The Evolution of Cal Petersen

(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Since the early 2000’s, the Los Angeles Kings had struggled to find a No. 1 goaltender to just carry them into the playoffs, much less beyond. While Felix Potvin made his mark early in the millennium, it felt like a never-ending carousel of auditions, so to speak, in the Kings’ net. So, when Jonathan Quick came along in 2008, Kings fans were relieved, nay, overjoyed, when their team’s new netminder offered more than a fitting name. Unfortunately, the lifespan of a professional athlete is a relatively short one. So, with Quick at 34 and in the back-end of his career, the Kings are forced to look to their future in goal.

Look no further than Cal Petersen.

In fairness, the Kings do have an array of talent in the future-goaltending wings, if you will, including Matt Villalta and Lukas Parik. At this juncture, though, Petersen appears to be the front-runner to take over the starting job in Los Angeles when Jonathan Quick moves on.

Petersen, of course, had to earn his spot with the Kings, which, as of now, is in Los Angeles as the No. 2 man behind Quick. But, the evolution of Cal Petersen as a goaltender is nevertheless a fascinating one.

I recently had the privilege of speaking with four of Petersen’s coaches, all at different levels. In addition to Matt Millar and Bill Ranford of the Kings, I also had the opportunity to speak with Peterson’s USHL and NCAA coaches — PK. O’Handley of the Waterloo Black Hawks and Notre Dame’s Andy Slaggert, respectively.

Hometown Hero

After a two-game stint with the Topeka Roadrunners of the North American Hockey League in 2011-12, Cal Petersen returned to his hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, to suit up for the hometown Black Hawks of the USHL.

After going 3-1-0 with a 2.94 goals-against average in five games for Waterloo in 2011-12, Petersen would go on to be a regular contributor for the Black Hawks over the next two seasons. His efforts over this time were especially appreciated by the club’s head coach, the aforementioned P.K. O’Handley.

“He was an exceptional goaltender when he was with us full time, extremely competitive and demanding of himself and his teammates in a very positive way,” O’Handley said. “Cal worked at his game. Really worked. He watched video, he trained, and I think the best thing he did was understand that his role was pivotal to team success, and he embraced it.”

In his first full season with the Black Hawks, Petersen shone in goal.

His 2012-13 campaign saw the youngster post a 21-11-1 record with a 2.50 GAA and three shutouts. While these numbers are impressive enough, O’Handley remembered his netminder feeling added pressure being a hometown kid.

“Cal being a hometown kid, that was a lot of pressure,” the Waterloo head coach noted. “Our fans wanted him to be successful, but at the same time, the expectation was to win, hometown kid or not. I thought Cal handled that pressure exceptionally well and succeeded, which to me shows his competitive level and mentality.”

While there may have been an added layer of pressure being from Waterloo, Petersen also used his hometown status to his advantage. He had been familiar with Coach O’Handley and the Black Hawks from an early age, and vice-versa, helping his transition as a player become a seamless one.

“Cal had been around our team practicing since he was about 12,” O’Handley recalled. “I have had the pleasure of knowing Cal since he was a little kid, as did our staff, because he was from here and around the team. We had a relationship that was terrific and honest and still do to this day. His communication skills were exceptional when he was here. He wanted to be the best goalie and he took every conversation and critique like a pro at a young age.”

If his 2012-13 performance were impressive, Petersen only did better the following season, posting a 27-7-4 record with a 2.50 GAA and two shutouts.

“He understood the team’s structure of play and really understood his role in that structure,” O’Handley observed. “In my time in junior hockey, he’s one of the few goaltenders that took the time to do that and embraced it. His competitiveness is something I admired when he was here, as I still do watching him today.

“He studied the game and his position. He utilized every tool he could to improve. He was out early and stayed late at practice. Cal knew he wanted to be a pro and operated that way when he was a Black Hawk.”

Despite multiple offers to join the professional ranks, P.K. O’Handley has remained in Waterloo, further committed to the development of USHL talent. A former goaltender himself, O’Handley wrapped up his 17th season as the Waterloo Black Hawks’ head coach, being named USHL Coach of the Year four times, with 2018 being the most recent.

Along with Petersen, O’Handley played an integral role in developing many future NHLers, including Joe Pavelski, Brock Boeser and current Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson.

Play Like a Champion Today

Following his time in Waterloo, Cal Petersen took his game 360 miles east to South Bend, Indiana, to begin his collegiate career with the storied University of Notre Dame.

“He worked extremely hard at his craft and when he left for Notre Dame he, in my opinion, was ready to compete and obviously did,” O’Handley said.

