Clara is accustomed to surviving outside his comfort zone.
He left home at age 14 to attend the Red Bull Academy in Salzburg, Austria, and played well enough to make the Italy men’s national team two years later in 2021, becoming the youngest player in modern history to appear on an IIHF World Hockey Championship roster.
After the Ducks made Clara the first Italy-born player ever drafted in the NHL and the third-highest goalie drafted in the team’s history, he went 25-8-0 with a 2.23 goals-against average and .913 save percentage in 34 games with Brynas of the Swedish Hockey League in 2023-24, becoming the youngest goalie to win 25 games in Sweden’s second division.
The Ducks signed him to a three-year entry-level contract the following offseason, and he played in Sweden and Finland last season before making his American Hockey League debut with San Diego in April.
Playing for three teams in three countries wasn’t ideal, and Clara’s numbers and playing time declined from the previous season, but he still feels like a better overall goalie than a year ago.
“The biggest steps have been mental and just making things simpler,” he said. “I think I’m more of a well-rounded goalie now, a little more well put together. There’s a long way to go.”
Where he’ll play at the start of this season is still to be determined, but Clara knows where he’ll be playing in February.
“It’s a big honor,” Clara said of playing in the Olympics in his home country. “Really happy to get the trust, and I’ll do my best to go there and, hopefully, help the team, maybe, make an upset or something. It’s our goal and we’ll see what happens.”
