Trevor Moore and Zach Hyman entered the first-round grudge match between the Kings and Edmonton Oilers as the leading goal-scorers for their clubs, but when they broke into the league with the Toronto Maple Leafs, expectations were much lower.
Hyman, 31, was a fifth-round draft pick while Moore, 29, was not selected at all. This season, Hyman’s 54 goals led a roster with three Hart Trophy winners among its ranks and Moore’s 31 tallies paced a Kings ensemble brimming with bigger-ticket talent.
Hyman leaped from 27 to 36 goals last season and catapulted his total with another 18 markers this season. Moore sandwiched a 17-goal season, which was his prior career best, between two 10-goal campaigns before vaulting himself above the 30-goal plateau for the first time.
“I don’t think anybody thought we’d be playing those roles, but I’m not surprised,” said Hyman, whose six goals in three games lead all postseason scorers.
Moore mustered a goal late in Game 1 with the match already out of reach. He, Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson will be crucial if the Kings are to right the ship after Friday’s 6-1 loss gave them a 2-1 series deficit.
“He’s a great player. I always thought he was going to be a really good player in the league,” Hyman said of Moore. “He’s tenacious in all areas of the game. He’s just a great competitor and it’s great to see him having success with that team and leading their team in goals.”
In Toronto, Hyman was a trusted running mate of Auston Matthews, a league MVP and goal-scoring champion. In Edmonton, he’s managed to find a gig that’s even more rewarding, operating alongside five-time Art Ross Trophy winner and all-around award aficionado Connor McDavid.
“Zach is always around the net and he’s always going to be there to bang those in,” McDavid said. “Credit to him, he’s always willing to go there and pay a price. He’s done that so far in these playoffs.”
When Moore and Hyman were fledgling players with the Maple Leafs, Moore said he emulated the work habits of Hyman and another former Leaf turned current Oiler, depth forward Connor Brown.
“I’m a huge fan of (Hyman). He’s a great person, just an awesome guy, everyone who knows him likes him. As a player, he grinded his way through it and he was a guy that, when I was on the Marlies, I watched,” Moore said. “Him and Connor Brown were two guys who climbed their way up and they were elite forecheckers. (Hyman) is a great net-front guy, he does all the small things. (His teammates) like him and coaches like him.”
Moore and Hyman are each part of small but increasingly notable communities in pro hockey.
Hyman’s 54 goals were the most ever in a season by a Jewish player, a record that once belonged to former King Mike Cammalleri, who scored 39 goals with Calgary in 2008-09. His record fell last season to Jack Hughes, a 43-goal scorer and one of three Jewish brothers who were recent NHL lottery picks. Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Adam Fox of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning New York Rangers is also among the Jews who have ushered in an era of uncommon prominence in the NHL.
While Kings like Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe came to embrace the team’s crest as their own after growing up in Slovenia and Sweden, respectively, Moore had sported the Kings’ emblem on his chest for two decades before arriving in El Segundo.
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When Kopitar was on the ice hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014, Moore was also present, in the stands and at his family home in Thousand Oaks. Like Dallas Stars dynamo Jason Robertson and Vancouver Canucks star goalie Thatcher Demko, Moore is part of a generation of Southern California-born standouts who have reified the promise of ice rinks and other initiatives in the region.
“I don’t think when we made that trade [with Toronto] we expected 30 goals out of him, no offense,” Drew Doughty said. “But that’s amazing, for a hometown boy who loved the L.A. Kings growing up, it’s pretty special for him and his family, but it’s special for all of us, too. We’re really proud of him.”