The Patrick Roy protege line continues with Pascal Leclaire. The 6-foot-1 Quebec native was four-years old when Roy won his first Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens in 1986 and 11 when Roy did it again in 1993.
"I'm from Montreal, so every Saturday night, I used to watch Patrick Roy," Leclaire said. "Playing in the street with my friends, I was always Patrick Roy.
"My first hockey jersey was No. 33."
Who knows if Leclaire's professional accomplishments will ever compare to Roy's, who has won four Stanley Cups, but he's gotten a decent start being rated the No. 1 goalie prospect in the 2001 draft.
In the highly offensive -- in terms of goal scoring, that is -- Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Leclaire stopped quite a few pucks the last three seasons for Halifax. A fitting example is the first game of 2000-01 when he faced 50 shots, stopping 47.
Though Halifax won its division last season, Leclaire's QMJHL highlight was in 1999-2000 when Halifax hosted the Memorial Cup -- the Canadian Hockey League championship which pits the champions of the QMJHL, OHL and WHL, and the host team against each other on junior hockey's biggest stage. Leclaire turned heads by guiding the fourth-seeded Mooseheads to a 2-1 record with a 3.14 GAA and .915 save percentage.
Like Roy, Leclaire has been successful in the QMJHL. However, Leclaire isn't an exact Roy clone in the net. Leclaire often utilizes the butterfly style which Roy has popularized, but Leclaire has the ability to mix up his approach.
"I use the butterfly style quite a lot, but I try to, sometimes, use both styles and try to stay up a little bit," he said. "Asked to describe myself, I am between Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy."
Those are two solid choices for goaltending role models, considering Roy and Brodeur share six Stanley Cups between them, as well as more than 950 NHL victories.
Brian A. Shactman covers the NHL for ESPN.com.
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