Domingue: ?Honestly, I almost quit hockey?

[newfcollins]

Louis Domingue was on a podcast in Tampa, and was asked about his career, playing for Patrick Roy in junior, his time in Arizona, his trade, etc.

Thought this was really interesting:

They got [goaltender] Scott Wedgewood and I didn?t think anything of it. I thought it was just another move to get stronger at that position. Then I was on waivers and then I?m [sigh] - this is when the story gets interesting because I got put on waivers, didn?t get claimed, and they didn?t want to send me down to the AHL. They wanted to keep me at home while they were trying to deal me somewhere, trying to find me a spot.

For a good week and a half, I was left without ice or a gym or any support from the team. I was just home waiting for a call. They told me to rent my own ice [chuckles]. I was there - I gave call to my old friend Shane Doan. He came out with me on the ice in the afternoon with his son.

I rented the ice at midnight just to shoot pucks and skate around because I was tired of being at home.

If you would have called me a month and a half ago or so, I was going to Europe in my head. We were trying to work an out-clause where I could go to Europe. I called the league trying to go to the Olympics.

I was looking for answers. I didn?t - I almost quit. Honestly, I almost quit hockey.

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Also, the link brings you to the written transcript.

[butch]

life isnt easy for nhl players living on the nhl bubble .

they are paid well , but the waiting game and constantly trying to do the right things to get noticed has to be mentally tough

[2014olympicgold]

How dare he wait a week and a half for an answer.

What they did with renting the ice sucks, but that's prolly based on rules with the NHL (can't use their facilities if he's not on the team), or maybe their insurance. But come on, waiting a week and he's already looking at leaving the league?

[PenguinHunter]

How dare he wait a week and a half for an answer.

What they did with renting the ice sucks, but that's prolly based on rules with the NHL (can't use their facilities if he's not on the team), or maybe their insurance. But come on, waiting a week and he's already looking at leaving the league?

How does it work? If he has cleared waivers is he still 'under contract' of the NHL team? Is waivers just a process that is used to be able to send a player down the the AHL? Or to be able to be bought out?

So technically he was still under contract with the team? And should have been able to go down to the AHL team? They just didn't want him to?

[ericdaoust]

My best guess is they didn't want him to get in the way of their AHL duo. They decided to move on from Domingue one way or another and TB benefited.

[2014olympicgold]

How does it work? If he has cleared waivers is he still 'under contract' of the NHL team? Is waivers just a process that is used to be able to send a player down the the AHL? Or to be able to be bought out?

So technically he was still under contract with the team? And should have been able to go down to the AHL team? They just didn't want him to?

My best guess is they didn't want him to get in the way of their AHL duo. They decided to move on from Domingue one way or another and TB benefited.

LD had a one-way contract, so he needed to go through waivers to be sent down. He started the season 0-7 with like a 0.895s%, got put through waivers, and cleared so now he's (by the books) in the AHL. However, they didn't want him to go to Tuscon (AHL Team, which isn't far at all, they just didn't want him to play really in the AHL, as they have 3 goalies in the AHL), so they told him to stay at home (kinda like what VGK did with Ship). They told LD they were looking for a trade partner. BUT they did offer him to go to the ECHL to play

Now, a goalie like him going 0-7 with a sub 0.900s% is likely hard to trade, HOWEVER, this goes on for a full 18days. 18 FREAKING DAYS (Demoted Oct31, traded Nov18, I looked it up). And now LD is getting a bit stir crazy, and who knows what insurance the team took out on him, but imagine LD getting hurt while practicing on Team Supplied Ice, the team (if they didn't have insurance on him) would have to pay his contract while they weren't using him. But, if he was renting his own, maybe there's a clause saying they don't have to pay him.

It gets in LD head after, what 10 days lets say, he is at the end of his NHL career? Come on. He easily could have gone to the Yotes and asked to play in the ECHL, and I'm like 99% sure he'd still get paid his 1.1mill/yr.

