There might come a day when Gabe Vilardi walks into the Kings’ dressing room as a man among boys.
On this day, though, Vilardi, was a wide-eyed boy wonder when he toured the Kings’ practice facility in El Segundo.
“I saw Jeff Carter,” he said of the Kings’ all-star center. “It’s crazy. I grew up idolizing this guy.”
Vilardi, 17, had never been to California prior to the Kings selecting him 11th in last month’s NHL draft. The beach was fairly new to him, as were the surrounding sights that lure a kid from Kingston, Canada.