With family in stands, Jimmy Lombardi impresses for Team Canada at World Junior Summer Showcase

As a part of our prospects coverage this season on LA Kings Insider, please welcome Jon Paul Morosi to the Insider family! Morosi will provide first-person coverage of several LA Kings prospects, centering around coverage from the World Juniors Summer Showcase and the World Junior Championships.

Jimmy Lombardi had earned the right to wear the Team Canada jersey. There was only one problem: His parents couldn’t find him on the ice.

In photos of practices at the World Junior Summer Showcase, John and Lorrie Lombardi noticed their son was wearing No. 11. So as those red sweaters whirred around the WFCU Centre ice during the warmup for Wednesday’s opener against Sweden, John and Lorrie searched for that number. Eddie Lombardi, Jimmy’s younger brother, scanned the ice, too.

When they finally found No. 11, the nameplate said RUDOLPH and not LOMBARDI.

Panic set in.

“We thought he got scratched,” Lorrie said.

Had they driven four hours from their home in The Beaches section of Toronto, only to watch Jimmy sit upstairs in a polo shirt?

No. A moment later, they saw him: the skating strides they’d watched him develop with the Don Mills Flyers, the determination that led to this first-ever opportunity to play for Hockey Canada.

Turns out, Canada gave him No. 23 — a number Lombardi won’t wear for the Los Angeles Kings, who drafted him in the fourth round last year, because the franchise has retired it in honor of Dustin Brown. Lombardi was assigned No. 10 with the Flint Firebirds, with whom he had a breakout, 36-goal campaign in the Ontario Hockey League last season.

But what’s in a number, anyway? Lombardi is here, playing for the junior national team.

“He was coming in as the new guy,” Lorrie said. “That’s nerve-wracking, but he was excited and ready.”

It showed. Lombardi scored on his very first shift, as he showed equal parts patience and grit to curl in the remnants of a goal-mouth scramble initiated by Canadian winger Tyler Hopkins.

“That goal was a perfect example of what he’s developed in the last few years in the OHL, as a leader in Flint,” John said. “He could have backhanded it right into the goalie’s chest. But he took it around and tucked it in. That composure, in your first shift of a Team Canada game? Wow. That’s amazing. You’ve arrived, man. I was so happy.”

Canadian fans in the vicinity of John, Lorrie, and Eddie didn’t realize they were seat-neighbors of the goal scorer’s family — until their celebration revealed their identity in an unbridled, unrehearsed, unforgettable way.

“We started jumping up and down like fools,” Lorrie said, laughing.

Jimmy’s hockey journey helps to explain their reaction. He didn’t hit his growth spurt until Grade 10. He’s always had plenty of skill, but it’s difficult to forecast stardom for a 130-pound teenager.

Now he stands 6-0 and weighs 187 pounds, with a scoring touch that has become more prominent with each passing year.

“This is my first Hockey Canada camp, so I’m super excited to be here,” Lombardi said. “Everything is so pro. Getting right into it, all the meetings. The staff and players are great. I’ve never gotten the invite before. This is probably the most important camp. Saved the best for last.”

Lombardi’s path to the final Team Canada roster for the 2027 World Juniors in Alberta could be as a smart, dependable center with strong penalty-killing credentials.

“He’s an intriguing player for us,” said Alan Millar, the Team Canada general manager. “He’s got good energy, good speed, has really good puck skills, obviously had a really good year in Flint. He’s a guy who hasn’t spent a lot of time in our programs. This is an opportunity for us to get to know him better, and for him to understand what the expectations are to put the jersey on.”

Throughout his hockey development, Jimmy benefited from the wise perspective of parents who work as physical education teachers. He played on the same local team, with his best friends, for seven seasons of youth hockey.

“He was never on the top team,” Lorrie said. “It never felt like he was chasing other teams. He was really happy where he [was] and trying to win with the team he was on.”

Lombardi relies on a network of coaches, familiar and new, to broaden his skillset. Since being drafted by the Kings, Lombardi has worked on the art of winning draws with Jarret Stoll, the two-time Stanley Cup winner who serves on the team’s player development staff.

“At the start of the year, my face-offs weren’t as good,” Lombardi said. “Then he came in, gave me a couple pointers about draws, and I started winning a lot more.”

Lombardi was only 5 years old when he began working with Rob Desveaux, the renowned skills coach who heads the 3 Zones Hockey School in Ajax, Ontario. One summer day in 2016, Jimmy and Eddie were delighted by an unexpected visitor to the rink: the Memorial Cup, in the possession of then-London Knights forward Mitch Marner.

Over the years, Marner has become a favorite player of the Lombardi family; last summer, Desveaux decided that Jimmy earned the right to work with Marner in a small-group session.

A very small group: Desveaux, Marner, and Lombardi.

John made sure to capture some video of the trio on the ice together.

“That was pretty special,” John said.

The Lombardi family has NHL ties through John’s mother, Evelyn Garrett. Evelyn’s brother was John Garrett, the beloved Vancouver Canucks broadcaster and former NHL goaltender who died earlier this year.

Kings GM Ken Holland played with Garrett in the Hartford Whalers organization. It was Holland who called Jimmy — his longtime friend’s great-nephew — with the news that he had been drafted.

Jimmy and Eddie grew up surrounded by Hockey Canada sweaters at home, dreaming but never knowing if either would wear the Maple Leaf in an official capacity. Eddie is entering Grade 12 at Malvern Collegiate Institute in Toronto, where he plays football, hockey, and lacrosse.

“We shared a room until about five years ago,” Eddie said. “It was flags and posters of the guys playing for the team — all Canada stuff. It was unreal to see my brother wearing the jersey. You hear everyone wants to. Everyone thinks, ‘I’ve got a chance.’ It’s pretty awesome to see him actually put on the jersey and score a goal.”

One of John’s most treasured hockey possessions is a Wayne Gretzky Team Canada jersey, an impulse buy in downtown Toronto as he and Lorrie celebrated Canada’s gold medal victory in men’s hockey at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

“We were marching down Yonge Street with tens of thousands of people,” John said. “I almost brought it today. Then I thought, ‘No, it’s an exhibition game. He’s not even officially on the team. I’ll wait.’ I’ll wear that if he goes to Edmonton.”

If Jimmy Lombardi keeps playing like he did on Wednesday night, his dad should have that opportunity.