POTSDAM -- Add Willie Mitchell to the list of former Clarkson University Hockey all-stars who have raised the Stanley Cup as an National Hockey League champion.

Mitchell and his Los Angeles teammates claimed the most coveted trophy in all of sports when the Kings defeated the New Jersey Devils 6-1 in Game 6 at the Staples Center in downtown LA on Monday night to win the Stanley Cup finals series 4-2.

A stalwart defenseman, and the oldest player on the Kings’ roster at age 35, Mitchell was a steady force on the blueline in every postseason game and helped to lead Los Angeles to the Kings’ first Stanley Cup in the franchise 45-year history. Mitchell skated in all 20 playoff games, recording one goal, two assists and a +7 plus/minus rating. He averaged over 25 minutes of ice time in the final series.

Mitchell will have his name engraved on Lord Stanley’s Cup, joining former Clarkson classmates, Erik Cole (Carolina, 2006) and Kent Huskins '01 (Anaheim, 2007) in NHL history. Former Golden Knight all-stars Colin Patterson '84 (Calgary, 1989) and Todd Marchant (Anaheim, 2007) also represent Clarkson on the Stanley Cup.

Playing at Clarkson for two seasons in the late 1990s before pursuing his professional career, Mitchell, along with Cole and Huskins, helped to lead Clarkson to a pair of 20+-win campaigns, consecutive berths in the NCAA Tournament and ECAC regular season and tournament titles. In his final season at Clarkson as a sophomore in 1998-99, Mitchell scored perhaps the most dramatic goal in the Green and Gold’s lengthy history when he connected from center ice at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid in the ECAC Tournament semifinal round against Princeton for the winning goal with just 2.7 seconds left in regulation for a 6-5 victory. The Knights went on to defeat St. Lawrence in the championship game, 3-2. Mitchell was named the 1999 ECAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player.

Mitchell skated in 68 games for the Golden Knights, recording 55 points from the blueline on 19 goals and 36 assists. He was named ECAC Co-Rookie of the Year, along with Cole, in 1997-98 and earned First-Team ECAC All-Star honors and Second-Team Titan All-America accolades in 1998-99.

He was selected by New Jersey in the eighth round (199th overall) in the 1996 NHL Entry Draft. Mitchell began his NHL career with the Devils in the 1999-2000 campaign, and played 18 games in New Jersey before being traded to Minnesota on March 4, 2001. He played parts of five seasons for the Wild from 2001-2006 before a trade to Dallas on March 9, 2006. Mitchell was signed as a free agent by Vancouver on July 1, 2006 and joined the LA organization as an unrestricted free agent on August 25, 2010.

He has played in 719 NHL regular season games, accumulating 153 points on 29 goals and 124 assists, along with 686 penalty minutes. Through 65 postseason games, he has recorded 11 points (3-8) and 64 penalty minutes.