Cloutier Waived; More Roster Cuts
September 22, 2007 Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES — Dan Cloutier’s road back to being a number one goaltender in the National Hockey League got derailed once again on September 21, when the Los Angeles Kings placed him on waivers, with the intention of assigning him to the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League.
Cloutier was placed on waivers at 9:00 AM PDT, and will undoubtedly clear waivers 24 hours later. At that point, the Kings will be free to send Cloutier to the Monarchs, their primary minor league affiliate.
Although very few thought Cloutier would be named as the Kings’ starting goaltender to start the 2007-08 season, Friday’s move came as a surprise. But it was not a snap decision.
“I think, in looking at it, the thing we’ve come to realize is that the only way…if you take this in steps, he didn’t have a good year last year, with the combination of injuries or whatever, he did go back and he got completely healthy,” said Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi. “He was really good this summer in terms of doing all the goalie camps and working with our goaltending people to get his game back technically. So, physically, he repaired himself. Technically, he did everything that was asked and he looked a lot better.”
“But it still comes down to playing,” added Lombardi. “The way we’re looking at it is, the reality now is that he hasn’t played in three years. The only way he’s going to totally get his confidence is, like we said, was to get physically healthy, and then in order to get his rhythm essentially, the only way to do it is he’s got to play. We were kind of looking at it and seeing where his game was at, and we just felt this was the best thing for him. It’ll give him a much better base with which to come back and try to be the goaltender he was before we got him.”
During an afternoon conference call on September 21, Lombardi told reporters that they thought long and hard about what to do, and they came to the conclusion that the best chance for Cloutier to return to form would be to play a lot, something he would not be doing with the Kings.
“We were talking about it as we were going through it, and watching his game and seeing where he was mentally and things, and it just reminded me of some pitchers in baseball who this happens to,” Lombardi explained. “They might lose an inch off their fast ball or curve ball and [teams] send them down for an assignment to get their game back.”
“This guy is coming back from an injury and this is the best way, we think, to handle it and give him the best shot, in terms of when he comes back, to be ready mentally and physically,” Lombardi added. “That mental part isn’t really going to turn the corner unless he sees a lot of pucks. That gets his rhythm back. The best place to do that is in the minors.”
Of course, no one can predict if or when Cloutier might return to the form that made him a three-time 30-game winner in the NHL, opening the door for the Kings to bring him back to the big club.
“We do this with the idea…it’s still up to him,” said Lombardi. “Is it definite? No, he’s got to perform. But the intention is to have him back at some point. But to say you can guarantee it, if we had to guarantee it then we probably wouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
“To us, the final thing about getting himself mentally tough, it’s only going to come from playing, and that needs to happen there and not here,” added Lombardi. “But to say, are we looking at a crystal ball and we know this is going to work? No, but we think it’s the best avenue to take.”
And even if Cloutier regains top form, he might not make it back to the Kings anyway.
To read the full story, click on: Brown, Cloutier Lead Kings Past Sharks
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