The Iceman cometh.
Whistling down the rink with tremendous speed and skill, precocious six-year-old hockey player Devin Eisman is a thorn in the side of his older opponents. The 3-foot-10, 51-pound dynamo is always the youngest and the smallest player whenever he steps on the ice for the Los Angeles Junior Kings “Mite A” 7- and 8-year-old team and for the “Squirts” of the in-house 10-and-under ice hockey league at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo.
But he doesn’t play like it.
Nicknamed the “Iceman” because of his last name and coolness with glove and stick in his hand, Eisman led the in-house hockey league this past spring with 46 goals and nine assists in just 19 games. His eye-popping and league-leading 55 points earned him a promotion to play with the Squirts and older nine and 10-year-olds.
“It is by far my most favorite thing on this planet to watch him,” said his mother, Jennifer. There’s a particular part that she likes best though. “I love the goals and the assists but my favorite thing is the camaraderie.”
After every goal, Eisman skates over to his teammates on the bench to knock gloves with each other.
“There is nothing like it in this sport,” she said. “When the kids score, there is just this team love. Everyone is hugging, high-fiving and giving fist bumps.”
Skating since the tender age of three, Eisman first began playing ice hockey for the mini-mites in Simi Valley. Now as a first-grader at Webster Elementary, Eisman anxiously bides his time till the end of the school day.
At 3:06 p.m. when the school bell rings, Eisman immediately runs outside to meet his mom who brings him to the Toyota Sports Center. Five days a week he has either practice or games with one of his two teams.
“I like leaving when the bell rings,” Eisman said. “School takes too long. I like hockey.”
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday are dedicated days with the Junior Kings. The elite travel club hockey team features some of the best skaters in Southern California. Their busy schedule is a maze of practices, shooting and skating clinics.
“I love hockey because the shooting is very fun. The skating can be hard at the clinics,” Eisman said. “The good thing playing for the LA Junior Kings is that I get to play against better teams.”
On Saturdays, Eisman takes a step up in age group with the Squirts, where he plays center forward against much bigger kids. He’s developed a tidy talent at swiping the puck away from them, by the way.
The Iceman taketh. Not that he minds.
“When they bang me into the boards, I get really mad and take the puck from them and score,” said Eisman with a devilish grin.
Another team that practices at the Toyota Center in El Segundo is the Los Angeles Kings, Eisman’s favorite NHL team. He’s both a fan—his favorite players are Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar— and a student. He watches Kings games religiously, attends many home games and feeds his love of scoring by studying the moves of the current Kings stars.
“I’ve learned shooting and fakes like the side-fake, front-fake and Gretzky-move,” said Eisman, who can describe each move like a hockey veteran. “My favorite place to shoot is top-shelf [the upper part of the net]. The tricky place is the five-hole [between the legs] where the goalie doesn’t want you to score.”
And what about the rough and tough fighting aspect of NHL hockey?
“I love when they fight and drop their gloves,” he said.
Spoken like a true hockey player. Eisman’s future is promising. He began playing for the Junior Kings as a four-and-a-half year old and has already begun to think about what he wants to do when he becomes older.
“I want to play hockey and then when I retire I want to be a police officer and pull over people for speeding,” said Eisman.
Writing tickets can wait. Skating and scoring take priority right now for this budding star.
