Kirby Rambles: The Origin of Lachlan Summers

[kirbithan 1,590]

 

The question that nobody asked is, “Kirby, how did you come up with your player Lachlan Summers?” I’ll tell you anyway! Last year, I started a new Be a Pro career in NHL 22 and I wanted to make an Australian winger because I was inspired by Nathan Walker’s story as the first Aussie to play in the NHL. 

 

I chose the name Lachlan because I liked the way it sounded, and it was also the name of an Australian YouTuber I enjoyed watching, so I thought it was apt (very creative, I know). With some additional research, I found out that Lachlan was one of the most common boys’ names in Australia, which was super interesting considering you didn’t really see it often anywhere else. As for the last name, I just scrolled through the list of play-by-play surnames in Chel to find one that fit Lachlan, and thus, Lachlan Summers was born.

 

“Wait, Kirby, Lachlan is a goaltender but you created a winger!” I know. It wasn’t until I wanted to make a new character for the fictional beer league team my friend and I had created that Lachlan switched from RW to goalie, purely because I thought Jordan Binnington’s face/vibe fit the character. Hence why I also use him as my render in GFX! His early life and personality are still relatively the same as VHL Lachlan, but this original rendition moved to the States to play collegiate hockey, only to be deemed not good enough for the NHL and was forced to stop pursuing that aspiration. Now he’s a graphic designer and peewee hockey coach for the LA Kings and of course, plays on the Sea Dragons beer league team. He’s still married to the lovely Frankie Ducharme— who’s also his teammate on the Sea Dragons— because of course he is.

 

When it came to the VHL, I was already so enamored with this character that it was a no-brainer who I wanted to bring to the league despite the large volume of goaltenders. In this universe, Lachlan’s living out his dreams of playing professional hockey and I love that for him.

 

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[MubbleFubbles 1,275]

That's really cool that you've created a character and carried them over with a few changes to multiple forms of media! Actually just looked into the name Lachlan to see where it originated (I thought it would be Scotland given I know of a few people called Lachlan from there), and apparently it came from Vikings in Ireland, which is pretty fitting given your current team haha! 

[kirbithan 1,590]

7 minutes ago, MubbleFubbles said:

That's really cool that you've created a character and carried them over with a few changes to multiple forms of media! Actually just looked into the name Lachlan to see where it originated (I thought it would be Scotland given I know of a few people called Lachlan from there), and apparently it came from Vikings in Ireland, which is pretty fitting given your current team haha! 

I think I read somewhere that the name has Scottish origins as well, but I could be wrong! I wasn’t aware that it came from Irish Vikings, though, that is awesome and very fitting as you said! I believe it’s super common in Australia due to the Lachlan River which was named after a governor of NSW. Names are so interesting.

[BOOM 8,644]

1 hour ago, kirbithan said:

... due to the Lachlan River which was named after a governor of NSW. Names are so interesting.

 

Which is the river that's currently flooding the town I'm living in right now. Thanks Lachlan!