HOCKEY / LISA DILLMAN : Goalie Knickle Finally Will Get His Shot

His 14-year Quixotic quest to reach the NHL had finally ended, and goaltender Rick Knickle spotted tangible evidence of it Monday at the San Diego Gulls’ offices.

Knickle saw the official news release, announcing his purchase by the Kings, on the desk of Chris Ello, the Gulls’ public relations director.

“Can I make a copy of that?” Knickle asked Ello.

Actually, Ello wasn’t surprised by the request.

“He wanted it for the scrapbook that his wife keeps,” Ello said. “That’s the kind of guy he is. He had pretty much given up on reaching the NHL.”

Knickle’s scrapbook is sizable, filled with clippings of more than 500 games and 14 years of minor league memories from Muskegon, Mich.; Rochester, N.Y.; Peoria, Ill.; Ft. Wayne, Ind.; Sherbrooke, Quebec; Albany, N.Y.; Springfield, Mass., and San Diego, among other cities.

Name any minor league hockey city and there’s a strong likelihood Knickle has played there. His claim to fame was being “King of the I,” as in the International Hockey League. Now he is with the Kings.

And almost no one is saying they knew this would happen. As a teen-ager, he had grown up playing against Kelly Hrudey and Andy Moog. Those goaltenders went on to the NHL fame. Knickle went on to move 18 times in 14 years.

The problem?

Knickle, 32, had been considered too old too long.

“I was crushed seven years ago when I was told I was too old,” he told The Times earlier this season. “I’m happy I made it this far. Most people never even get to this level.”

Gull General Manager Don Waddell met Knickle when he coached him in Flint. Waddell always believed Knickle could help some NHL team, that he had more talent than many major league goaltenders.

“He’s gotten better and better in his career,” Waddell said. “His problem was, when you’re younger you say: ‘What do I have to do to get to the NHL?’ It’s more of a mind game. Now, in the last three, four years he’s not worried about the NHL anymore. He knew he was playing at the highest level he could and he’s gotten better.

“In the last four years, his confidence has grown. That’s a big part of it.”

During the summer, Waddell received phone calls from several teams, inquiring about Knickle. But nothing ever came close to happening. As Waddell pointed out, most teams don’t add veterans during the summer. Those moves are made late in the season, when teams want to bring in some experience--much in the manner of the Kings recalling defenseman Tim Watters earlier this month.

“If someone had asked me whether this would happen, I would have said, ‘Talent-wise, definitely,’ ” Waddell said.

“But did I think it would happen? No chance.

“It was his age. That’s one of the worst things we do. We label people by how old they are. There’s no doubt Rick Knickle could have helped a lot of NHL teams this season.”

Knickle, a native of New Brunswick, Canada, was a seventh-round draft choice of the Buffalo Sabres in 1979 and later was signed by Montreal as a free agent in 1985. However, Patrick Roy emerged as a star in Montreal with his performance during the 1985-86 season.

So, the big break never came until Monday. With the Kings, Knickle can earn $68,000 if he sticks with the team through the final 27 games of the season. And he has a couple of bonuses built into the contract--$500 for each victory and $2,000 per shutout.

Knickle has four shutouts this season and a 33-4-4 record with a 2.17 goals-against average. He has given up one or fewer goals in 18 of his 40 starts.

His consistency was there last season, too, when he also led the IHL in victories with a 28-13-4 record for San Diego.

Knickle has been a fan favorite in San Diego. All season, radio call-in shows have been getting questions about him, wondering if and when an NHL team would pick him up. Now that Knickle has left for Los Angeles, there’s sort of a bittersweet feeling among Gull fans.

“I got ripped a little bit today,” Waddell said of the reaction.

Nevertheless, Waddell is proud knowing that Knickle will get his first NHL start sometime this week.

“This is a good feeling,” he said. “This is a nice one . . . you get goose bumps through your body thinking about it.”