Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Dan Cloutier Autograph Card

About a year ago, Dan Cloutier was named the Vancouver Canucks' full-time goaltending coach, replacing Roland Melanson, who moves to a development role. He had previously served as a consultant, working mainly with the team's prospects.

Cloutier's best seasons in the NHL came in Vancouver, after stints with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning, and before following head coach Marc Crawford to the Los Angeles Kings.

Like many Québec-born goalies of the 1990s, he modeled his style on Patrick Roy's butterfly technique, albeit in a more compact manner that made him seem shorter when both, in fact, stand at 6'1". His father being a logger had him move to Sault-Ste-Marie at a young age, and it was with the Soo Greyhounds that he started out his OHL career, as can be attested by this signed insert card from Signature Rookies' 1994-95 Tet Rad series:
It's numbered 1995/7000 and signed on-card in blue sharpie.

He also played for the Guelph Storm, a team his older brother Sylvain had previously captained. Fun fact: Sylvain retired in 2014, four years after Dan.

Also of note, the Canucks hired Travis Green to coach the team this summer; he and Cloutier have a bit of a history:

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