Marc Lamothe

Template:Infobox ice hockey player Marc Lamothe (born February 27, 1974 in New Liskeard, Ontario) is a professional ice hockey goaltender who is currently a Free Agent. He last played in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga for Hamburg Freezers during the 2010–11 season.

Playing career

Montreal Canadiens

Lamothe began his Junior hockey career with the Kingston Frontenacs before being drafted by the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, 92nd Overall, in the 1992 NHL Entry Draft. When he turned pro in the 1994–95 season, the Canadiens assigned Patrick Labrecque and Martin Brochu to their top minor league affiliate, the Fredericton Canadiens of the AHL, leaving Lamothe to spend the majority of his rookie season with the Wheeling Thunderbirds of the ECHL. Despite this, Lamothe did play in 9 contests for the Fredericton Canadiens that year. During the 1995–96 season, Montreal gave him a spot on their AHL team. However, he did not see much action aside from 23 appearances. By season's end, it was clear he was not going to factor into the Canadiens plans and was subsequently released to free agency.

Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks signed Lamothe to a contract on 21 August 1996. Lamothe spent the next three seasons with Chicago's top minor league affiliate, the Indianapolis Ice of the IHL. With Indianapolis, Lamothe honed his game while waiting for his chance to be called up to the NHL. At the start of the 1999–2000 season, Lamothe left Indianapolis to play for the Cleveland Lumberjacks, though his rights were still maintained by Chicago. Early in the 1999–2000 campaign, Lamothe got the call from the Blackhawks who needed him to suit up as Jocelyn Thibault's back up as in injury fill in for Steve Passmore.

Just four minutes into the game, Thibault went down with an injury and Lamothe made his NHL debut. The St. Louis Blues, however, were merciless, scoring seven times en route to an 8–3 victory. He was able turn things around after this tough first game a week later, when he stopped 22 of 25 shots against the Boston Bruins and posted his first NHL victory.

Columbus Blue Jackets

After the season was over Lamothe signed a deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets on 1 September 2000. Lamothe spent the entire year in the minors, playing for the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL.

Edmonton Oilers

After a year with Columbus, Lamothe signed on with the Edmonton Oilers for the 2001–02 season. Despite having a strong showing in training camp, the Oilers elected to go with Jussi Markkanen to back up Tommy Salo, leaving Lamothe to play for the Hamilton Bulldogs for the AHL.

Detroit Red Wings

The Detroit Red Wings signed Lamothe on 6 August 2002 to a one-year contract. Upon his arrival with the organization, he was assigned to the club's AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, to act as a mentor for the developing goaltender Joey MacDonald. Lamothe had a strong season in the AHL that year, winning the Aldege "Baz" Bastien Memorial Award for being the AHL's best goaltender and sharing the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award with MacDonald for combining to have the lowest Goals against average in the AHL. His efforts did not go unnoticed by the Red Wings organization. On 1 July 2003, the first day of NHL free agency, Lamothe was re-signed to another year-long contract with the Red Wings. He would again begin the season assigned to the Griffins with MacDonald. However, as the season progressed, Dominik Hašek left the team due to injury while Curtis Joseph would become injured as well, leaving the Red Wings to call up Lamothe to support Manny Legace. While he was never needed to relieve Legace, Lamothe would start against his former club, the Edmonton Oilers, on 23 February 2004, skating to a 1–1 tie. The next morning, newspaper articles were printed in Canada documenting Lamothe's story, where he spent 10 years almost exclusively in the minors before starting in net for one of hockey's most popular and successful teams. Lamothe would get one more start before the season was over, making 26 saves for a 3–2 victory over the St. Louis Blues.

European career

At the end of the season, economic woes befell the NHL and ultimately lead to the 2004–05 NHL lockout. Despite his success at the AHL level, Lamothe never caught on as a NHL goaltender before the lockout. However, Lamothe was generating interest from Russian Super League, which offered both a higher level of competition and a higher salary than the AHL could offer. On 14 June 2004, Lamothe moved overseas and signed with the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. He appeared in 54 contests for them that season.

On 22 July 2005, Lamothe signed with the Severstal Cherepovets. He would appear in 83 contests with them over 2 seasons, in addition to 8 playoff games during that same timeframe. With Severstal Lamothe won LenVO cup in August 2005. On 16 July 2007, Lamothe was signed by SKA Saint Petersburg and played with them for the remainder of that season. Lamothe left after the season was over and signed with Barys Astana for the 2008–09 season.

