey here in Australia. What’s been your impression of hockey fans here in Australia? Do you think that there’s an appetite for the NHL, and specifically for the L.A. Kings?

Drew Doughty: Yeah, I hope we grow most of the Australian people into Kings fans. That would be great! But no, I was actually pretty pleasantly surprised by how many people are out here and how many, you know, L.A. Kings jerseys you saw. You saw some other teams’ jerseys too.

So the support right off the bat is great, and I hope a lot of people that don’t know about hockey come to watch a game, or if it’s on TV, watch it there because hockey’s a great sport and it’s very entertaining, and if you can watch it live, it’s even better. So we’d love to turn a bunch of Australians into hockey fans.

Todd McLellan

Hockey Hype Australia: This is a totally different circumstance – a 17-hour flight, a different country. Have you found that it’s actually a good thing to bring the group together?

Todd McLellan: Oh, I think it’s a great thing! You know, I should be honest with you. When we heard, ‘Hey, guess what? You’re going to Melbourne, Australia, you’re going to travel 17 hours, 17-hour time change’, we’re going, ‘No way!’. But the deeper that we began to dive into it and talk about it, it began to really make sense for our team and our group. And then once we got on the plane we realised that it wasn’t as bad as we all thought it could be. Then we arrived here and found out how great the city is and how good the people are here and everything else has gone smoothly. So the experience itself has been really good. It’s also as good as you’re willing to make it. And we talked as a group that we were getting something out of this trip – we were going to get better as a team. We’re going to get closer as a team regardless of what was in front of us. It’s not over yet. So we have some work to do. But to this point, I think we will achieve our goals.

Hockey Hype Australia: I believe quite a few players are going to the AFL game tonight to check out what that cultural experience is like. The team has seemed to be engaged quite a bit with youth hockey while they’ve been here – what’s your perception of Australia and Melbourne specifically as far as its hockey potential?

Todd McLellan: Well, I’ll go to that second part because I think it’s really important. The hockey and the Melbourne environment, the minor hockey program. We’ve been treated unreal by the people here and the organisers. The little ones that went on the ice the other day – that was really exciting for all of us to see. The players were walking out and they were peeking and they wanted to know what was going on.

From what I understand and what I’ve been told – and it’s important that we get a sense of what’s going on in this country as far as hockey goes – it’s a growing sport. There’s a demand for it. I hope like any other country or situation that’s emerging – a lot of it is based on facilities and access.

Obviously, it’s expensive when you’re acquiring land and putting buildings up. But once that begins to happen, it’s a contagious sport. It only takes a few people to be playing and all of a sudden everyone is playing it. So I, I see that happening here. I see banners. I see women’s teams. I think it’s got a good basis and hopefully, it continues to grow and I hope we’re a part of that.

Now, the AFL footy, we’re all excited about. Let me tell you it’s a sport and we’re all trying to figure out what this game is. But it’s physical, it’s fast, it’s hard, we’re all awake at three in the morning because we can’t sleep anymore. So we watch this football game on there. I must have watched six games or more by now. Way more than hockey! I’m still trying to figure the rules out – I’m enjoying it.

The big debate is, what colour do you wear? And I’ve heard it’s black and white. If you wear the other colour, you may be in trouble. But we’re looking forward to going to the game and feeling the environment, probably like a lot of those players or fans here are looking forward to our hockey game.

Kelly Cheeseman

Hockey Hype Australia: Two-part question: The Kings have been getting a cultural experience in Melbourne at Culture Kings and things like that. How important is that for the Kings? And the second part, Adrian Kempe, there’s a video of him testing out Vegemite. Have you tested out Vegemite, and what do you think?

Kelly Cheeseman: I was right behind when he [Kempe] first ate Vegemite. I did test it. I didn’t go straight in like he did. I put the butter on it with it. So I had a bit of a coaching experience the night before. It was fine. It wasn’t my favourite thing with all due respect, but it was, it was good. But I can definitely see that, you know, why the people from here love it and it’s probably a bit of a, you know, something close to your heart. But I’m sure there’s some gross stuff that I like from growing up in Minnesota that you guys wouldn’t like either.

So, as far as Culture Kings, and those experiences, that’s something we work really hard on at the Kings to build into new audiences with our merchandising culture is special in what they do. They’re one of the biggest, you know, kind of streetwear growth markets across the globe. They’ve done a fantastic job with our partners, and really built unique merchandise.

Our guys love it, you know, they were excited to be there and they shopped and bought a lot of product and they got a lot of, we got a lot of AFL and Rugby hats that the guys were excited to get.

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