Evgeni Nabokov skating drills and rise of Russian goaltending

One of the consistent themes we’ve heard from NHL scouts and goalie coaches surrounding the rise of Russian goaltending in recent years is all the skating that young goalies do there.

There are other elements, and sometimes they even run slightly contrary to each other. New York Islanders No. 1 Semyon Varlamov has talked about an increase in quality coaching both on the InGoal Radio Podcast, and in a recent interview about new teammate Ilya Sorokin. On the other end, some suggest it’s helped the current crop got that specialized attention at a later age, often after a focus on skating in younger years and learning to survive on instinct first.