Upon Petersen’s arrival at Notre Dame, though, it was clear to the Irish coaching staff, especially associate coach Andy Slaggert, what they had in their freshman netminder.

“When he first got on campus, we thought that he was a very talented goaltender who could have a chance to take over the No. 1 job quickly, and that’s what he did,” Slaggert said. “It was a year of growth for him, for sure. He learned physically where he got stronger and worked on his technique, but then his growth as a person and his leadership capabilities started to emerge as well — he was well-liked — then, academically, making the adjustment to the college level, as well.”

Overall, Petersen’s freshman season at Notre Dame was a successful one. While his record of 13-16-3 may be subpar on paper, the youngster remained strong, posting a 2.51 GAA, a .919 save percentage and four shutouts. The Irish netminder, though, only got better.

As a sophomore, Petersen went 19-11-7 with a 2.20 GAA and a .927 save percentage. As a junior, 23-12-5 with a 2.22 GAA and a .926 save percentage. Petersen even recorded six shutouts in the latter campaign — 10 total with the Irish. I asked Slaggert what the biggest factor was towards Petersen’s improvement in each of his three seasons at Notre Dame.

“Overall, just physical preparedness,” the Fighting Irish associate said. “His strength, particularly his core strength, and his ability to track pucks better, just maturing in general as a player and as a person really helped in growing. Ideally, that’s what college hockey is: a great development path and you see that progress from year to year to year. So, I just think the experience and the sheer amount of minutes he played in those three years really helped foster his development.”

Prior to the start of his junior season, though, Petersen was given a rare goaltending honour by his team as the Fighting Irish named the netminder their captain.

“This was actually more to do with how he carried himself off the ice and the relationships that he built with everyone, how he represented [Notre Dame’s hockey] program on campus and in the community,” Slaggert said of the decision for Petersen’s captaincy. “It’s rare for a goalie to be a captain but for Cal, it seemed natural for the team. For him to have seen that role because of how easy he was to get along with, how he approached practice, training, academics and everything.

“Cal, he got along great with everybody. That’s why he was a captain, as a junior, in his third year.”

By 2017, Petersen was preparing to embark on his pro career. During this time, the youngster was given some promising news.

While he was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 2013, the club decided not to continue with Petersen in their future. Buffalo’s loss, though, was Los Angeles’s gain as Kings’ new GM Rob Blake signed the free agent. Suddenly, Petersen had his sights on southern California with the AHL’s Ontario Reign.

Having been behind the Notre Dame bench since 1993, Andy Slaggert has seen generations of players come and go. So, knowing that his netminder was leaving South Bend, the Irish associate coach touched on what kind of advice he had for Petersen moving forward.

“With any young goalie going into the pros, it was really just not to get discouraged,” Slaggert stressed. “We’ve really tried to work on his consistency and those are things from a hockey standpoint. I just told him that we’re going to be proud of him and wanted to make sure to come back and finish his degree.”

Slaggert just finished his 27th season with the Notre Dame coaching staff, and his 12th as associate coach. Since then, the Saginaw, Mich., native has helped develop a plethora of future NHL talent aside from Petersen, including Kyle Palmeiri, Riley Sheahan and New York Islanders captain Anders Lee.

California Calling

Fresh off signing with the Kings, Cal Petersen wasted little time in kicking off his pro career.

Assigned to Ontario, Petersen made the most of his rookie season. In 41 games for the Reign in 2017-18, Petersen went 23-14-1, earning a GAA of 2.58 while collecting four shutouts. While the following season may not have been an improvement for Petersen numbers-wise, the Waterloo, Iowa, native was nevertheless called up to Los Angeles, where he made an auspicious first impression and, in the process, filling former Kings goalie development coach Dusty Imoo with immense pride.

“When Cal went [to Los Angeles] the first time two years ago and he had that stint where he was standing on his head, that was huge,” Imoo told me back in June. “He got a shutout, [debuted and won] in Chicago. Those were huge moments and now that he’s [with the Kings] for good, another huge moment.”

In 11 games in his first tour of duty with the Kings, the Notre Dame alum went 5-4-1 with a 2.61 GAA, a .924 save percentage and, as Imoo noted, a shutout. As brief as Petersen’s call-up was, though, it was enough for Kings goaltending coach Bill Ranford to discover how much promise the youngster had.

“I knew he was ready with the success he was having in Ontario and also with [the Kings] the previous time he was with us,” Ranford observed. Still, the club’s longtime goaltending coach had some work for Petersen before his eventual return to the NHL.

“There were a couple of areas that I asked him to work on,” continued Ranford. “Number one was tracking the puck from behind the net. I just felt that this was an area where he struggled with at times and something that he really took to heart. Between myself and [Kings’ goalie development coach] Matt Millar, Cal spent a lot of time working on this in the summer and then obviously through training camp and the early part of the season. Then, it just became second nature for him.

