Luc Robitaille is certainly one of the most surprising hockey stars of all time. Drafted in the 9th round and not blessed with impressive physical skills (speed and size), Luc used his smarts and wicked shot to put together a legendary career.
When most scouts and teams didn't think Luc would amount to much, Robitaille put together a career worthy of a Hall-of-Famer with 668 goals and 726 assists in 1431 games. Most of these points seemed to be due to Luc being in the right place at the right time, which led to the 'Lucky' moniker catching on quickly.
However, the origin of the nickname might surprise you, as Luc revealed to David Amber during an interesting interview conducted for ESPN.com:
Q: Who gave you the nickname "Lucky" Luc?
A: Tiger Williams did in my rookie year. We had a player on our team named Morris Lukowich and everyone would call him Luke. So every time anyone called out "Luke," we would both turn around. In my rookie year, I was living with Marcel Dionne at his house, and after my very first game, Tiger started calling me "Lucky." Guys started asking him why he was calling me "Lucky," and he said partly because of the Morris Lukowich confusion, but mostly because I was a rookie living in the biggest house on the team! Every day, I drove to practice in a Mercedes, which was Marcel's car; and I also scored a goal on my first shot on my first shift in the NHL. So that was pretty lucky. I couldn't argue with that.
In case you are wondering, Luc's pick for the cup is the rival Anaheim Ducks. (traitor!!)