[ericdaoust]

LD had a one-way contract, so he needed to go through waivers to be sent down.

Hate to nitpick but having a one-way vs two-way deal has nothing to do with requiring waivers to be sent down.

[2014olympicgold]

Hate to nitpick but having a one-way vs two-way deal has nothing to do with requiring waivers to be sent down.

whoops, totally got that mixed up, but he was on a one-way and was still making his NHL salary. I'm usually the one that points that out too! Thank you for the catch!

[ericdaoust]

No worries. I think this is an overblown story TBH. The Coyotes were making plans to move on from him, hoping he would go on waivers. He didn't and they opted not to assign him anywhere. Domingue is not wrong to feel the way he did because he went from being an NHL goalie to being in limbo. That can mess with people. There's a lot of NHL-caliber goalies in the AHL. More good goalies than available spots. He very easily could have been gone from the NHL forever.

Domingue was on a podcast which gave him enough time to really go in-depth which makes it sound more dramatic than it really is.

[bondon]

Yeah, normally I'm more inclined to sympathize with the player but this definitely seems to me like something Domingue will regret doing. He legitimately comes across as really whiney here. That's not to say that his feelings were stupid, because I couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like to dedicate your whole life to something and then watch it fall apart and feel like there's nothing you can do to save it.

But really, he shouldn't have talked about this in the media. Should have let bygones be bygones for the sake of his career.

[ericdaoust]

Yeah, normally I'm more inclined to sympathize with the player but this definitely seems to me like something Domingue will regret doing. He legitimately comes across as really whiney here. That's not to say that his feelings were stupid, because I couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like to dedicate your whole life to something and then watch it fall apart and feel like there's nothing you can do to save it.

But really, he shouldn't have talked about this in the media. Should have let bygones be bygones for the sake of his career.

Yeah at the end of the day the Coyotes essentially gave him away in a trade and now he is in a good spot to build his name for a future backup gig somewhere in the league. I don't think the podcast will help or hurt in the end though. Pretty harmless.

[The Black Panther]

Yeah, normally I'm more inclined to sympathize with the player but this definitely seems to me like something Domingue will regret doing. He legitimately comes across as really whiney here. That's not to say that his feelings were stupid, because I couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like to dedicate your whole life to something and then watch it fall apart and feel like there's nothing you can do to save it.

But really, he shouldn't have talked about this in the media. Should have let bygones be bygones for the sake of his career.

Do u think anything that happened had to do with the "Bondon curse"

[bondon]

Do u think anything that happened had to do with the "Bondon curse"

I probably said he was going to be a good spot start one time like 2 years ago.

Sealed his fate.

[Fighting_Emu]

Yeah, normally I'm more inclined to sympathize with the player but this definitely seems to me like something Domingue will regret doing. He legitimately comes across as really whiney here. That's not to say that his feelings were stupid, because I couldn't begin to imagine what it would feel like to dedicate your whole life to something and then watch it fall apart and feel like there's nothing you can do to save it.

But really, he shouldn't have talked about this in the media. Should have let bygones be bygones for the sake of his career.

I agree. Im usually the empathy police- lmao- trying to defend people who have gripes but I mean cmon- haha! Youre a multi-millionaire who gets to play the greatest game on the planet... for a living!! a week and a half and renting ice overnight one time is NOT the end of the world. Id PAY money to skate around with Doan and his kid after midnight- hell Id pay for the ice time to fire picks at Doiminge for a couple hours- hahaha! This comes across as waaaaaaaaaay whiny...

[Referee3083]

To be fair, imagine if you got fired from your job, but your employer had the right to not only keep you from working at another position in your company but also to determine who you could work for next, and when you could start working for them. How long would you wait before you started looking at options to get out of the situation? A week, two weeks, a month? If it were me and it was a week and a half without hearing anything, I would have started going stir crazy and definitely started looking at options to get out of the situation.