PU graduate enjoys first year as Kings enforcer
By: Brian Kennedy
LOS ANGELES To those who meet him off the ice, George Parros is the model Ivy-League grad, a well-spoken, intelligent young man who pauses respectfully when conversing, listening carefully to what the other person has to say. Yet he was recently named one of the 10 toughest guys in the National Hockey League, which is odd for a guy with all his natural teeth and a Princeton degree in economics (BA, 2003).
Why is he engaging in almost nightly fisticuffsbare-knuckledwith people who might, if he makes a mistake, take his head off? Because that was his ticket to the NHL, where he plays for the Los Angeles Kings, and Parros is willing to do what it takes to stay there.
Of course, there’s the small matter of the NHL salary as reward. TSN.ca reports his yearly take at $450,000, probably more than most recent Princeton grads are hauling in, and enough for him to purchase a condo in one of LA’s beach cities, where he plans to spend his off-season.
The thing is, Parros doesn’t strike the poses of a tough guy. Though he’s an imposing physical presence, with cut fitness that rivals that of a middleweight boxer in his prime, but much more size (6’5" and 228 lbs.), he doesn’t display any of the brutish qualities that one might expect of a man whose job is to pound other very tough guys into submission whenever his coach orders him to.
In fact, it’s just the opposite. Early in the season, for instance, Parros appeared in the Kings’ locker room with hair much shorter than the shoulder-length mane he’d had before. Onlookers might have theorized that he’d had his hair pulled in a fight, and decided to deny his opponents that advantage.
"No," he smiled when asked, "I cut it and donated it to Locks of Love, to make wigs for kids with cancer. It’s something I do every year. And I’ll keep doing it as long as I’m able to."
Not your garden-variety brawler.
But then again, nothing he does follows the conventional path, including his trip to hockey’s pinnacle.
Parros grew up not far from Princeton, but he didn’t go the New England prep school route that leads many to a hockey career. Instead, he spent his summers attending hockey camps and winters playing high school hockey in New Jersey.
"I was lucky. My parents never made me get a summer job. They let me concentrate on hockey instead," he explains.
He received early admission to Princeton, but played a year of Junior A hockey in Chicago before donning the Tigers’ uniform for the 1999-2000 season. His best year was 2001-02, when he was second in team scoring with 22 points (9 goals, 13 assists).
He didn’t attend the university just to play hockey. His intention from the start was to leave with a degree.
"My dad wanted me to go to school there," he said. "Who would have known I’d make it here [the NHL]? So my parents pushed education." Both are themselves university-educated.
After he graduated in 2003, it looked unlikely that he’d spend time with the NHL team that had drafted him in 1999, in the eighth round, 222nd overall. His senior year at Princeton had seen his point production fall to just seven assists. In his first year of pro hockey, with the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL, he tallied just nine points (3-6). At that point, some players might have decided to call it quits, the reward of an expensive education enough for their toils. Not Parros.
Instead, he realized that if he wanted to make hockey a career, he had to add something. Given his size, that "something" was toughness. He set about learning how to fight.
"I guess you have to have something of an aptitude for violence," he says, "but I’ve always played a physical role on the ice. I realized that if I could add fighting to my game, I could maybe make it to the NHL."
Playing with Manchester again last season with the NHL on hiatus, he had over thirty fights. He nearly doubled his penalty minutes compared to the prior year, ending with 247. But he also increased his point production, to twenty-two (14-8).
At first, he would think about the fighting before games. Now, he says, "You can’t worry about it or it will screw up the rest of your game. I watch video of guys I might end up fighting, and then if it happens, it happens." As he says it, he smiles, as if he were any entry-level employee describing the routine duties of his job.
This year, despite limited playing time with the Kings, Parros has potted two goals and added three assists, and had lots of scraps. His penalty minutes are approaching 150, though he has missed almost thirty games due to either injury or being a scratched from the line-up. The injury, by the way, was to his ankle and not as the result of an opponent’s punch.
Despite his enforcer role, when he talks about his life in hockey, Parros doesn’t focus on the fighting. Instead, he says, "I’ve got the puck from my first NHL point and goal, and the ones from my first Princeton and Manchester goals." And he mentions that he managed to squirrel away a couple of Princeton Tigers jerseys to keep his college memories alive.
What future does he see for himself in the NHL? Would he want to fight on for years? "I’m looking to step up the rest of my game, to graduate out of the fighter’s role, get a regular offensive shift." His ice time this year is limited to about five minutes, and he sometimes finds himself not dressing if the opposition is not a brawling-style squad.
As for his Princeton undergraduate degree, Parros hopes it will take him places. "You don’t think beyond it when you’re playing, but I’d like to get into the business side of the game [after retiring]. A master’s degree is at least a possibility down the road."
For now, he keeps in touch with the campus scene by attending the Reunions every spring. Aside from seeing guys he played with, he enjoys connecting with Princeton grads from the past. "It gives me a network," he says.
Reflecting on his time at the University, Parros thinks about two things, aside from hockeytypical college goofing around, and academics: "We used to play horseshoes on the lawn outside our apartment. It wasn’t something planned. It just started happening. We did it all junior and senior year." And then he gets more serious, "Henry Farber and Martin Cherkes were my favorite profs in my major. But Elaine Showalter was great for modern literature, too."
Asked what’s on his night table now, he responds quickly: "I’m reading Freakonomics. It’s the practical application of economic theory." He pauses. "It’s not some obscure thingit’s on the bestseller list."
As he says it, it’s not clear whether he’s apologizing for being brainy, or suggesting that if he wanted to, he could still handle one of Dr. Farber’s final exams.
Either way, George Parros is not your average tough guy.
Brian Kennedy, PhD writes about the Los Angeles Kings. He recently completed a book manuscript entitled Growing Up Hockey, about the game and how people fall in love with it.