Lamothe left Russia in the 2009–10 season, signing as a free agent to a one-year contract with Pelicans of the Finnish SM-liiga. Lamother played in 14 games with Pelicans before his season was abruptly ended in suffering a medial ligament tear in his knee.

On April 7, 2010, Lamothe signed a one-year contract with the Hamburg Freezers of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga for the 2010–11 season. With a lack of form, Lamothe was relegated to backup goaltender and seldom used after 15 games, he released by the Freezers and returned to North America on November 23, 2010.

Career statistics

Regular season

Season	Team	League		GP	W	L	T	MIN	GA	SO	GAA	SV%
1991–92	Kingston Frontenacs	OHL		42	10	25	2	2378	189	1	4.77
1992–93	Kingston Frontenacs	OHL		45	23	12	6	2489	162	1	3.91
1993–94	Kingston Frontenacs	OHL		48	23	20	5	2828	177	2	3.76
1994–95	Fredericton Canadiens	AHL		9	2	5	0	428	32	0	4.49	.873
1994–95	Wheeling Thunderbirds	ECHL		13	9	2	1	737	38	0	3.09	.892
1994–95	Fredericton Canadiens	AHL		23	5	9	3	1165	73	1	3.76	.894
1996–97	Indianapolis Ice	IHL		38	20	14	4	2271	100	1	2.64	.918
1997–98	Indianapolis Ice	IHL		31	18	10	2	1773	72	3	2.44	.920
1998–99	Indianapolis Ice	IHL		32	9	16	6	1823	115	1	3.78	.881
1999–2000	Cleveland Lumberjacks	IHL		44	23	18	4	2455	112	2	2.74	.915
1999–2000	Chicago Blackhawks	NHL		2	1	1	0	116	10	0	5.17	.800
2000–01	Syracuse Crunch	AHL		42	17	15	7	2323	112	2	2.89	.921
2000–01	Hamilton Bulldogs	AHL		1	0	1	0	59	5	0	5.05	.821
2001–02	Hamilton Bulldogs	AHL		45	22	19	2	2569	102	3	2.38	.918
2002–03	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL		60	33	18	8	3438	122	6	2.13	.923
2003–04	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL		43	21	16	5	2535	87	4	2.06	.924
2003–04	Detroit Red Wings	NHL		2	1	0	1	125	3	0	1.44	.948
2004–05	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	RSL		55	30	14	11	3357	90	6	1.61
2005–06	Severstal Cherepovets	RSL		42				2379	79	4	1.99	.920
2006–07	Severstal Cherepovets	RSL		41							2.21
2007–08	SKA St. Petersburg	RSL		41							2.10	.912
2008–09	Barys Astana	KHL		15	5	6	1	687	47	0	4.10	.881
2009–10	Pelicans	SM-l		14	4	7	1	766	43	0	3.37	.905
2010–11	Hamburg Freezers	DEL		15	4	10	0	865	44	0	3.05	.912
NHL totals				4	2	1	1	242	13	0	3.22	.880

Post season

Season	Team	League		GP	W	L	MIN	GA	SO	GAA	SV%
1992–93	Kingston Frontenacs	OHL		15	8	5	733	46	1	3.77
1993–94	Kingston Frontenacs	OHL		6	2	2	224	12	0	3.21
1995–96	Fredericton Canadiens	AHL		3	1	2	160	9	0	3.38
1996–97	Indianapolis Ice	IHL		1	0	0	20	1	0	3.00	.909
1997–98	Indianapolis Ice	IHL		4	1	3	178	10	0	3.37	.896
1998–99	Indianapolis Ice	IHL		6	3	3	338	10	2	1.78	.934
1998–99	Detroit Vipers	IHL		1	0	1	80	5	0	3.75	.885
1999–2000	Cleveland Lumberjacks	IHL		4	2	2	325	12	0	2.21	.924
2001–02	Hamilton Bulldogs	AHL		9	6	3	551	18	0	1.96	.933
2002–03	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL		15	10	5	945	29	1	1.84	.935
2003–04	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL		4	0	3	200	12	0	3.60	.890
2004–05	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	RSL		9	3	3	521	21	0	2.41
2005–06	Severstal Cherepovets	RSL		4						2.26
2006–07	Severstal Cherepovets	RSL		4						1.64
2007–08	SKA St. Petersburg	RSL		9						2.02

External links

• Template:Hockeydb
• Marc Lamothe's Profile at hockeygoalies.org