InGoal Radio Episode 310 with Canucks prospects Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo

Intro

The sun is shining, Daren is on a much deserved vacation, and Woody and I have the controls. This is the InGoal Radio Podcast presented by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports. I'm Hutch. He's Woody. Welcome goalies, coaches, and goalie parents.

Woody, the NHL season is well, is it over with NHL development camps almost behind us?

I think pretty much this is where you see a lot of the the big name media people, the insiders, the the true legends

Signing off to the cottage.

You see the the photo with, like, a beautiful backdrop of a cottage lake and a deck and saying, see it for the summer. Thanks for a great season. Now I'm not bitter at all because I love my life. Some of us are still grinding. Some of us, this is where it's like, okay.

The goalies are back on the ice now, and we gotta find camps and meet up with guys and connect with NHL goalies who are skating already as we prepare content for next season. But, yeah, this is kind of the unofficial wrap up of the season. And I gotta say before we before we get into that, there was one person who signed off for good, announced his retirement after July 1.

That's right.

And that is the Bob father, Bob McKenzie. And I just have to share a little because we're talking about an absolute legend in the business. The original insider, as several other insiders documented upon his announcement of retirement, like, is the one that made it. He's like the Francois Allaire. He invented it.

Like, for Francois Allaire and all the other goalie coaches who didn't play who have followed, like, he was the first. And so there's that. Like, there's the legend. But if I could just for a second, it's the person that left a lasting impact on me in a couple of very short personal encounters. As big as the legend was, as incredible as he was in the job at getting inside information and scoops that no one could ever touch, you would go to a World Junior Championships, and I only covered a couple, and he was the nicest person, the nicest man you could ever meet.

He had time for you regardless of how low you were on the totem pole. He treated you like an equal. If he thought there was a question you could answer and help him, he would ask it earnestly, not lip service. If you ever had advice or questions for him, he made the time for it. So at a time when everybody is celebrating the retirement of Bob McKenzie as the Bob father as an insider, we've seen a few of these posts around.

To me, it was the person. Just a it's what you would point as an example to your kids and say be like that and a reminder for me upon his retirement to try and be a little more like that myself in the job. Not that I am him, but I've been doing this for twenty five years, and there are young people coming up and in, and it was kinda like, yeah. You know, try and be that person that helps others coming into the industry. Not you know, go out of your way to make them feel welcome and comfortable because that's something that he did.

The couple of times that I was at a World Junior Camp or a World Junior tournament with him, it was really remarkable just to see how good a person he was.

Woody, that is fantastic to hear because, as a fan, I've always loved Bob's work. He always seems so genuine. And, it's just great to hear from somebody like you who knows a little bit better from the inside what the insiders really like. So we wish the Bob father well in retirement.

Yeah. One of the one of the great ones.

Yep. Okay. Woody. Woody, you spent this week at the Canucks Development Camp and covering NHL free agency. So you found our two NHL Sense Arena feature guests at Canucks Dev Camp.

Would you like to give us a tease?

Yeah. So this week, we've got a double hit just because, time is limited. Was not given the opportunity to sort of have an extended sit down with either. So we double dipped couple of ten minute interviews to add up to 20 with a couple of guys that that sorta they're within a year each of each other in terms of their paths, different paths, one from the CHL, one from the NCAA. We've got Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo so Ty is a really interesting story.

And to be honest with you, I'm not gonna I didn't ask him this question, and I wasn't gonna ask him to I'm not gonna put those words in his mouth. But for me, a prime example of why when people ask questions like what's wrong with Canadian goaltending, as much as my first answer is, well, really nothing, part of the part of the development problem is the CHL, and Ty Young is a perfect example of why. This is a young man who had no place to play as a 20 year old. The Prince George cougars didn't want him on their roster because you've only got three 20 year old spots, and they had young Joshua Ravensbergen who was just drafted in the first round by the San Jose sharks had coming up behind him and pushed him and taken over some of the starting minutes the year before. Nobody else in the Western Hockey League wanted a 20 year old goaltender drafted by the Vancouver Canucks for his 20 year old season.

So he turned pro, and in his first year in the ECHL was top 10 with a nine twenty six save percentage, had success in a short stint in the American Hockey League where he won a game, Is on a path where the Vancouver Canucks are opening space likely with a trade of Arturs Silovs, who just was named Calder Cup championship MVP, to open up room to make sure that Ty Young is playing in the American Hockey League as a 21 year old, but you couldn't find space for him in the CHL as a 20 year old. This is part of the problem? Your development window in the Canadian Hockey League is essentially a year and a half to two years, and then you've gotta find somewhere else to play. And we talked with JP Lamoreaux last week about how I think the rules in the c a in the CHL and NCAA are gonna solve this problem for them.

Bit better. Yep.

