Dan Cloutier awoke from a pregame nap with eight messages from the 310 area code. He knew something important was happening.
When he returned the call and heard Kings assistant general manager Ron Hextall tell him to forget about the Manchester Monarchs' game that night because he was being called up, it came as a shock. He had come to accept that he never would play for the Kings again.
Cloutier said that when he was sent down, Hextall and general manager Dean Lombardi told him he would play a lot in Manchester. But Cloutier ended up getting in a game about every two weeks. He played in only 14 games this season, while prospect Erik Ersberg played in 29.
"I figured they didn't have plans for me," Cloutier said. "They didn't want me back up. ... I figured maybe they want to play their prospects, which I understood. But it was definitely disappointing."
Cloutier gets another chance with Kings (LA Daily News) 
