Pro Drills inspired by Warren Strelow Featuring Sabres Seamus Kotyk and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
- Warren Strelow's five-puck crease system maps the five positions where goalies are most commonly making saves, forming the foundation of this drill series.
- Progressively removing pucks from the five-puck setup lets coaches isolate specific movement patterns and customize daily warm-up routines.
- The U drill (letter drill) uses just two pucks and can be performed upright on skates or from the knees, making it adaptable for all skill levels.
- Seamus Kotyk uses these drills to build comfort and consistency with game-realistic movements, not to introduce anything technically complex.
- Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen performing the drill while returning from a leg injury demonstrates how the series works as a low-intensity, high-value movement reset.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen photo – Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire
Our series of skating drills featuring top Buffalo Sabres prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and goaltending development coach Seamus Kotyk started with five pucks placed around the crease, a foundational part of the teachings of the late Warren Strelow, who was Kotyk’s first coach with the San Jose Sharks and is a legend in the goaltending coach fraternity.
“Warren’s vision was there was five points, regardless of how you play the game or whatever your style is, that you are pretty much positioned on when you are making a save in the net,” Kotyk explained in Part 1. “That was his interpretation of the quadrants of the zone, so he’d placed the five pucks and lets just start moving within these five quadrants or five pucks.”
The beauty of the series and how it’s evolved since then is the simplicity and versatility of that premise, with Kotyk and his Sabres goalies simply removing pucks to alter the movement patterns and isolate things they want to focus on as part of their daily warm-up routine. That theme continues with our latest crease pattern, which has us down to just two pucks and is as simple as they come, but like the entire series has value for goalies at every level:
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