Start was rough, but now Luff loves the NHL life
Ask Matt Luff about life in the NHL and his instinct is to play it cool.
“Can’t complain,” he deadpans. “You work toward it for so many years and then it happens.”
But push a little harder and his real feelings start to bleed through.
It’s weird, he says, fun, and has surpassed all of his expectations. When he steps onto the ice with Jonathan Toews or
Ryan Getzlaf — guys he grew up watching as a kid in Oakville — it’s “surreal.”
More than anything, though, life in the NHL is vindicating.
Because Luff has found a way to make it despite a history of being passed over, underestimated and written off.
“Nobody expected me to do anything,” he says, “so I think that kind of fuelled me to prove people wrong.”
The 21-year-old Hamilton Bulldogs graduate made news early this week when he became only the fifth rookie in L.A. Kings history to score goals in four straight games — a feat that hadn’t been pulled off since 1987.
But that’s the latest chapter in his story. Let’s revisit the first.
In 2013, Luff — nearly a point-per-game player for the minor midget Oakville Rangers — fell to the seventh round of the OHL draft. Then, a few months down the road, he failed to make the cut at training camp with the Belleville Bulls.
He could have packed it in then. A lot of kids do. Instead, though, Luff got better.
After amassing 56 goals in 66 major midget games he made the Bulls on his second try and went on to be named a finalist for OHL rookie of the year.
The next season in Hamilton, he tripled his output to 27 goals, led the Bulldogs in points and earned a nod from Central Scouting in the lead up to the NHL draft for the second time in as many campaigns. And, for the second time, his name wasn’t called.
But the Kings saw something they liked in Luff and invited him
to try out as a free agent. He left their 2016 camp with a contract and the distinction of being the first Bulldogs player to ink an NHL deal.
There were some growing pains when Luff returned to Hamilton that season. First, he
missed all of November with an injured shoulder blade and part of February with a concussion. Then, shortly after returning to the lineup, the coaching staff made him a healthy scratch.
In light of all that, maybe, he went to camp in L.A. last September
expecting to spend an overage year with the Bulldogs. However, the Kings had other plans.
“They just said he’s ready for pro hockey, which was a bit surprising to us,” says general manager Steve Staios.
“But give Matt credit. His off-season conditioning and what he was able to accomplish and going to camp and impressing them enough where they felt he was ready for the American Hockey League is all a credit to him.”
With the Kings’ affiliate Ontario Reign, the six-foot-two, 190-pound winger had 12 goals and 17 assists in 67 games as a 20year-old. Then — just as it did in his junior career — his production took off. In his first nine games with the Reign this season, he had six markers and 12 points, which put him among the top scorers in the AHL.
That was enough to earn his first call-up to L.A. about a month ago, and his second in mid-November. With five points in seven games, he hasn’t been out of the lineup since.
“He’s obviously got a knack for putting the puck in the back of the net and I think it really reflects well on our program and how he’s been able to develop,” says Staios. “And what a great story for any young athlete, not just in hockey, that you’ve got to stay with it.”
Luff — who has averaged more than 11 minutes of ice time and played alongside with Carl Hagelin, Austin Wagner and Adrian Kempe during his stint in L.A. — says the Bulldogs played an important role in getting him this far, as did his family, which always made sure he had access to the best training, and strength and conditioning guru Matt Nichol.
But the biggest thing was continuing to work when most people would have given up.
“I was one of the few who took not getting drafted and not being expected to make it to heart,” he says. “I just used it as firewood and created a fire.”