“And second, just reading the game — reading the rush, reading plays in the zone. There were times when he put himself in a blocking situation instead of just reading what was going on. Those were the two areas that he worked hard on, improved on and helped make his second tour transition that much easier.”

Petersen was up to the task, leaving the Kings’ goaltending coach impressed.

“I thought he did a fantastic job working on those elements of his game that he had to to make that next step,” Ranford concluded.

Following Dusty Imoo’s departure from the organization in 2019, the aforementioned Matt Millar came in to succeed the club’s goalie development role. He then shared his first impressions of Petersen.

“I was able to meet with Cal in the summer [of 2019],” Millar recalled. “I went up to Minnesota and was able to spend about a week with him, getting to know him and spending some time with him right away.

“As I watched video with Cal and watched Cal play, his hockey sense and his feel for the game are elite and those two things together are exceptional. I think those two things along with his athleticism, his size and just the blend of his skills and attributes that he has are the makeup of a long-term elite starting goaltender.”

After starting this past season with the Reign, Petersen was called up again to Los Angeles in February. Unlike his first go-round, though, Petersen was in Los Angeles to stay as the club had just traded backup Jack Campbell to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“He’s a guy that’s willing to put the time in to work and that’s why he’s proven that he’s going to be an NHL goalie for a long time,” Ranford emphasized of Petersen.

“Cal’s an elite competitor and I think that that’s one thing that’s going to allow him to be an elite NHL goaltender for a long time,” Millar added. “He has an unbelievable compete level and you saw that even in practice with the Reign. There’s not a puck that he can let just go in the net. There’s always something moving towards the puck, something going towards the puck just to try and keep an eye on the net, no matter what piece of equipment it was.”

Petersen’s intensity during practice has gone unnoticed by Ranford, either.

“He’s very determined,” the Kings’ goaltending coach noted. “He looks cool, calm and collected in the net but in practice situations, he shows some fire and gets frustrated and he has that personality where he wants to constantly get better, and the way you do that is by working at his game.”

Pushing Forward During the Pandemic

Due to the ongoing pandemic, the Los Angeles Kings, along with the rest of the NHL clubs, are in an unprecedented situation, going months without hockey. Furthermore, as a non-playoff team, the Kings will not be seeing the ice again for another few months. Still, for those not playing or practicing, it is imperative to stay in shape and find new ways to keep working on their respective games. Especially for a player in the early stages of his career, Cal Petersen is no exception to this.

“Just because this pause has gone on for so long and there’s not that a lot we can do on-ice right now, this has given him a great opportunity off the ice to get stronger,” Ranford said. “We just feel that with the number of games he has played, there hasn’t been as big a focus off the ice for him and we feel that that’s something he has to learn to be a little more diligent with, a little more focused on in order to keep his body maintained moving forward to play a long, injury-free career. This is to constantly work at the off-ice aspect of it, to just get a bit stronger and I think that will really help him in the long run.”

Due to the current playoff tournament, the 2020-21 NHL season has been delayed until at least December 1.

From practicing with his hometown team as a young boy to making it to the National Hockey League, Cal Petersen has had quite the journey en route to his arrival to professional hockey.

Whether he will succeed Jonathan Quick as the No. 1 netminder in Los Angeles remains to be seen but if the last five years of his progression are any indication, it will only be a matter of time before we see Cal Petersen in a starring role in the City of Angels.

While his sheer talent and determination to keep improving are certainly solid assets in themselves, it is Petersen’s attitude and his personality that has made him such a joy to work with.

“Cal has always been a very polite and professional young man,” beamed P.K. O’Handley. “His growth as a player was terrific. I’ve always believed in Cal and his ability.”

“Cal’s a student of the game,” added Ranford. “He loves to learn and is an athlete who’s a joy to work with.”

When Petersen left the USHL, he embarked on arguably the most important road of his career. When asking what advice he offered to his young netminder, P.K. O’Handley’s response was simple.

“I’m not sure I offered any advice other than, ‘Do your thing,’” the coach shared. “It’s a phrase he and I have exchanged for a long time and still do today.”

While COVID-19 has certainly been a force majeure for the Los Angeles Kings — in addition to the rest of the league –this lull has forced teams and players to adapt. Cal Petersen is certainly doing his part not only to stay the course but to push himself to be even better than he was yesterday — one of the many qualities that has made the 25-year-old one of hockey’s rising stars.

*In addition to those I interviewed, I would like add a special thanks to Tim Harwood of the Waterloo Black Hawks.

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