286 Parents: Thoughts on the experience of seeing your child traded

That's the exciting part of our world of goaltending. The real life aspect that hit David Hutchison right between the eyes this week, and it's it's nothing anybody else hasn't been through. But let's get into the parent segment brought to you by Stop It Goaltending U the app. And and, Hutch, this was an emotional journey that you went through as we give Stop It Goaltending U the app some love.

Yeah. New daily primers out this week. They focus on planning. Remember, Stop It Goaltending U, the app. Every day, there's a new one minute quick hit video.

Just to give you something to think about as a goaltender on your path. This week, each one, every every one new day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, quick hit on planning because we all know how important planning is as a goaltender. Just different thoughts to get you in that mindset. And then each week, new five minute and twenty minute videos. Five minutes this week is more of a power pump up.

They call it their pep tunes with Elvis Merzlikins. You watch this video of Merzlikins who, by the way, is playing really well quietly and under the radar this year for the Columbus Blue Jackets. He's had some unbelievable games. You watch this video. If you're not ready to run through a brick wall and stop pucks, there's something wrong with you.

And then twenty minutes this week, they're actually talking about the path to college hockey. Full twenty minute video breaking that down. I've even though it's not college hockey, I think there might be some tie ins here on what it's like life as from Hutch in the parent segment. Life as a junior hockey parent. Life as a junior hockey goalie.

They've got that covered on the college side over at the Stop It Goaltending U, the app. It's like this every week, folks. One minute quick preps, five minute video if you wanna watch it, twenty minutes when you've got more time. And let me tell you, there's enough in the archives to keep you if you wanna just dig in on goaltending to see it all. And, of course, every Stop It Goaltending U, the app membership comes with a membership to InGoal Magazine premium.

So between the two products, you can go down a rabbit hole and pretty much anything you need to know about goaltending, we'll have it covered. So make sure you get your membership to Stop It Goaltending U, the app, today.

We mentioned the USA Hockey Goaltending Coach certification program that we all participated in. Part one was Monday. Part two is tonight. This is Friday as we record this. And right in the middle of that, Hutch, you and your family were dealt some news that, is going to change your lives.

Yeah. We were sitting there enjoying the clinic and my phone buzzed and I got five words. I think I've been traded. That set up a whirlwind of activity, guys, that I'll I'll share today, at least from my perspective, because we all get excited as fans around the trade deadline. I don't think many parents fully think through what their junior hockey experience is going to be.

As minor hockey parents, we have lots of dreams for our kids. We want them to be happy. We want them to enjoy what they're doing. And year after year, you know, it involves tryouts. It involves hopes and dreams for performance for the kid and for the team.

And and inevitably, there's hopes even from a quite a young age, that you might get noticed by some junior league and that ultimate goal of playing junior hockey is somewhere down the road for for your child. Even though you might have dreams of a pro career for your kid, I I don't think many of us think past that minor hockey step, that routine that happens year after year after year. Junior hockey kinda feels like a destination even though we we do use that old cliche, the work has just begun when a kid does sign inevitably with a junior team. But for parents, let me tell you, the stress has just begun when your child starts playing junior hockey. And it's it's much more of a journey than I ever imagined.

Maybe it's a little easier if you're a parent of a projected first rounder in the NHL, but I'm guessing they have their own stresses as well. I've alluded to some of that stuff in the past, but I thought I'd share this week my story, of what we've been going through. Even though Matthew has sat through three trade deadlines before this year, he was lucky enough to be with his team during the trade deadline as a 15 year old, and he's now seen a couple of team captains traded away. We never really imagined it might apply to us. You imagine success.

You imagine winning championships with your kid's team, but you don't imagine the relationships ending. But this season, we had a feeling. Nothing was ever said. There weren't any heads up given from the team that he might get moved to the deadline. Maybe it's just my experience in the game that I knew something could happen and I felt something would happen.

