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Just six seconds into his very first NHL shift with Los Angeles, Kingston’s Gabe Vilardi fired a wrist shot at one of the league’s top goaltenders, Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers. The red light flashed. It set a record for the fastest goal by a newcomer.
To this day, the 2020 goal remains one of the highlights of Vilardi's burgeoning hockey career. “Scoring on my first shift is definitely a moment to remember,” he told the Original Hockey Hall of Fame during the off-season. “That and winning the Memorial Cup with the Windsor Spitfires.”
After that initial NHL goal, things got tougher. Like many rookies, Vilardi had trouble adjusting to the fast pace and intensity of the big league. He only played in 10 games before being sent back to the Ontario Reign, the minor league affiliate of the Kings in California.
“The pressure I put on myself definitely held me back,” he recalls. “I was constantly asking myself, ‘what’s the coach thinking’ and ‘what’s the GM thinking.’ It took a long time for me to learn to just enjoy the game and chill.”
He eventually worked his way back onto the Kings roster, notching a solid 41 points in 63 games in the 2022-23 season. Then he was traded to Winnipeg in the summer. He went from one of the biggest cities in North America, where few people know much about hockey, to a fishbowl in Manitoba.
“It was definitely more anonymous in Los Angeles,” he says. “You could go to the beach and enjoy the fabulous weather. In Winnipeg, people treat hockey very differently. There are a lot of neighbours and friends who are highly invested in the sport.”
With the Jets, his game took flight. Last season, he was one of the top scorers on the team with 61 points in 71 games.
“There has been a lot of opportunity for me to shine in Winnipeg,” he says. His growth has paid off financially too. In July, he signed a six-year deal with the Jets that will pay him a total of $45 million.
“I like playing in Winnipeg,” he says. “It’s a lot like Kingston in many ways – except it’s really cold there!”
His parents, Natale Vilardi and Giovanna Siviglia, immigrated to Kingston from Italy.
'My brother served as a role model for me'
“My parents, being from Italy, didn’t know much about hockey,” he recalls. “It was my brother, Francesco, who was three years older and served as a role model for me. I always tried to outdo him. If he spent an hour on weight training, I would do two hours.”
Francesco was highly skilled at the game and would go on to play three years in the OHL and three more with the Queen’s Gaels.
In 2015, Gabe Vilardi was drafted by the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. It would prove to be good timing. Two years later, the southwestern Ontario city was playing host to the Memorial Cup tournament, guaranteeing the Spitfires a spot in the battle for the coveted trophy.
“We struggled during the regular season with a lot of injuries so we weren’t expecting that much from the tournament,” he recalls. In the final game, fellow Kingstonian Aaron Luchuk notched the winning goal for Windsor.
“It was fun and pretty cool to have my name on the Memorial Cup,” Vilardi says.
Following the championship, he was traded to the Kingston Frontenacs. “That was great because I was able to live at home and spend time with my friends and family.”
With the Frontenacs in 2017-18, he only played 32 games but tallied a remarkable 58 points. One of his teammates was another rising star, a youngster from California named Jason Robertson.
“I had a lot in common with Jason,” Vilardi says. “Neither of us are top skaters and we had to use our minds to be effective on the ice.” They had other similarities – both are big players, coming in at 6 foot 3 inches and weighing more than 200 pounds.
With the two highly skilled players, the Frontenacs reached the Eastern Conference final before falling to the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Fast forward to last season and the Winnipeg Jets were facing Robertson’s Dallas Stars in the second round of the playoffs. Dallas took the series 4-2.
“We had a tough time scoring against Dallas,” he acknowledges.
Will the Cup drought in Canada ever end?
Nevertheless, he believes that a Canadian team will end a long drought and eventually capture the Stanley Cup.
“There are a lot of factors that go into winning the Cup,” he argues. “There can be injuries and even luck. Sometimes games are close and could go either way. Edmonton has had a shot at it for two years in a row.”
This season, the Winnipeg squad has its work cut out for it. Former Kingston Frontenac Sam Bennett could continue his extraordinary run with the Florida Panthers and capture a third straight Stanley Cup. With a little help from an aging Brad Marchand, who defies those who say a 37-year-old has no business grinding it out in the corners in the Stanley Cup finals.
Or perhaps the Hockey Gods will shine on that Filipino-American player from California who somehow ended up in Kingston and went on to lead the Dallas Stars to the western conference final last season. An injury left Robertson limping into the playoffs – but if he stays healthy, who knows?
Or maybe. Just maybe. The son of Italian immigrants will end a 33-year-old curse and help the Jets bring the chalice home to its native land. It’s long past time. Gabe Vilardi wasn’t even born when the Montreal Canadiens captured the cup in 1993.
Stay tuned – it’s going to be an exciting year.
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