For sure. Because they're gonna be able to extend that window into playing college hockey after they're done in the CHL and have a longer runway, but, like, just exhibit a. So we talked to Ty about his first year pro in the transition, one he made very successfully. Successfully. I I mean, mean, I think it's kinda overlooked.

It's you know, I'd have to I gotta look it up historically. I don't think a lot of kids turn pro at and in their 20 old season have that level of success even in the ECHL. So good on him. We talk about some of the roots there. And Aku is coming out of Harvard.

Three years at Harvard. He's turning pro this offseason, and he'll probably follow Ty's footsteps and be in the ECHL. So, again, hearing from Ty about the support he had in the ECHL, the canucks didn't leave him down there to his own devices. This is a trend we're seeing around the league where in this case, it was it was their goalie scout, Ian Clark, who had time to work with him. In other cases, we're seeing teams hire guys right down to the ECHL because as it becomes the first step for goaltender development, it makes zero sense at a time when they need the most support to send them to a place where in the past they got none.

And so we're seeing teams try to address that. So we have that conversation with Ty. We get into it a little bit with Aku about the way his game and the way it's progressed. Just a really, really bright kid. You can tell that he's a goalie geek as well the way he digs into some of the minutiae.

So a couple of really fun interviews that I can't wait to share when we get to our featured guest presented by Sense Arena.

Am I right that they've changed the the rights rules now around the NHL draft so that CHL players, they hang on to the rights for four years as they did with the NCAA?

So I actually can't answer that, and I'm not entirely sure everybody's figured it out. I can't answer it because I'm not sure that we have a firm answer to this. Because in the past, it would only be two years in the CHL. You're right. So if they're going CHL to NCAA, it's not gonna be two years plus four years.

Is it gonna be four years? We'll see.

I think it's four. I think I read four, but just an interesting crossover there because also at the, you you mentioned the Ty Young situation. Also, at this development camp was the Canucks second round pick who shared the net this year with Austin Elliott with the London Knights, and Austin also couldn't find a place in the Western Hockey League this year. And all he did was go on to a season where he lost all of two games and won the Memorial Cup.

Another example of why that's a problem. So and listen. The second round pick, we didn't have him on the podcast, but I did get a chance to talk to him a little bit. Aleksei Medvedev, the Vancouver Canucks, the fourth goalie taken in the second round. And, man, this kid couldn't stop smiling.

He was just a ray of sunshine. And watching him, his ability to access power from extended ranges and still have, like, explosiveness, you know, Marco Torrenius, the goalie coach there said to me it reminded him a little bit of Andrei Vasilevskiy. Again, once you're on your knees, once you're extended in positions where other goalies have to regrab an edge and go, there's just a snappiness to the power that was it was kinda hard to miss. You had the certain situations that would come out and you're like, oh, there it is. And wow.

Is that exciting? But interesting to me in those conversations, and I wish again, I wish we'd been afforded a little more time to sit down with some of these guys and and flush it out a little more than just a scrum like we had with Medvedev, but this is a kid who grew up in Russia. Came over to North America at 14. His uncle lived in Toronto, played in the GTHL, ends up playing junior b in Ontario, and then ultimately for the London Knights, he'll be their starter this year, and he's an exciting prospect. But he talked about those roots in Russia.

He talked about skating without pucks, no technique, just skating, skating, skating for an hour at a time as a young goalie in Russia. And we still see this trend towards Russian goaltenders at the draft. We see it in the National Hockey League, and I think that's a massive part of it. We don't or they don't put them in a goalie school situation at such a young age where they're focused on stopping the puck, where they're being taught RVH at the age of seven. They are skating, skating, skating, and I it's hard for me not to see the tie.

And there are other factors, obviously, but hard for me not to sort of see that as part of the key to why we see so many of them having success at the highest levels and being drafted as high as they are.

Okay. Dev camps behind us for the most part. I think there might be one or two still to come. NHL free agency hit a couple of days ago, and it was kind of the quietest goalie period in quite some time, wasn't it?

I think it was I don't wanna use the word thin because I don't wanna be disrespectful. There's some really good goalies on there. But the top end, the established starters, the number ones, they all kinda re sign. It kinda echoed, to be honest, the rest of the free agent market. And so I think this is a trend of a salary cap opening up.

You know, we saw salary cap and cap space shortage for years. I think we're sort of seeing a bit of a talent shortage because guys are re upping with their teams and not hitting the open market. And that's not to say that there's a talent short shortage in the guys that are, but we're not seeing the elite top of the lineup guys going. I mean, that's even includes Thatcher Demko. On July 1, the first day he's eligible to sign a contract extension, he gets three years and eight and a half.

He's tied for the third highest salary in the National Hockey League despite the injury history. And another guy whom teams might have looked at and said, hey, we can we can we can have a look at this guy either as a pending free agent on the deadline or as a just buy him on the open market next summer. Well, that's gone because he's reupped and he'll be a Vancouver Canuck for the next four seasons. So that's the reason we see this trend. Nobody's getting the market because if you have that talent in your organization, you're keeping it.