I have a feeling a lot of families would have been blindsided by what happened this week, but they would inevitably probably look back and see some of the signs that we'd seen pretty clearly this year. I'm not gonna go into detail about any of those things really, except that before Christmas, the team had brought in another goaltender for a three game tryout, and it was made pretty clear to Matthew that his job was on the line. He survived that experience and started to play pretty well for the team. And then, Monday, he hopped on a bus for one of those typical junior hockey ten hour trips up to Prince George British Columbia. Shortly after he got to PG, he was summoned to see his coach.

And that's when that one line text message came in during our clinic. And guys, when it happened, my heart started racing. Fired notes off to you guys to let you know I was just disappearing for a little bit. I can't say it was an upset feeling, but there's that unknown aspect that sort of gets your heart racing and gets you worrying a little bit. As that happened, Matthew was given sort of a business like notification by his coach that he'd been traded and where, and he was thanked for his time with the team and they wished him well as you might expect.

And then that's when I got the next message. Moose Jaw for Smith. Call you later. And, and that was it. Because obviously, he had a whole lot of things that that he had to attend to.

And, but at least we had something to wrap our heads around. But guys, my wife, Matthew's mother, who is also a goaltender, had to leave at that moment to go play her game. Imagine Woody, because I know you like to get stressed when you're playing hockey, stepping onto the ice, you know your kid's been traded somewhere. You I think she at that time knew where, but hadn't had a chance to speak to him and she's got to play for an hour and a half, with her teammates without knowing what's going on. Yeah.

Pretty tough for her of of all people. It was sort of a whirlwind of activity for for Matthew and for us. And as I said, most of that is his story to tell, not mine. But it involved calls with his new team coach, calls with his new team GM, calls with his former goalie coach and his new goalie coach, quick call from his previous year's GM. Impressively, guys, these are kids.

He started getting messages from his new teammates welcoming him to the team. That's that's pretty cool and makes the experience a little bit easier. And very quickly, a plane ticket arrived in his phone because the very next morning, he's got to go meet his new team who are on the road, Moose Jaw Warriors. I don't know if I mentioned that. And that next morning, he's got to get up, get on a plane and head to meet his team on the road.

And much like those stories you've heard in the National Hockey League, he arrived at the rink thirty minutes before warm up and had to be dressed and backing up that night and ended up starting the very next night. Everything other than what he needed for a five day road trip with his old team was back in Vancouver, and he's half a country away with his new team. Finally, after about ninety minutes of of waiting here at home and mom well, mom's on the ice, I got a call from him and I got some of those details that I just shared. It was a mixture of emotions for him and and for us. Everybody's sort of shaken even though as I said it was expected.

There was some excitement because he's wanted. He's got a new team and new teammates who want to meet him and and optimistic about the opportunity that was ahead. Here's a tough part you probably didn't know. He had to phone his old billet family and let them know what had happened. And I can tell you having billeted before, that is not easy on the family.

I don't think it's something an 18 year old should have to do. Our first billet experience, we got really close with this, young goaltender in just a matter of a couple of weeks. And he had to come and tell us that he'd just been released by the team and was leaving. I know it was hard for him. It was heartbreaking for us.

I can only imagine what Maddie and his old Billet family have gone through in the last little while. It's a lot for an 18 year old. It's a lot for us adults. The journey is continuing. He's now, had his first start and made 48 saves and had a had a good experience.

He's in his new home. He's met his new family. It was an overnight bus trip, another typical junior experience guys. Finished his game, hops on the bus, travels overnight because they save money on hotels that way. And he arrived at the front door at a quarter to six in the morning to a new home, people waiting to meet him.

Pretty interesting experience. Here's another classy thing that happened. On the bus after the game, he got a text message from one of his new teammates. I'm thinking, a kid is texting you from the back of the bus. No, this is a new teammate who's injured, hadn't been on the road trip and just wanted to let him know that he'd watched the game, thought he played great and he's looking forward to meeting him.

Pretty classy young men to do that. We are now scrambling because all his things, as I said, are in Vancouver and he's half a country away from us. We're getting his car set up to handle a Saskatchewan winter that is quite unlike the one he experiences in Vancouver. I'm about to hop on in the car on a road trip across three provinces to get all his things to him. Another thing you might not have considered, his new team would certainly help to get his stuff packed up and shipped out to him in Saskatchewan.

