“It leaves a mark on you,” he said. “You feel that you’re not one of the boys.”

Kwong entered the army and played hockey as entertainment for the troops during World War II. A Rangers scout spotted him, and he impressed the team during a tryout in 1946. He was assigned to the top farm team, the Rovers of the Eastern League, who played their home games at Madison Square Garden, then at 49th Street and Eighth Avenue. He borrowed a suit and tie from his brothers for the trip to New York.

Months before Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers and integrated Major League Baseball, Kwong’s presence excited the city’s Chinese-Americans. Before one Rovers game, Shavey Lee, the unofficial mayor of Chinatown, and two showgirls from the China Doll nightclub honored a blushing Kwong at center ice. He was called King Kwong and the China Clipper.

At 5 feet 6 inches and 145 pounds, with his thick black hair slicked back, Kwong was a “doodlebug on skates,” according to The Toronto Globe and Mail. He thrived under Rovers Coach Freddie Metcalfe, centering a line with Hub Anslow and Nick Mickoski. One roommate was Fred Shero, who later coached the Philadelphia Flyers to two Stanley Cups.

“He was very clever and a good skater,” said the journalist Stan Fischler, who as a child watched Kwong with the Rovers. “He was like Yvan Cournoyer,” the elusive wing known as the Roadrunner, who played for the Montreal Canadiens during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Hall of Fame forward Jean Beliveau said: “Larry made his wing men look good because he was a great passer. He was doing what a center man is supposed to do.”

Kwong’s promotion to the N.H.L. came as the injury-plagued Rangers were making their first playoff run since 1942. He took the train to Montreal with Ronnie Rowe, a Rovers teammate who was also called up, and prepared to face off against Maurice Richard and Doug Harvey.

On March 13, 1948, Kwong slipped on a blue Rangers sweater in the locker room of the Montreal Forum, and felt nothing but pride.