When Mats Zuccarello joins the Kings this fall, he’ll be more than 5,000 miles from his hometown of Oslo.
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But news carries across the globe fast, so will Norway’s favored hockey son knock its soccer sensation Erling Haaland off newspaper covers for a day or two?
“I’m pretty sure I’m gonna make Page 2 right now, because the Norwegian national team is doing really well at the World Cup and they deserve every front page they can get, for sure.” Zuccarello said.
But Zuccarello, 38, has made headlines since 2010 when he debuted for the New York Rangers, with whom he faced the Kings in the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.
“L.A. Kings is a team that I think is a dream to play for, for any player I played against them in the Final many years ago and lost. It’s a team that’s always been up there,” Zuccarello said.
He’s got almost seven times as many career points as any other Norwegian-born NHL player, but of late the Nordic nation has been gathering momentum with players like Ducks prospect Stian Solberg and the Detroit Red Wings’ Michael Brandsegg-Nygård leading a new generation of Norwegians.
“We have some really talented players coming up, which is really nice to see, and a bunch of people getting drafted, some in the first round. Our national team this year got bronze at the World Championships with a young core group and a couple of veterans. It’s on the rise, for sure, Norwegian hockey, which is really, really exciting to see,” Zuccarello said.
He’s played in New York, Dallas and Minnesota and with his next stop in Los Angeles. Three of those four metropolitan areas have populations significantly larger than all of Norway.
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“We’re a small country with only five million people and about 30 or 40 rinks in total,” Zuccarello said. “It’s really exciting for an older hockey guy like me who’s been in the game for many years to see that there’s progress and a youth movement happening in Norway.”
Zuccarello hopes the Kings are on the rise as well, committing a year to them for a $1 million base salary and $5 million in easily achievable bonuses. He said that he had multiple offers in a similar range and that while it was flattering to have both interest and incentives, it was the fit with the Kings and the way they made him feel desired that ultimately made his decision.
When asked about his role, Zuccarello said he understood that in the NHL every position is earned.
“I think I’m gonna be the captain and the GM and the president,” he joked. “I know there’s a good opportunity for me to prove myself, and that’s the most important thing. I like (Coach Peter Laviolette’s) vision of how to play and how to go about the business everyday.”
Though Zuccarello hasn’t played for Laviolette, he was teammates with Kevin Fiala on the Minnesota Wild, Zuccarello’s most recent team with which he chased a point-per-game pace last season despite dealing with injuries and a body now pushing 40.
Twenty-one of his 54 points came on the power play in 2025-26, two years after he slathered on a career-best 33 with the man advantage.
“He’s one of the best power-play guys you will find and one of the best passers in all of hockey,” said Bruce Boudreau, who coached Zuccarello and Fiala in Minnesota. “Every player loves this guy.”
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