There's no doubt that the Los Angeles Kings were the big winners on Monday night, capturing the Stanley Cup for the first time in the 44-year history of the franchise. Dustin Brown became just the second American-born captain to hoist the Stanley Cup, goaltender Jonathan Quick became only the third American to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP, and a team that had to fight its way into the playoffs as an eighth seed went 16-4, knocking off the champions of all three divisions in the West before battling past the New Jersey Devils to claim the most celebrated trophy in sports.

However, while the Kings are the champions, the sport they play and the city they represent were big winners in their own right, as a great moment in the history of the Kings is also a great moment for hockey in Southern California.

The Kings' 1988 trade for Wayne Gretzky is widely credited with kicking off a hockey boom in Southern California, and the effects are being felt at the NHL level.  Jonathan Blum, the Nashville Predators' No. 1 defensive prospect according to Hockey's Future, is from Long Beach. Beau Bennett, a 2010 first-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the team's No. 3 prospect according to The Hockey News, hails from the Los Angeles suburb of Gardena. Rocco Grimaldi, a second-round pick of the Florida Panthers in last year's draft, is from Rossmoor, and another Orange County native, Lake Forest's Ryan Lasch, just signed with Anaheim after a pair of successful seasons overseas.

All four were born between 1987 and 1993, and grew up with Gretzky as a fixture on the sports scene in Southern California. Gretzky's influence helped steer them towards hockey - along with a number of others, including Islanders prospect Rhett Rakhshani and Ducks prospect Emerson Etem - and it's clearly paid dividends for the sport.

That having been said, the Kings' remarkable run comes at a time when hockey can use another boost in Southern California. The parade of miscues from local media in Los Angeles when it comes to the Kings became a running joke during the team's run to the Stanley Cup, and it's been more than 15 years since the Great One packed his bags and left Los Angeles. Given that sunny Los Angeles was never a natural hockey market, something big was needed to continue growing the game.

Something big has arrived.

With the Kings' win, two of the last six Stanley Cups have been won by teams in Southern California (the Ducks did it in 2007). The next generation of California kids is growing up with hockey, and while nothing is certain yet, there's a great chance that the influence of Gretzky on players like Blum, Grimaldi and Bennett will be recreated for a new generation through the exploits of Quick, Brown and the Kings, and the 120-year-old trophy they brought home to Los Angeles.