Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Pascal Leclaire’s ailing hip leaves him longing for a NHL job this summer

Ottawa Senators v New York Rangers

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 5: Pascal Leclaire #33 of the Ottawa Senators deflects a shot on goal during the second period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 5, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images)

Getty Images

We’ve seen most free agent goalies find their way this summer save for a pair of guys. Marty Turco and Pascal Leclaire are the two NHL-experienced guys we haven’t seen land a new job around the league and while a guy like Ray Emery gets a shot to win a spot with the Blackhawks, both Turco and Leclaire are left wondering what’s going on.

While Turco’s case is a bit more curious given that he’s healthy and able to play, Leclaire’s free agency is a bit more perilous. Leclaire’s season came to an end last year thanks to an injured hip and while injuries are nothing new in his career this time around it’s keeping him from staying involved in the NHL.

Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen catches up with Leclaire and finds out that his surgically repaired hip isn’t responding the way he’d like it to.

A free agent offer in July from an NHL team — he won’t say which one — fell through when he couldn’t pass the medical tests. Considering the small world that is the NHL, it didn’t take long for the word to spread.

“It’s frustrating, but it will be much more frustrating when (training camps) get started,” Leclaire said Tuesday, following an informal scrimmage with some of his former Senators teammates and other NHL players who call Ottawa home.

...

“There has been some progress [with his hip], but it’s not good enough to play at the NHL level,” he said. “The league is too good to try and go at 80 per cent … I don’t even know if I’m 80 per cent.”


Seeing Leclaire deal with this problem while another guy like Ray Emery continues his comeback from a degenerative hip condition that saw a radical surgery get him back on the ice makes for a bizarre coincidence for the former Senators goalies. Making it even harder for Leclaire is seeing that he had an offer to play but wasn’t healthy enough to get the deal done. At his age (29 years-old) and his status as a former first round pick of the Blue Jackets (8th overall in 2001) makes it a bit sadder to see his career essentially wind up in a stand-still.

That said, it’s not as if his career is over it’s just that his chances of earning an NHL team’s confidence in him take another hit thanks to his struggle in coming back from this latest setback. His injury history in the NHL is extensive from his time both in Columbus and Ottawa and with how slow his rehab is taking him now, a team will need to be in a tough spot to rely on him as an NHL-level guy again. You certainly can’t view him as a potential starter without proof he can handle the workload and wanting him to be a backup is tough because if he gets hurt again his team would be back at square one.

For now, Leclaire will just have to stick to it and keep trying to get back to 100%. If he can do that, he’ll find a way back in the league. If not, his story might end up being an unfortunate one.