Park’s Avenue to NHL Seldom Traveled

Richard Park learned to skate at age 7, tagging along with his older sisters who were taking figure skating lessons at the Brea Mall rink.

“I went out and didn’t fall once,” he said. “OK, maybe once.”

Thirteen years passed and Park skated again in Orange County--this time at the Pond of Anaheim, wearing the green and eggplant colors of the Mighty Ducks.

Park, 20, was acquired in a trade with Pittsburgh on Tuesday and scored his first goal of the season Wednesday against the Kings.

“It’s a lifelong dream come true to play in Southern California,” said Park, who centered a line with Ken Baumgartner and Warren Rychel.

Park is one of only a handful of Southern Californians to play in the NHL. Chicago Blackhawk defenseman Chris Chelios spent part of his youth in San Diego. Peter McNab, brother of Duck assistant general manager David McNab, also grew up playing youth hockey in San Diego. Former NHL goaltender John Blue was born in Huntington Beach.

“It’s definitely an honor to be one of the select few from Southern California,” said Park, whose family lives in Rancho Palos Verdes. “It’s good to see Southern California is booming in terms of hockey. All my friends here talk about how hockey--both in-line and on the ice--is so popular.”

Duck General Manager Jack Ferreira says Park’s success isn’t an aberration. He predicted that Park will be seen as a role model by other NHL hopefuls from the Southland.

“There still aren’t enough good youth programs, but eventually that’s going to change,” Ferreira said. “I’d like to think it will become the next hockey hotbed. There are going to be kids from California in the NHL.

“It will be great to see. We’ll save on our scouting budget.”

Certainly, it would make for a tidy story if Park’s journey to the NHL were as simple as the short drive down the 57 Freeway from the mall to the Pond. But Park took a more circuitous route.

He began his hockey career playing for the Brea Flyers, moved with his family from Orange County to Torrance at age 8, continued playing for local youth teams, but soon reached a crossroads.

At 13, having already outgrown Southern California competition, Park moved to Toronto with his 19-year-old sister, Christina, in search of better coaching and teammates.

Park first played with a Toronto-area youth team called the Mississauga Blackhawks. When he reached high school age, he joined the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League.

“I come from a very supportive family,” said Park, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, but moved with his family to Orange County when he was 3. “Without them, none of this would have happened. Christina was 19. I was 13. We went to a totally unfamiliar country, but we ran into some very good people very quickly.

“You could try the same scenario over and over again and it couldn’t have come out any better.

“I was a 13-year-old who thought he knew it all. I didn’t know about all the politics that went on [in Canadian junior hockey]. All the negative things we came across Christina tried to hide from me, so I could just play hockey.”

The Southland was still uncharted territory for most Canadian hockey fans when Park arrived in Toronto in the fall of 1989. Wayne Gretzky had been traded to the Kings from Edmonton the year before and the rush to embrace hockey in Los Angeles hadn’t started in earnest.

The Kings were only a season or two removed from their purple-and-gold uniforms. The Ducks weren’t yet a twinkle in the eyes of Disney chief executive officer Michael Eisner.

“I think people looked at me like I was from a different planet,” Park said of his first days in Toronto.

Soon, he began to attract attention for his skills rather than his hometown. Park had 23 goals and 61 points in 66 games his first season with Belleville, a town of 36,000 about 90 miles east of Toronto. He had 27 goals and 76 points in 59 games in his second season.

The Penguins thought enough of Park to make him their second-round pick in the 1994 entry draft. He returned to Belleville for 1994-95, but played in 56 games for the Penguins last season, scoring four goals in limited action.

Park spent most of 1996-97 with Pittsburgh’s minor league affiliate at Cleveland but had just joined the Penguins when he was traded Tuesday.

He was grateful for the opportunity to play with superstars Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, but expects more ice time and exposure in Anaheim.

“In Pittsburgh, I was like a little kid knocking on the door, but it wasn’t going to open,” he said.