SPOKANE, Wash. — In the 2017-2018 season, Noah King and Manny Viveiros won a Western Hockey League title together with the Swift Current Broncos.
Viveiros was the head coach and King was a defenseman for the team.
"It's a memory I'll never forget and he was a big part of it," King said about Viveiros.
Viveiros echoed those sentiments.
"We had a great group at Swift Current," he said. "It was a long, long playoff haul and the players fought through adversity, through that whole playoff run and won a championship."
After two years together, the title ended their time together.
Viveiros was hired as an assistant for the NHL's Edmonton Oilers, and 25 games into last season, King was traded to the Spokane Chiefs.
"[The Chiefs] were asking me before they made the trade with Swift Current about Noah and I said, 'You're going to get a great young man and a great hockey player,'" Viveiros said.
Little did Viveiros know, he would be recommending King to the team he'd end up coaching. On July 9, 2019, Viveiros took the job to be the Chiefs coach after former head coach Dan Lambert took a job as an assistant with the Nashville Predators.
King's phone was then flooded with Chiefs players asking about Viveiros.
"I said, 'He's a really good coach,'" King said with a smile, after Viveiros teased him as if King said something negative to the players. "He's a player's coach and all the guys like him."
With fond memories from their past, the two are glad to be on the same team again.
"It makes my transition here easier getting to work with someone I know also," Viveiros said.
Viveiros knows King's family from the time they were at Swift Current, so there is a bond that has carried over.
"It's a pretty good relationship," King said.
Viveiros quickly quipped in a joking manner.
"Especially when he plays good," he said with a laugh.
Now that they are reunited, the mentality is simple. Go where they've been before and win another championship.
"I see a lot of similarities within that group at Swift Current that I see here in Spokane," Viveiros said. "So that's why we're so excited. If everything goes according to plan you never know what the end of the year will look like. We could be right there again."