Los Angeles Kings trainer Denver Wilson will spend his day with the NHL's Stanley Cup on Wednesday in true Arizona style.

He is planning photos of the championship trophy in the Valley with family and friends and his family's horses, a juxtaposition that suits a young man who grew up here in hockey skates and cowboy boots.

Wilson, 25, also will share some cup time for a public event at 5 p.m. at Scottsdale's Ice Den.

"I'm bringing it back to Arizona where a lot of my hockey roots started," Wilson said. "I got my start here at the Ice Den pro shop and working for my dad and the Phoenix Coyotes."

Denver Wilson is the son of longtime Coyotes equipment manager Stan Wilson. Denver, hired a year ago by the Kings, gets a day with the Stanley Cup during its global summer tour, as it's passed among teammates, coaches and staff from the NHL champions in a tradition that dates to 1994.

The current trophy, 35 inches tall and 34 pounds, is a replica of the original from 1892, when Lord Stanley of Preston donated the silver-and-nickel punch bowl as a challenge cup for Canada's best hockey teams.

Denver Wilson's path from his native western Canada to Arizona and onto the Staples Center ice for the Stanley Cup celebration in June might have seemed improbable a few years ago as he tried to break into hockey, first as a broadcaster and then as a rookie trainer with the Arizona Sundogs of the Central Hockey League.

Ice Den President Michael O'Hearn said he has known Denver since Denver was 2 years old in Winnipeg, Manitoba, when his father started in 1990 as a Winnipeg Jets trainer. The team moved to Phoenix as the Coyotes in 1996. Stan has worked more 1,600 games behind the bench.

Denver came up through the ranks, sharpening skates and working in the Ice Den pro shop before he got a job in minor-league hockey.

"Then, he went to the LA Kings and wins the cup in his first year while his dad never had a sniff of it," said O'Hearn, a former Coyotes executive.

It was a bittersweet time for the Wilsons in May when the Coyotes and Kings squared off in the NHL Western Conference Finals.

Father and son knew that one of them was going to the Stanley Cup Finals.

"It was a blessing and a very lucky situation I walked into," Denver said from his home in Hermosa Beach, Calif. "But my dad was just as happy for me as if he would have won it himself."

Stan, through his son, declined to comment for this story.

Denver said his father, who he describes as the "best in the business," prefers to stay in the background.

"He told me that if you're looking for the spotlight or a pat on the back, this is the wrong job," Denver said. "You're in it because you love it."

Much of the job is anything but glamorous. As low man on the Kings three-man equipment staff, Denver said, he sharpens skates, repairs equipment, shapes sticks for players and totes tons of team baggage during the long season. He meets visiting teams at the airport, hauls their team equipment and sets it out in front of fans to dry.

Game days start at 5 a.m. and are not over until after midnight. He often sleeps at the arena so he can be there for an early-morning practice.

It helps that he has hockey in his blood.

Stan was working for the Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) Raiders in 1987 when his son was born. Denver grew up there and in Winnipeg before moving to Arizona, where he played hockey and rode horses.

Denver broke into hockey with the Sundogs in Prescott and then went to work last summer for the Houston Arrows of the American Hockey League.

The Kings opened last season with games in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany; and Stockholm, Sweden.

"It was pretty much a blur for the first few months of my NHL career," he said.

And it ended well. The Kings training staff gathered on the bench for the final two minutes of the deciding sixth game against the New Jersey Devils to savor the moment.

"All I remember is counting down the last 10 seconds, guys in tears, and you're just soaking up everything," Denver said.

During the on-ice celebration, Kings executive and former player Luc Robitaille handed the Stanley Cup to Denver.

"The cup is like a kid," Denver said. "Every time you see it you want to pick it up and hold it."

Denver Wilson's day with the Stanley Cup will start at 10:30 a.m., when it arrives on a flight from Minneapolis.

Kings defenseman Davis Drewiskie held the cup on Monday, and it travels in its custom case Thursday to forward Trevor Lewis in Salt Lake City.