One-Time LA King Jim Paek on Korean Hockey, Discrimination and the Stanley Cup

In retrospect, despite the absence of NHL players, the men’s hockey competition at the 2018 Winter Olympics was a great tournament. For fans of the Los Angeles Kings, in particular, there was some consolation knowing that two coaches in the tournament had once donned the silver-and-black. In Pyeongchang, Team USA had Tony Granato as their bench boss while the host nation, South Korea, had Jim Paek at the helm. The latter had earned himself two Stanley Cup rings during his playing career before transitioning into the coaching ranks, ultimately returning to South Korea.

In July 2014, Jim Paek was named director of the Korea Ice Hockey Association (KIHA) before accepting the role of head coach of South Korea’s national team.

Despite of his busy schedule, Mr. Paek was generous enough to take some time out of his busy schedule to speak with yours truly. The former defenseman shared his thoughts on a few topics and even reminisced about his playing career. We started off, though, with Paek’s optimal Olympic opportunity where, in 2018 in Pyeongchang, he was the head coach of his native South Korea on home soil.

“To represent your country is a great honour,” Paek began. “And to have a project in that scale of preparing your team, at that time, which I believe was 23rd, to participate with the 12 top nations was an incredible task and a great challenge.

“When everything’s said and done, to represent your country, nothing makes you feel more proud than having that honour. That opportunity for me and getting to coach in the Olympics, which is another great honour, words can’t even describe how I felt. It was great, everything about it was great, but along with that came a lot of challenges as well.”

While South Korea finished the tournament winless, Paek was undeterred. In spite of his nation’s last-place finish in Pyeongchang, Paek is confident that Korea’s hockey program is going in the right direction, even if he acknowledges that his nation’s growth on the hockey map is not an overnight process.

“It’s a slow process,” Paek admitted. “The popularity, from what I recognize, is within the hockey community. During the Olympics and being part of the World Championships, at the top level, it was exciting for a lot of people [in Korea] because they really get together when their national team plays. They were very supportive and the recognition of hockey grew a tremendous amount, I believe.”

While the progress has been slower than he may have wished, there’s no doubt in Paek’s mind that the passion for hockey in Korea has increased over the last few years.

“Within the players, the mentality has changed and their goals have changed,” emphasized Paek. “So, young players, older players, the popularity has grown in the sense of they want to play. They want to play, they want to have a purpose to play, so that’s what I see as very encouraging. They want to be part of the Olympics, they want to be part of that group, they want to play for the national team. So, their goals have changed a lot for just getting in to create diversity, for instance, so I see a lot of change in that.”

While he may have been born in South Korea, Jim Paek was just a year old when he and his family moved to Canada. Yet, while it, unfortunately, can be a factor in the drawback of western culture, any discrimination Paek faced wasn’t worth remembering, especially being raised in Toronto, a city known for its rich cultural diversity. Instead, the 52-year-old glowing reflected on how welcomed he was within the hockey community, being judged by how well he played the game and, quintessentially, how he was as a human being.

“Growing up in Toronto, there’s a lot of diversity,” Paek started. “So, all of my friends were from different backgrounds — Italian, English, all these different backgrounds — so [discrimination] wasn’t really a factor. It was your ability and how you played.

“There’s always discrimination everywhere and it doesn’t matter what race or nationality, for lack of a better team, fat, skinny, wears glasses, there’s always discrimination somewhere; someone’s always going to tease you.”

At least from this writer’s vantage point, hockey fans have not only prided themselves on the collective fearless, tough-as-nails mindset the game’s athletes possess but where many of these athletes come from. Paek attests to this. As for anything negative that came his way? Well, the Seoul native just used that as fuel.

“What I truly believe is that, and not taking anything away from other sports, I think with hockey, players come from grounded families where home education is very important and you see that,” the two-time Stanley Cup champion said. “That’s what I thought and that’s what I came across: not much discrimination that I was Korean but rather that I was just willing to play.