But it's a seventeen hour drive away, so they're not super excited about him hopping on a plane and flying back and getting his things and then driving his car out himself. It's, you know, getting to a short part of the season here and he's gotta get on the ice with new teammates and figure out what the new team is doing. So that's what I'm gonna do. Look, we're really, happy, really thankful that he's so happy and that his team has been so welcoming to him. It's it's gonna be a different sort of grind because they're a last place team that's sort of looking to the future right now, but but he's in a really awesome place.

I just wanted to share that story today, boys, because it's nothing that we really imagined when he signed with the junior team. It's certainly nothing we imagined when he was coming up through the minor hockey ranks. You get nervous in September with a minor hockey organization because you'd like your kid to make the team that he wants to be on. You don't realize that you haven't made the team in junior hockey until January. It's basically a tryout from September through January because now that the trade deadline's passed, the rosters are more or less frozen as far as I know.

We knew all this was possible, but, but it's just something that I guess we hadn't fully prepared for. But today at least we're really optimistic about the fresh start that he's enjoying. How's mom? Yeah. Really good.

Like honestly, we're both really good, in in very much the same way. When you hear the happiness, when you see the smile on his face, when you chat, that's really all you could ask for as a parent. If he was miserable, if, the new team hadn't been so welcoming, if it was in a place he didn't really want to be, because you have no control over this. I guess the part I didn't mention that I should have guys is when he signed with his first team as a 15 year old, you get trade protection or at least he got trade protection up until he was out of high school. So we at least knew he wasn't going anywhere

until That's great. Yeah. Positive. Yeah.

Now, other stories we hear of in the National Hockey League where trade protection gets sort of pushed aside when you're told you're not wanted. I know we had teammates that were moved when the GM phoned families and just said, hey, we want to trade your kid and all of a sudden, you know, you're not wanted. So you probably just agree to the trade anyway. But yeah, we're all good. We're all good.

But like I said, I don't think everybody really imagines what it is that they're going through. If any parents want to know more about the experience or anybody wants more detail, if there is anything I'm able to share, parents@ingoalmag.com.

More importantly, did mom get the dub?

No. Woody? No.

She's like, it's exactly what you might imagine. It was a terrible start because she was all flustered. But it was a two one. It was a two one loss sadly. But hey, I'll take Yeah.

I'll take two in a in a tough game.

Yeah. Two in bit two in any type of, like, rec league is is impressive. I'm lucky to keep it under 10, so I consider that a dub even if it didn't go down as a dub.

There you go. Woody, that was that was so good. That was so Woody right there.

I'm all about the things I'm all about the things that matter.

I wanted to lie for her, but I cannot tell a lie.

All our best to Matthew. Pass along our support. He's in the cradle junior hockey right there in that Honestly, like Saskatchewan and and Canada. It's it's I think it's going to be a really cool experience for

him. It's going to be incredible to get a little bit of real Canadian culture. I'm not sure that the West Coast Of Canada is real Canadian culture. And, I'll tell you one of the most excited things for him was when he got to the new billet house and they said, hey, we've got we got a rink in the backyard. And he's dreamed his whole life of skating on an outdoor rink.

And he's thinking there's maybe a five by five sheet of ice in the backyard and he walked out there with me on FaceTime because he hadn't done this yet. And it is a full sized rink with boards, with chain link around the ends like we would have had in the fifties or sixties or whatever. And, wow. What what a cool slice of Canadian culture you're getting right there.

Priorities. Put skating on the backyard rink aside until you get the car there with the block heater. Make sure that block heater is ready to go to plug it in.

Right. Yeah. I think I

see the look

on Hutch's like, if you went to a mechanic in Vancouver and said, hey. I need a block heater. They'd be like, pardon?

I yeah. I've got some stories about how yesterday went went around block heaters, but this isn't a car podcast yet.