'BUCK COULD STOP HERE Vet faces uncertain future with contract expiring after season
DETROIT — Cal Clutterbuck has not given thought to the decision that will be in front of him at the end of this season. At least not yet.
But at 36 and with an expiring contract, the veteran of 1,040 NHL games is well aware this could be his last couple of months chasing the playoffs before retirement comes calling.
“I just feel like these things will work themselves out, and honestly, whatever does end up happening, I just feel like I’ve done plenty,” Clutterbuck told The Post after the Islanders practiced at Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday. “If it ended today then, aside from winning a Stanley Cup, I feel like I’ve put everything I had into it. I wouldn’t be remorseful or regretful with anything. That’s why for me, I’m not worried about it.
“If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. The best situations — things work out for you when you allow yourself to sit back and let things happen the way they’re supposed to happen. Not try to force things.”
Clutterbuck still very much has the passion and intensity required to play in the NHL — just talk to him after a loss for proof — and he’s been an effective player this season, reprising his role on the fourth line and remaining a crucial part of the leadership group.
“He’s a great teammate,” coach Patrick Roy said. “I love his physicality. I love his intensity out there. He’s very intense and very reliable defensively but [also] offensively.”
But the chance for transitioning away from the Identity Line will present itself to the Islanders this offseason when Clutterbuck and Matt Martin, 34, become unrestricted free agents with the question of retirement to answer.
For now, Clutterbuck’s focus is on the Islanders scrapping and clawing to stay in the playoff race, with a crucial game against the wild-card-leading Red Wings on Thursday. The Isles are five points behind the Flyers in the Metropolitan Division with a game in hand and seven behind Tampa Bay for the second wild card with two in hand.
“I think there’s more of an exterior pressure crunch when you get older,” Clutterbuck said. “Obviously you have less chances at it. I think the difference is you look at it and you’re like, I don’t know how many other chances I’m gonna have at this. But it doesn’t make me enjoy it more or less. It’s just that I do know in the back of my mind, I don’t have 10 cracks at it left.”
Early in his career with the Wild, Clutterbuck was rarely involved in playoff races, not making the postseason until his fifth full season in the league, the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign. A year later, he was dealt to the Islanders, who have more often than not been in the mix since then.
Their chances of making it this season are not especially high after the team struggled coming out of the Christmas break, falling far out of position. But the Islanders are far from officially out of it, and even further from acting as though the chase is over.
“I think once you’ve been in the playoffs once, that’s when your appreciation for playoff races becomes real,” Clutterbuck said. “You do realize it, you kind of get the playoff bug. I think the same can be said the other way. If you spend a bunch of your career’s early years not ever making the playoffs, you kind of get used to that, too. That’s why you play. You always want to get in.
“And the playoff races are meaningful because as much as you want to say it’s pro hockey, it’s the NHL, 82 games is a long year. So when those last 30 come up and there’s tangible metrics where you can look and see yourself climbing and falling, the emotions that follow, it’s fun.”