Frozen Royalty: Luc Robitaille: The King Of Kings – Part 2

Gann Matsuda of Frozen Royalty continues his tribute to Luc Robitaille on the eve of Luc’s Hall of Fame induction. Give it a read!

Robitaille The Leader

I’ve always admired people who were gifted with the quality of leadership, and when leadership and raw athletic ability are found together in one person, it’s a rare combination to be sure. I think that one of the things that I appreciate most about Luc is that not only does he possess this combination, but that it is manifested in him in a unique way. Luc brings a contagious passion to the rink every day and to everything he does. I found that being around that kind of passion and desire made the game even more enjoyable for me and challenged me to give to my full capacity.
— Former Kings tough guy Stu Grimson

Some of the “tenets of leadership” are:

* Every person has leadership potential
* Leadership development is an ongoing process to maximize individual potential
* With leadership training comes the responsibility for action
* Leaders have a responsibility to nurture emerging leaders

Moreover, strong leaders exhibit such characteristics as:

* Dispensing hope
* Foresightedness
* Integrity of character
* Sharing of oneself

(Source: J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership)

Hockey fans often judge the leadership skills of a player on what they see and hear, which is not unexpected because they must rely on the media for their information about the teams and players. However, even though there is so much more information available today because of the Internet, fans still have very limited information about the intangible aspects of the game, and that includes the leadership qualities of a specific player.

To be sure, very, very few fans would consider Robitaille to be one of the Kings’ great leaders. Instead, they would likely point to Wayne Gretzky, Dave Taylor, Marcel Dionne, Bernie Nicholls and Mattias Norstrom.

Read the article on Frozen Royalty