Coming off of a season in which it finished fourth in the National Hockey League's (NHL) Smythe Division and lost in the Division Finals to the Edmonton Oilers, the Los Angeles Kings had a relatively inauspicious performance at the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. The team had 12 selections in the 12-round draft but was without its first-round pick after including it in a trade package for Wayne Gretzky on August 8, 1988. As a result, only three of the selected players went on to play in the NHL.
Los Angeles selected defenseman Brent Thompson with its first pick, 39th overall in the second round. A native of Calgary, Canada, Thompson recorded 13 points and 160 penalty minutes in his draft year with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League (WHL). He made his NHL debut with the Kings in 1991-92 and recorded five points and 89 penalty minutes through 27 contests. He split three seasons between the Kings and their International Hockey League affiliate in Phoenix and later played for the Winnipeg Jets.
Thompson last played in the NHL in 1996-97 with the Phoenix Coyotes but has remained involved in the sport ever since. He played 635 games in the American Hockey League (AHL) and was captain of the AHL's Providence Bruins in 2004-05. He began coaching in the AHL in the 2005-06 season and has been head coach of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers since the 2014-15 season. He also spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders in the NHL.
Sean Whyte and Jim Hiller are the only other two players the Kings drafted in 1989 to play in the NHL. Whyte, an eighth-round pick, played 21 games for the Kings in the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons. He last played professional hockey with the Phoenix Mustangs of the WCHL in 2000-01.
Hiller, meanwhile, was selected in the 10th round and spent the following three seasons as a standout winger at Northern Michigan University, where he compiled 205 points in 123 games. He recorded 12 points in 40 games during his rookie season with the Kings in 1992-93 but was dealt midseason to the Detroit Red Wings as part of a multi-player trade that brought Jimmy Carson back to Los Angeles. Hiller played 21 games with Detroit and two games with the New York Rangers in 1993-94. He coached 10 years in the WHL and has been an assistant coach in the NHL since the 2014-15 season.
Los Angeles selected defenseman Jim Maher with its second pick, 81st overall in the fourth round. Maher spent four seasons at the University of Illinois-Chicago and played three seasons in the minor leagues but never reached the NHL. The Kings' other picks included defenseman Eric Ricard, goaltender Tom Newman, forward Jim Giacin, and defenseman Kevin Sneddon. The team selected six defensemen, five forwards, and one goaltender.
Mats Sundin was the first overall pick in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft. Selected by the Quebec Nordiques, Sundin accumulated 1,349 points in 1,346 regular-season games before retiring after the 2008-09 season. Only two other players in the 1989 draft class (Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov) exceeded 1,000 career regular-season points.
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