FRISCO, Tex. — The South Korean goalie Kye Hoon Park took up ice hockey on the advice of an elementary school teacher.
His teacher used to be an ice hockey manager. And Park used to get into fights all the time.
“So my teacher was like, if you’re going to get in fights, then just play hockey,” a smiling Park said through an interpreter during a recent visit he and two teammates made to a development camp for prospects of the N.H.L.’s Dallas Stars.
Hockey’s roots are not deep in South Korea, which has never qualified for the Olympics but will get an automatic bid as the host in Pyeongchang in 2018.