At the Los Angeles Kings Development Camp, Christopher Gibson may want to work on his entrances and early impressions.
It was an inauspicious debut for the Finnish-born goaltender — who speaks in a French Canadian accent — 10 months ago during the third period of a rookie camp game against the Phoenix Coyotes in El Segundo.
Inheriting a 6-3 lead after 40 minutes of hockey, Gibson struggled in his first appearance in a Kings jersey as a then-18-year-old after being drafted in the second round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He allowed a goal on the first shot he faced — 18 seconds into the third period — as part of a performance in which he allowed five goals on 13 shots and absorbed the loss in an 8-7 defeat to Phoenix rookies.
It's also somewhat representative of the annual arc his level of play has recently undergone as someone trying to avoid being branded as a slow starter.
As a young goaltender returning to major junior hockey after his first pro camp with Los Angeles last October, Gibson struggled with his timing early in his 19-year-old season with the QMJHL's Chicoutimi Sagueneens. It's a developmental process that often hinders young goaltenders who return from their first professional camp.
"I got used to how Bill [Ranford] and Kim [Dillabaugh] work here, and I got used to what they wanted me to do, and I went back to Chicoutimi," Gibson explained at the Kings' practice facility on Monday. "I had a pretty rough start to my season over there. Coming back to junior from a pro camp is always tough."
Similar to his L.A. rookie game debut, Gibson struggled in his first World Junior Championships appearance, allowing eight goals on 42 shots to a Canada team it eventually lost the bronze medal match to two weeks later. Though Gibson was designated Finland's starting goaltender to open the tournament, it was Sami Aittokallio who did more of the heavy lifting, appearing in all games except for a 10-1 drubbing of Denmark in which Gibson maintained the crease against the overmatched Danes.
Though he took a backseat through much of World Juniors, the experience rejuvenated him for the stretch run in Chicoutimi, where he logged his best minutes en route to a Goaltender of the Week award in the final week of the regular season before a second round upset of the Shawinigan Cataractes, the Memorial Cup hosts. As an eight seed (QMJHL teams are seeded 1-16 for the playoffs), Chicoutimi fell in the third round to St. John, another Memorial Cup participant.
"I don't mind it if my save percentage is lower and I go further in the season. I was happy about that," Gibson said of his last two QMJHL seasons. "I didn't really look back and say 'Why did I have better stats last year?' because I got kicked out in the first round of the playoffs. So this was a lot better."
Under Ranford, the Kings' goaltending coach, and Kim Dillabaugh, who oversees the Kings' goaltender development, Gibson was taught to raise his catching glove to cut down on net space afforded to NHL snipers. It was an adjustment reinforced during his time spent in El Segundo during L.A.'s playoff run, when he practiced regularly with the other Black Aces.
"Lateral movement is a big issue right now, so that's a thing that even the pros work on, and of course I have to work on. The lateral movement and being ready for every single shot, that's the biggest," Gibson said of his adjustments.
"We've seen lots of improvements," Dillabaugh said of Gibson's development. "Obviously we had a chance to spend some time with him here through the playoff run, which was great to get him in here and spend some quality one-on-one time and just be a little bit more methodical with his game, be able to take some time and really break some things down, some adjustments that we feel he needs to make in order to get him ready to translate to the pro level."
"A lot of it with him is allowing him to balance his game out a little bit more. He comes from more of a structured background. He does have good athletic capability, but I think sometimes that athletic capability has been buried a little bit under some of his structure. So again, there are a lot of little things that we've worked on with him, and it's just now getting some repetitions so those become more habitual in his game."
Gibson is one member of a crop of intriguing goaltending prospects under the guidance of an organization that has hit its all-time netminding zenith courtesy of the worldly minutes provided by Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy-winning starter Jonathan Quick and the steady development by understudy Jonathan Bernier.
Jeff Zatkoff's departure from the organization six years after he was selected by Los Angeles in the third round of the 2006 draft and three years after he joined the Manchester Monarchs — he signed a two-year contract with Pittsburgh on July 1 — opens the door for several young goaltenders to take a step forward in their development while inheriting greater roles for their respective teams.