“I’m sure there’s that odd time [being discriminated against] but what kind of person are you if you sink to their level? I always just say that it’s water off a duck’s back, like, ‘Hey, so what? Tell me something I haven’t heard!’ Know what I mean? Then, work twice as hard. Then, if [skeptics] judge you, they’ll judge you on your ability to play hockey. The other stuff, whatever. If it came to a point where there’s malice involved, then you’ve got to stand up for yourself. That’s what I did. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong anymore in this generation but with all of the bullying, I don’t know. That’s how I handled it, though: water off a duck’s back and I worked twice as hard to become a hockey player.”

And that hard work ethic came with a hefty reward.

While playing junior for the OHL’s Oshawa Generals, Paek was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1985. Yet, despite being drafted in the 9th round (170th overall), the future pro used his exceptional work ethic to get into the NHL, making his debut in early 1991, months before helping the Penguins win their first Stanley Cup. In the process, said Cup win marked a historic achievement for Paek as he became the first Korean-born player to have his name etched on hockey’s Holy Grail. In spite of this unique achievement, however, the former blueliner admitted that while he is very proud of his roots, just winning the Stanley Cup was euphoric enough.

“At the end of the day, I was a hockey player and I wanted to win the Stanley Cup,” stated Paek. “I’m very proud to be Korean, to be Korean-born and the first to hoist the Stanley Cup but I was just proud just to get to raise the Stanley Cup.

“Growing up in Canada, everybody who plays hockey dreams of– playing street hockey, you dream of playing in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final and when you won that street hockey game, you pretended to raise that Cup. Winning the Stanley Cup, that’s a dream — and a very hard dream — and for that to come to reality, was incredible.”

Of course, this writer would have been remiss had he not asked Mr. Paek about his time with the aforementioned Los Angeles Kings during the 1993-94 season, even if said tenure only lasted 18 games.

“Yes, that was very brief,” Paek chuckled. “That was a tough situation. I got traded with Marty McSorley [from Pittsburgh] over to L.A. for a couple of months. It’s a different culture out there, out west. You’re rubbing elbows with TV stars, you’ve got movie stars in your dressing room, you have the beach out there. So, it’s a different setting, different mentality and the transition, I think, for easterners, is difficult. There’s a transition that has to be made from time change to travel from coast to coast, so everything was a lot different for me.”

The former Kings blueliner, however, was quick to admit that his brief time playing for the silver-and-black was worth reflecting on, especially when it came to playing with a certain teammate who wore No. 99.

“My experience [in Los Angeles] was great,” Paek continued. “I was playing hockey and I was playing with Wayne Gretzky. Wayne Gretzky was my teammate, like, ‘My gosh, that’s fantastic!’ I’m a fan. I mean I know him but I’m a fan of his, too, so to be a part of that team, to play with Wayne Gretzky– and Luc Robitaille was there, some great hockey players, Jari Kurri, so that experience was fantastic.”

Asking him about his biggest achievement in hockey, Mr. Paek didn’t know how to answer simply because he has earned himself the enviable situation of having too many to pick just one. Nonetheless, whether it was his intention or not, Jim Paek has made his native Korea proud.

After working hard to get drafted, the hockey-lifer worked even harder, turning his slim odds of making the NHL into a career that saw him become an instrumental force in winning back-to-back Stanley Cups — a feat accomplished by just a handful of players over the past quarter-century.

Having played for, among others, Hall-of-Famers Scotty Bowman and the late, great Bob Johnson, Paek eventually transitioned to a career behind the bench, winning a Calder Cup as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. With everything he accomplished in North America, though, Jim Paek has always remembered where he came from, returning to Korea to help to grow the game as director of the Korea Ice Hockey Association.

We may not expect to see an influx of Korean players at next June’s draft in Montreal but hockey fans all over the world can certainly rest assured that under Paek’s leadership, Korea will play an important role in international hockey sooner rather than later. This may even include a rivalry with host China at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

This writer can certainly opine that the one-time King is simply more humble than he should be given his list of achievements. Paek’s hobby as a young boy in Toronto, though, has nevertheless transitioned into a career that has taken him to great heights.

Having the ability and determination to turn a hobby into a lifelong, rewarding career comes with a combination of skill, timing, and luck. It also comes with determination, resilience, and leadership: three attributes of Jim Paek’s that are not set to wane anytime soon.

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