50 Kings – Stephane Fiset

In 1996 shortly after the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, their backup goaltender, Stephane Fiset, was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. The trade was not a surprise, nor was Fiset upset.

“I was really happy,” recalls the 46-year-old from his home in Victoriaville, Quebec. “In Colorado, I was the one who asked for the trade. Patrick Roy was there, and my ice time was kind of done there, so I asked for a trade and when they called me to let me know I was traded to LA I was pretty happy.”

After having backed up Roy, one of the greatest netminders of all time, in Colorado, Fiset was in need of a change of scenery and more playing time. Los Angeles provided a great escape.

“The Kings, with Wayne Gretzky, were always tough, but it was always fun to go to LA to play the Kings especially because there was a superstar there, one of the best players in the world,” says Fiset about his memory of the Kings before the trade that brought him to the City of Angels.

One of the things that made the move to LA easy on Fiset, was his good friend, Steven Finn, who was already playing for the Kings at the time.

“I played with Steven Finn in Quebec and Colorado a little bit, and he was there in LA, so it was a little bit easier for me and my wife to get there and get used to the city,” Fiset shares. “Steven helped me a lot, so I was really pleased to get traded to LA.

“The only people who weren’t pleased were my in-laws,” Fiset says, with a laugh. “They thought it was really really far.”

His in-laws, who hailed from Victoriaville, did make the trip out to LA once a year, and although they came to enjoy the beach-front restaurants and the scenery LA had to offer, not speaking English posed a challenge.

For Fiset and his wife, however, a home in Manhattan Beach near his teammates provided a happy place. They had two young daughters during their time here and enjoyed places like Disneyland, Universal Studios, and short …

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