He posted 21 wins for the Syracuse Crunch and was recalled several times by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Leclaire made his NHL debut on February 20, 2004; recording 31 saves in a 3- 2 loss at Phoenix.
This season, Leclaire has been sharing goaltending duties with Karl Goehring on a struggling Syracuse squad.
Although his record is not great (5 wins, 6 losses, and 3 shootout losses), Leclaire is posting steady individual numbers with a 2.34 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.
Unfortunately, Leclaire is currently out of the lineup with a groin injury, and has missed more than 20 games since early December.
This is costing him valuable ice time that he cannot afford to lose, as he really needs to continue his attempt to impress the Blue Jacket brass.
He has the talent necessary to become a number-one goalie, however, much like Ilya Bryzgalov in Anaheim, Pascal is stuck behind Marc Denis, a very good young netminder in the Columbus organization.
With his progress stalled this season, Leclaire will need to work hard and show some improvement before he can expect more than a cup of coffee in the NHL.
He drops from 14 in the FAB50 2004 to 27 this year.
