When Montreal Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey called Jose Theodore on Wednesday night, the 29-year-old goaltender assumed he was going to be asked about how his fractured heel was doing.
Instead, Gainey told Theodore he had been traded to the Avalanche for David Aebischer.
“I had some great years in Montreal, but I was really happy to be part of Colorado,” Theodore said Thursday in a conference call. “I know they’re a team that has been in the league only 10 years, but I know they already have established themselves as a winning franchise.
“I am looking forward to the challenge.”
Theodore, out since suffering a fractured heel during the Olympic break, wouldn’t estimate when he would be well enough to play.
“We had a snowstorm with a lot of ice, and I was just cleaning the stairs outside my house,” Theodore said of his mishap. “I lost my footing, and I slid and then I landed on my heel. I knew it was fractured right away. Now, I’m training, I’m walking without crutches, and I’m looking forward to being back. Only the doctors are going to be able to say when I’m going to be back.”
Avs coach Joel Quenneville Thursday said he wasn’t counting on Theodore to return until playoffs, and if Colorado does try to play him in the regular season, it at best would present significant salary problems.
Theodore believes a fresh start in Colorado will rejuvenate his career. The 2002 winner of the Hart and Vezina trophies has had a terrible season with the Canadiens, losing the No. 1 job to Cristobal Huet.
And what of the comparisons to Patrick Roy? They started when the Canadiens drafted Theodore in 1994, and will continue now because of the eerie parallel: French-Canadian goalie falls out of favor in his home province and is traded to Colorado.
“Patrick was one of a kind,” Theodore said.
Theodore didn’t play when the Canadiens visited the Pepsi Center on Jan. 11, and he said he looked around and wondered what it might be like to follow Roy’s route to Denver.
“I was talking to Patrice (Brisebois) and he was telling me how much he was enjoying Colorado,” Theodore said. “So I was saying to myself, ‘This looks like a good place to play.”‘
Theodore’s girlfriend is scheduled to deliver the couple’s first child any day. He said he wanted to be in Montreal for that, and then he would decide when to come to Denver.
Terry Frei can be contacted at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
