The Force Is With Luke

9 November 2024

Long-serving center celebrates 400 games for the Dragons

Friday’s game against Severstal was tagged as the #Lockie400. Our Iron Man forward Luke Lockhart recently became the first man to play 400 games for the Dragons, reaching that milestone in our 2-0 win at Barys. To celebrate that achievement, Lockie was presented with a commemorative jersey ahead of the game.

Now on 403 appearances, Lockhart is more than 60 games clear of his closest rival, Brandon Yip, on the all-time appearance list for KRS, cementing his status as a true club legend. To crunch the numbers, in our history since 2016, we’ve played 513 games. Thus, Luke has been part of 78.5% of the club’s KHL action. That’s club legend territory by any standards.

Across that time, Luke has been a rare constant in a time of change. Not many players have stayed with the team, uninterrupted, through the chaos of Covid and the strain of relocating from China to Mytishchi. Not many had to take it in their stride as we split our time in our homeland between Beijing and Shanghai (with diversions to Shenzhen on special occasions). At times, he’s been part of the leadership group, captaining the team in the 2020/21 season. He’s been a key figure on and off the ice during his time here.

Lockie joined us in 2017, straight out of college. He was recruited under Mike Keenan, at a time when the Red Star organization was actively seeking North American talent with Chinese heritage. Even as a raw 24-year-old, Luke fit the bill perfectly, a stalwart, ever-present center in his rookie campaign and a regular on the team ever since. Along the way, he’s second only to Brandon Yip for goals (59) and is fourth for all-time assists (61). His 120-point tally is third on the all-time list and he’s fast closing in on Tyler Wong. This season, Luke is joint second in team scoring with 10 points so far and could be on pace for his most productive season in our colors.

And it’s not just in KHL action that Lockhart has made an impact. As Jia Luo, he represented China at the 2022 Olympics, with one assist through four games. He also played his part in getting the national team promoted to Division I, with six points in the successful 2021/22 World Championship campaign. Back in the first division, Lockhart continued to contribute strongly to maintain the country’s position.

However, the stats don’t really tell the full story of what Luke brings to…