It also means that Martin Jones will be "the guy" in Manchester in 2012-13 after averaging 40 games played per year over his first two AHL seasons. The player that slipped through the cracks to the Kings and signed as a free agent training camp invitee in 2009 was an AHL All-Star in 2010-11 and as a 22-year-old has shown immense promise as a balanced young 6-foot-4 goaltender who tracks angles well and squares up well to shooters.
"I think he's a very poised individual, very even keel. Doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low," Dillabaugh said. "He manages himself very well through ups and downs, which obviously every player at every position goes through at some point. That's the trait that he's had from a very young age, and he's able to translate that to the pro game."
Though Jones practiced with the big club throughout much of the playoffs, it is still too early to put a time stamp on his NHL readiness. Though Bernier is seen as a trade target by many teams in need of goaltending acumen, Los Angeles is in no rush to ship out the excellent young goaltender who has become a character individual in a tight-knit L.A. locker room since being selected 11th overall in 2006. Bernier will be a restricted free agent one year from now and has a 1.25 million dollar cap hit in 2012-13, several enticing qualities to would-be suitors in need of goaltending.
Should Bernier be traded within the coming season, it is likely that Jones could gain a game or two of NHL experience in 2012-13 before competing for a potential backup role to Quick at training camp in September, 2013. Quick signed a 10-year contract extension earlier this month that kicks in beginning in 2013-14.
Of course, Jones will have to play his way into any National Hockey League role.
"He's obviously had a good start to his pro career down in Manchester," Dillabaugh said. "Two solid seasons, and he's taken two solid steps forward in his development, so obviously with Jeff moving on, there's an opportunity there for him to take on more of a responsibility and maybe a bigger workload, and I think that really is the next step for him: to see how he manages something like that."
J.F. Berube will have an opportunity to join Jones in Manchester for the upcoming season. A 2009 fourth round draft pick, Berube experienced some growing pains in his first full season of professional hockey, opening his 20-year old season with a 4.30 October GAA and battling through the adjustments of leaving his native Quebec as a young, still junior-eligible goaltender for the starkly different environment of Southern California's Inland Empire, where he suited up for the ECHL's Ontario Reign. He improved as the year progressed, eventually finishing the year with a 2.87 GAA after seeing his workload increase. In March, when his workload topped out with 14 games, he posted a 2.19 GAA and .934 Sv%.
It's not entirely surprising that the goaltender who was still eligible to be returned to his junior team struggled to find consistency as he strove to mature while competing in a professional league against grown men.
"With J.F., it's more about his fitness level. He needs to become bigger and stronger," Dillabaugh said. "From an on-ice perspective, he's more like a Jonathan Bernier-type guy. He's very structurally sound. For him to be able to continue to move forward, he's got to become fitter. He's got to become a better athlete off the ice and get stronger. That's just a maturity thing as well."
"Obviously, the first half of the season -- he'd be the first to admit it wasn't a very good start for him. he came off an injury, but at the same time, too, he wasn't playing at the level he's capable of, and when you look at his play, not just his numbers -- numbers can sometimes indicate how a guy plays, but sometimes they can be very misleading as well -- he definitely found his groove in the second half of the year and was playing at the level we expect him to be able to compete at. Now he's got to take another step forward. It's a big off-season. Last year he obviously missed a lot of time coming off his injury. He wasn't able to really do much in the off-season last year, so obviously that's got to be something he makes up for this year."
There's also the intangible aspects of prospects on hand to watch a team capture a Stanley Cup. As the club's emergency playoff goaltender, Jones raised the Cup on the ice and was in the handshake line following Game 6, while Gibson took part in conditioning drills and scrimmages with other L.A. prospects through the playoffs. While it's not actual playoff experience, Gibson may not be as wide-eyed the next time he faces the Phoenix prospects in a September rookie camp game.
"I got the chance to come here and watch the games and practice as a Black Ace after my season was done. So that was a great experience, too," Gibson said. "Now, I'm here, back at the development camp working on the same things as last year, but now I feel more comfortable, and I'm less nervous, let's say."
