About a week ago, at the end of July, the hockey world said goodbye to one of its most underrated and under-appreciated talents.
I am of course talking about former Los Angeles Kings right wing and Slovakian star Zigmund Palffy.
The 41-year old Palffy announced his retirement after having played an NHL career that spanned 11 seasons, from 1994-2006. Since 2006 he's been playing in his native Slovakia for HK 36 Skalica and was among the leagues most prolific scorers. He had a career 684 NHL games, and accumulated a career 713 points. Five of those seasons he had 85 points or more and in three he had 40-plus goals. Two of those 85-plus point seasons came with the Los Angeles Kings, whom Palffy was the star man of from 1999-2004.
From a King fan standpoint, Palffy was the headliner back in the early 2000's of a King team that finally made its way back into the postseason. Before the arrival of Palffy the Kings fell into a rut that saw them miss the playoffs five out of six seasons after the franchises first ever cup appearance in 1992-93.
The 1998-99 Kings were in desperate need of scoring, as the leading scorer of the squad that year was Luc Robitaille with 74 points and the next closest players were Donald Audette and Rob Blake with 35 and 36 points respectively.
Newly appointed GM Dave Taylor saw the opportunity to deal for Palffy with the financially struggling Islanders and pulled the trigger. For the price of Olli Jokinen, Josh Green, Mathieu Biron and a first-round pick the Kings recieved two corner stones of the early-00's in Bryan Smolinski and Ziggy Palffy.
Palffy was a much needed boost, and led the Kings in scoring two of his four full seasons with the team, and finished second and third in scoring the other two. In three of those four seasons the Kings made the playoffs, and Palffy had 19 points in his 24 career playoff games in a King uniform. He had 340 points in 311 career regular season games with the Kings and
With his tremendous speed and ridiculous puck-handling Palffy reignited the LA Hockey scene. It was an era that gave us names like Bryan Smolinski, Felix Potvin, Phillipe Boucher, Rob Blake, Eric Belanger, and Mattias Norstrom. It was an era where the newly opened Staples Center (1999) was the place to be, and Palffy and the Kings were the hot ticket.
Events like the Frenzy on Figueroa, which will forever be etched in King history, took place during the tenure of the Slovakian.
It was a truly exciting time to be a King fan, and the soft spoken and enjoyable nature that Palffy brought to the game and to the fans was what made him so loved in his short five season stint with the team. I grew up and really learned to love the game of hockey during this time period so Palffy will always be the name sticks out to me. Maybe there is biased here, but he is in my opinion one of the most skilled players to ever done a King jersey. Not to drone on with the Palffy man love, I will simply say he will always be remembered in the LA hockey world. Thanks for the great seasons you brought to Lala land and congratulations on a very succesful and prominant career worldwide.
I'll close with some nostalgia, some disgusting hands, and some pure sniper goals from one of the greats.
Cheers to you Mr. Palffy. You will forever be remembered for your time with the Kings.
If you follow me on twitter @SirJDL, you're gunna have a bad time. 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»