Professional hockey players? Not so much, but Etem is an exception.

Long Beach, Calif., is known for many things, including The Queen Mary, Catalina Island, Aquarium of the Pacific and the lighthouse and waterfront.

Long Beach, Calif., is known for many things, including The Queen Mary, Catalina Island, Aquarium of the Pacific and the lighthouse and waterfront.

Professional hockey players? Not so much, but Etem is an exception.

Raised in an athletic family known for rowing, Etem got his start in roller hockey. One day, while watching his brother at a tournament, he saw Sidney Crosby lead Shattuck-St. Mary's School to an under-17 national championship. That inspired Etem to shift his focus to ice rather than asphalt.

At 14 he followed in Crosby's footsteps, moving to Faribault, Minn., to play for Shattuck-St. Mary's before being identified by USA Hockey's National Team Development Program.

In 2009-10, Etem joined Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League, where he spent three seasons. In his first season, he led WHL rookies with 37 goals, and in his final season, Etem scored 61 goals and 107 points to finish seventh in league scoring.

To his and his family's delight, Etem was drafted by a team close to home, the Anaheim Ducks, in the first round (No. 29) of the 2010 NHL Draft. But Etem never secured a regular place in the lineup, and he finished his Ducks career with 15 goals and 31 points in 112 games.

The majority of Etem's time with in the Ducks organization was spent with Norfolk of the American Hockey League, where he scored 50 goals in 117 games from 2012-15.

On June 27, 2015, Etem was traded to the New York Rangers in a deal that sent Carl Hagelin to Anaheim. Once again, finding a niche proved elusive and he played 19 games for the Rangers in 2015-16 before they traded him to the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 8, 2016, reuniting him with Willie Desjardins, his former coach at Medicine Hat.

In 39 games with the Canucks that season, Etem had seven goals and five assists.

The 6-foot-1, 212-pound right wing represented the United States at the 2011 and 2012 World Junior Championship, winning a bronze medal in 2011.

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