If Martin Luther King Jr. played hockey: right wing, rated 88

Martin Luther King Jr. as a hockey player: scouting report

Martin Luther King Jr. would line up on the right wing, and he would play it like a man who could hold a crowd of a quarter million in the palm of his hand. His address at the March on Washington in 1963 was built on rhythm, repetition and timing, and those are the tools of a winger who knows exactly when to release a shot and when to slide the puck across to a teammate cutting through the slot. His shooting and his passing sit almost level, so defenders cannot sag off him to take away one or the other.

The most striking part of his card is how calm he is with the game on the line. He entered Morehouse College at fifteen, earned a doctorate from Boston University and led the Montgomery bus boycott for more than a year, and that steadiness is why his goaltending grades out as the best thing he does. A scout watching him would see a player whose heart rate never climbs, who reads plays a beat early and who talks constantly to the players around him. He skates well enough to join every rush and backchecks with real purpose.

Physical play is the honest weak spot. He is not the winger who wins puck battles by running people through the end boards, and a drafter should not ask him to. Goalie is a genuine second home, and center is close behind, so he can cover three spots on a thin roster. Pair him with a gritty left winger who digs pucks out of the corners and let him do the thinking. Take him early; leaders this composed are hard to find.

Plays like A playmaking winger who sees the whole ice and never rattles

Put Martin Luther King Jr. in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting six and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.