TORONTO — Brooks Laich always believed there was another chapter to be written in his NHL career.
Despite not receiving an NHL contract in the summer and having his professional tryout agreement with the Los Angeles Kings expire without a deal, the veteran forward remained confident another opportunity would come.
Last week the 34-year-old signed a one-year, two-way contract worth $650,000 at the NHL level. After making his Kings debut on Saturday night in a 6-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Laich is back in Toronto on Monday to play the Maple Leafs.
“Aside from my wife, hockey is the greatest joy in my life,” he said. “There’s so much I still want to do in this game and so much I believe I’m still able to do.
“After I signed the contract, I actually had a really neat moment of reflection and gratitude. It was a pretty sweet moment in my life.”Don’t ever give up on your dreams. Resiliency rules the world. Grateful for the @LAKings for the chance to continue playing the game I love! pic.twitter.com/5YENg4IH7F
— Brooks Laich (@brookslaich) October 19, 2017
Laich came to Toronto in February 2016 as part of a trade with the Washington Capitals, which also landed the Leafs Connor Carrick and a 2016 second-round selection (Carl Grundstrom) in exchange for Daniel Winnik and a 2016 fifth-round pick.
The Saskatchewan native appeared in 21 games with the Maple Leafs during the 2015-16 season scoring a goal and adding six assists. He spent the final year of his six-year, $27 million contract in the American Hockey League with the Toronto Marlies, sparingly used and registered nine points in 27 games.
With the abundance of downtime last season, Laich admitted he thought his chances of playing in the NHL again were over.
“I won’t say that it never crossed my mind, but I never believed in it,” said Laich. “I believed I still had a vice in the conversation. My health is 100 percent, which is a big factor, had some great development with Mike Ellis last year with the Marlies.
“(I) put in hours with skills coaches before practice, after practice. The thing with not playing a lot of games is it affords you a lot of time to practice, develop and re-introduce elements to my game that maybe slipped out.”
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Rather than sulk while buried in the AHL, Laich said he tried to turn the demotion into a positive while looking ahead to the off-season and putting himself in the best position to earn another NHL contract.
“With the situation the way it was, I sort of was really looking ahead to the future and also at the same time using the skills coaches Mike Ellis I leaned on a lot to develop and re-introduce elements to my game that had maybe fall out and also to continue to learn, grow and develop and where the NHL is trending some areas I can improve on."
Over the summer Laich, who resides in Los Angeles, turned his focus to earning a contract from the Kings. He says he didn’t entertain offers from other clubs in free agency and wasn’t interested in hearing from Hockey Canada about a potential opportunity to represent his country at the 2018 Olympics.
On Oct. 1 Laich’s PTO expired, but the Kings asked him to hang around and practice with the club while they sorted out their roster situation.
“He agreed to stay around and practice with the team, we liked everything about him,” said Kings coach John Stevens. “I don’t think you could have enough, good, quality, veteran players that are good pros, come to the rink everyday, work hard and get better. He still skates well; he’s good on face-offs. I think he plays a 200-foot game."
Nearly three weeks passed without a contract offer, but Laich was prepared to play the waiting game. While in Toronto last season, Laich said he did a lot of mental preparation for what was ahead and was willing to wait it out and skate on his own until January.
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“I was grateful that Mr. Blake and Mr. Stevens asked me to keep coming around,” Laich said. “That they saw something in me that they liked. They asked me if I would keep coming around so there was still a glimmer of hope there.”
In the Kings, Laich has joined the only remaining club (6-0-1) without a regulation loss and a team, which had allowed the fewest goals-against (14) entering Monday night’s play.
Laich grew up a fan of the Maple Leafs and though things didn’t work out in Toronto, he says last year’s experience made signing with the Kings a lot more satisfying.
“Grateful for the challenges that I went through when I here in Toronto because it made that moment so much sweeter,” he said. “The ability to keep my dream and keep developing and fighting for another chance, to say that I’m not finished in this conversation, to be back in the NHL, I was pretty excited.”