It was a balmy humid summer afternoon in Rockport, Texas when James and Olivia Kent welcomed their first child into the world on August 19th, 1985. With ten toes, ten fingers and one heck of a wail as he took his first breath everyone in the room could tell that the baby would grow into a lively boy. Given the name Tyler for no other reason than the fact that it'd been one of the few monikers the proud new parents could agree upon in the lead up to his birth (his father had been pushing hard for Clark for pure amusement), the young child would immediately become the center of a doting mother's world. Working part time as a librarian at the local community library, Olivia was the sort of mother who became involved in the PTA and kept a keen interest in her son's life every step of the way through high school (although he'd have rather wished she wasn't in his teen years). On the flipside, James Kent, whilst not an inattentive parent per say, was often away from the home for days at a time working as a commercial airline pilot. His idea of parenting meant sinking some time in with the boy when he was home but he wasn't going to monitor every breath Ty took. For the most part, these father and son bonding moments presented themselves through a love of hockey which James instilled in his boy practically from the moment the Kents had been allowed to take him home. While Olivia managed to keep her husband from decking the nursery out in Dallas Stars colors, one of the first photos of Tyler was of the boy decked out in a Dallas Stars jersey whilst holding onto a toy goalie stick.

Ty was four when his younger sister was born, and although he occasionally found the incessant crying of a baby to be a tad annoying when it's the middle of the night, he was never jealous that her arrival took some of his mother's attention off of him. On the contrary, even though the new baby did steal away some of the spotlight Ty found that now that the attention wasn't solely on him he could get away with things (like sneaking into the attic and climbing trees he couldn't hope to get down safely from without help) he couldn't have before when his parents had their eyes focused solely on their boy like a laser. And in fact, the little boy, himself, was protective of his baby sister right off the bat, often buzzing around his mother asking if there was anything he could do to help when he arrived home from school... that is, when he wasn't busy living out the imaginary scenario of hoisting Lord Stanley's cup above his head. Having always been the boy brimming with so energy that he often left others exhausted before his own tank hit empty the Kents were able to channel Tyler's boundless energy by signing him up for a local mite hockey team. Perhaps it was the little goalie stick he'd slept with as a baby, but after a year of rotating between playing between the pipes and as a forward for the first year on the team, Ty came to the conclusion that he preferred stopping rather than shooting the puck. By the time high school rolled around, Tyler's silly childhood dreams of becoming a professional sports athlete had gone from something the Kents thought was a pipedream akin to little girls wanting to become a princess or boys a knight to something a bit more feasible.

Off the ice life was more or less normal for the boy whom was an average student when it came to school, pulling mostly Bs with a smattering of other letters scattered around, some which got pinned on the refrigerator doors and others which he wanted to hide away from his mother's gaze lest she threaten to take hockey away from him. Of course, high school is more about the social aspect than the academic to most of its students, and Ty was certainly no different. While hockey practice and games could be time consuming, the boy was no stranger around campus as he participated in clubs when possible... admittedly his dedication to said groups waned by from freshman to senior year due to his hockey commitments. However, it wasn't much of a loss for the boy who'd always seen clubs as a way to meet new people and friends rather than something he was truly passionate about. And even though by the time those four formative years up the pressures of playing well enough to get drafted made attending school events and house parties less likely, Ty's commitments to pursue a career in the NHL didn't hold him back from the crazy teenage dating scene and all of the over the top drama that generally ensues with young love. His dating life was largely a revolving door of girlfriends with only one lasting longer than a couple of months which he always chalked up to Hockey being an extremely time consuming mistress.

Drafted by the LA Kings in the 2005 entry draft 72nd overall, Tyler decided to take the less common route to the NHL by forgoing the minor league hockey path for the NCAA. Maybe it wasn't the team he grew up rooting for, but the boy couldn't have been more ecstatic to be taken by a team. With goaltending being the most unpredictable position to predict whether a prospect pans out or not, and more often than not taking longer to develop than a forward or defenceman, Ty felt the slower route would be the most beneficial and this way if things did go to shit he'd at least have a degree in some field to fall back on. Luckily, the safety net wasn't needed and after two years playing for UMass Amherst the Kings decided to offer Tyler an entry level contract which moved him to the Reading Royals for a year in 2007 before joining the King's AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs, in New Hampshire. After paying his dues in the King's farm team, being called up for a number of games when the Kings ran into the injury bug, and being sent down again Tyler finally made the team full time in 2009 as the starting goalie. Things escalated quickly from there with the male finding himself picked to be the third goaltender on the US Olympic team the following year in Vancouver where they took home the silver. In 2012, Tyler backstopped the Kings to the franchise's first ever Stanley Cup win, earning himself the Conn Smythe trophy for Playoff MVP and raising his profile to one of the faces of the team... or at least the mask.

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