ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- How does a player go from out of the lineup one week to 25 minutes a game the next?

The answers are, in order: prospects, contracts and welcome to the early-season in the AHL.

Defenceman Danny Groulx has lived all of the above. Then he came to Winnipeg to play for the Manitoba Moose, and did it all over again in the last few weeks.

The Lasalle, Que., native is the Moose's most experienced and aged defenceman at the ripe old age of 26. Impressed by his increasing contribution to the Calder Cup-winning Hamilton Bulldogs as last season wore on, Manitoba lured Groulx back into the fold for this year's training camp.

He had played 29 league and playoff games for the team late in the lockout year of 2004-05 before heading to Germany because he had passed the 260-games-played threshold on veteran status (AHL teams are limited to only a few veteran players in any game).

At the start of this season, however, Groulx was scratched for Manitoba's first two games. The reason given was that there were 10 defencemen in the fold and the Moose and Vancouver Canucks needed to make decisions on a few of them.

Once some of the smoke cleared, Groulx got into action this week, logging more than 26 minutes in a 1-0 win over Rochester on Tuesday and nearly 24 minutes in the 7-1 victory a night later.

He'll be an anchor player again tonight at Blue Cross Arena when the 2-1-1 Moose meet the 2-4-1 Americans for the third straight time (6:30 p.m., Power97).

The Moose are now down to six blue-liners on the roster so Groulx is unlikely to be on the sidelines any time soon.

"They've been good to me, letting me know what's going on," Groulx said, appearing completely unbothered by the numbers and politics of last week. "They've asked me to be patient. I don't have a problem with that at all.

"Whenever they give me the go-ahead to jump in the lineup, I just try my best to be steady and to earn a spot for the rest of the year."

He said he had no second thoughts -- not a one -- about coming to Winnipeg, despite the logjam of players.

"No, no, no, not at all," he protested. "Right off the bat, as soon as I got here, I knew the situation. Zinger (Moose GM Craig Heisinger) has been good, he's told me what's going on and I've kept patient, waiting for my chance in the lineup.

"Hopefully we'll keep winning some games. That won't be a bad thing."

It's worth noting the Moose are 2-0 with him on the ice.

Moose coach Scott Arniel has been raving about Groulx's qualities for a number of days now, especially liking the composure he saw in the then-opponent in last spring's playoff series.

"I saw it in Danny last year and in our training camp, I could see he has a presence out there much like a Mike Keane does or Brad Moran does," Arniel said, offering rather high praise. "They've been through a lot of different circumstances and they make the game simple. They don't put themselves in tough situations or corner themselves.

"Danny keeps things simple. He's been very patient. I had told him there would be an opportunity. And I've said this before, that all I can do is create the opportunity and it's up to the player to do something with it.

"He's doing his utmost there."