Dan Cloutier is 35 years old. He should be on the tail end of a good career. Maybe, if things had gone differently, he'd be a starter in, say, Tampa Bay; or a backup somewhere else in the NHL; or maybe he'd be playing in the minors, waiting for one more shot at showtime.

Instead, the former Canuck has been retired for a couple of years. He was forced out of the game because of a crippling hip injury. He still needs therapy and probably always will. He is happy, at home now, near Barrie, Ontario with nothing more to worry about than raising his two kids, Kane, 2, and Kali, 4,.

But the ultra-competitive Cloutier does wonder, what if?

What if the Canucks had traded him to another team in 2006, any other than team. Just not the L.A. Kings, an organization he felt pushed him to gut up and play despite a torn hip labrum, the same injury Ryan Kesler took months to recover from after offseason surgery.

"It was really tough for me to walk away from the game," Cloutier said. "To see other goalies play well into their late 30s and to see they're playing well and t's becoming common. But I had to leave the game at what? 33?

"I do sometimes think that the best thing would have been for me to have to the surgery right away, rehab and come back."

Any anger he harboured from what happened has long since dissipated. Cloutier is thoughtful, and reasoned about his career, feeling blessed he even had a chance to play a game, let alone a decent 10-year run in the NHL. His most cherished moment?

"Just making it to the NHL," Cloutier said. "It's so difficult and so rare to even play in the league and it took so much work just to get there. That's what means the most to me."

When he was traded to L.A. after the lockout, and the Canucks trade for Roberto Luongo, he was coming off a torn ACL injury which required reconstructive surgery.

"I hadn't really played in two years and my first week or so in Los Angeles they offered me an extension (two years, $6.2 million) without having seen me play," Cloutier said. "As a player, you just don't turn things like that down.

"I understood where they were coming from in what happened after the contract. I see both sides. They had made a big investment in me and they wanted me to play.

"There was part of me that wanted to live up to that contract, so it was a factor, too."

So, Cloutier went against his instincts and continued to play. By the time a specialist diagnosed him with a severe labrum tear which required immediate surgery in January 2007, his hip was essentially bone on bone. He was 30 years old and he'd never be the same. He played just nine more games in the NHL.

Surprisingly, or not, Cloutier still relishes his time in Vancouver. He played in New York, Tampa, Vancouver and L.A.

"I loved playing in Vancouver the most," he said. "I remember when I first got there, the building seemed half full and there wasn't a lot of buzz. By the end it was like a playoff game every night. I couldn't get enough of the atmosphere. I would take that over anything else."

But what about the ongoing theory Vancouver is a goalie graveyard?

"I never saw (any criticism) as a negative," Cloutier said. "It's true, if we lost 5-1, I didn't want to come out and talk about it. It's the last thing I wanted to do. I'm really competitive, so, I used that like extra motivation for me in games.

"It's just the way it is for goalies. I always understood that. It's why I forgot about the (Nicklas Lidstrom) goal (from centre ice in the 2002 playoffs) right away. Just, no one else did.

"Even in midget you will hear parents saying the goalie should have had that one. The only other position in sports like it is the quarterback. You're on an island."

Cloutier played parts of five seasons for the Canucks. His 2.27 GAA in 2003-04 was a record which stood until Luongo broke it last year.

Cloutier spent last year as a goalie coach with the OHL's Barrie Colts. He enjoyed the job, and invested himself in not only coaching but in helping the Colts scout and eventually draft German netminder Mathias Niederberger.

"It's something I will think about doing again," Cloutier said. "But it took a lot of time away from home. My kids will only grow up once and I don't want to miss it. I chose to be home with and invest my time with them. I thought being at home with them is the most important thing I can do.

"I still have that very competitive side and in some ways coaching is as close to playing as I'm ever going to get."