And with the cap space, it'll be interesting to see how long this trend lasts. It reiterates to me, however, the importance of building. We talk about the Canucks depth chart, and they're a great example. She loves comes up, and now he might acquire waivers, and so they're either gonna trade him or they risk losing him. Tolopilo came over.

He'll move up. Ty Young moves up. Aku Koskenvuo beneath him, and a couple years behind them, Medvedev. You need to build a constant pipeline. If it is all about retaining your own talent, you better make sure you're building that talent from the bottom up so that when it comes time to make a decision, you don't have to overpay for somebody else or get caught as some teams have with no options.

You gotta build them internally. And it kind of blows me away to have that conversation to see that writing so clearly on the wall, and yet teams continue to cheap out when it comes to building out goaltending development, goaltending scouting, and goaltending director staffs. And what am I speaking about? I can tell you right now that Ian Clark, who's got a 70% plus success rate of draft to NHL, is available if the team wants to come get him as a goaltending director. The Canucks, the tension as much as he was a part of the pick and as a part of the draft, like, tension between those two sides has been well documented in the local media.

I think they would let him leave and get out from under that salary. It's just a matter of a team paying him. And so when I look at what he's done here and I look at what he did in Columbus and I look at how important that's gonna be, I scratch my head to hear that there are teams that could use that, but they just don't wanna spend in that role. It blows me away. So there's my soapbox rant for the day.

And, yes, full disclosure, I have a bias. I've had a strong relationship with Ian Clark for over twenty years. He's the guy that taught me goaltending, so I am biased in his direction. But it does kinda blow me away that other teams are just like, yeah, we're not gonna spend that money. We see teams add directors, but I don't think people realize around the league they're not spending big in those roles.

In some cases, they add a director and they say, okay. We had the NHL goalie salary, the AHL goalie salary. We're adding a director, but, oh, by the way, those two previous salaries, now you gotta spread them across all three. That's the mindset towards goaltending. The same thing that keeps guys like Allaire and Vern out of the Hall of Fame, that sort of dismiss dismissive attitude towards it drives me freaking nuts, and there's the soapbox for this week.

Wow. We should just have a segment called Woody Rants. Who would sponsor that? Like, maybe an energy drink company?

100%. I'm not sure which to pick up on, so I've got two things to pick up on there, Woody. One is

because I kinda I went all over the place.

One is Ian Clark taught me goaltending, so now we know why he doesn't have a 100% success getting people to the National Hockey League.

Well, I was in my I was 35 at the time.

But the the other one is, we started with that was a quiet part of NHL free agency this year, Woody, and we ended with a rant on goalie development. I mean, you went all over the place in an expert Woody rant. Thank you. It was educational, it was informative, and it was entertaining. The Woody rants.

Well, like, if you're one of those if you're one of those teams that needs goaltending and wasn't able to find it on the open market this summer or had to overpay for questionable historical goaltending on the open market to try and fill a gap.

Oh, okay. On the on the overpay one willing to develop. No. You're right. You're right.

On the overpay one, I think a lot of people were surprised that Jake Allen didn't actually get to market when he was the one name everybody seemed to be gushing over and somebody who might have been, I don't wanna say overpaid, but very well paid.

Could have doubled what he was what he's gonna make annually with New Jersey, but obviously, he gets a five year term. Obviously, his family liked it there. Obviously, he likes what they're doing there. So this is part two. This is part two.

So your first part would be build a pipeline so that you don't have to go looking. Your other thing, and this is gonna become increasingly important, and we see it with the Florida Panthers. And everybody will point to state taxes and the sunshine, and they can go to Dairy Queen the day before a game, and nobody knows who they are and all that kind of stuff. But you gotta build a place where people want to be and want to stay. Like, that was a part of this like, Jake Allen, they've built in New Jersey for their players, the comfort level, the practice facility, the amenities, they want to stay there.

And so, again, if you're gonna retain guys, it can't be because they wanna stay just because it's comfortable, and that's where their stuff is. Although, they'll always be a a, you know, hat tip to Greg Wachinski and his his rant that guys stay where they guys resign because that's where their stuff is. But you need to create a desirable a place where they believe in what you're doing, and and it has to be more than lip service because I know there are some places where, hey, everybody came back and everybody's happy. And I'm like, is this and they talk about culture. And I'm like, is it a culture of excellence, or is it a culture of comfort?

What you what do And frankly, complacency.

If every rant happens today, then we won't have any more for your new rant sponsor. So you better hold back on

that one. So I'll hold that one for next. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, there's there's a lot of teams that could learn a lot of lessons about what it what it means to actually build a culture where players wanna stay part and and be a part of it long term and actually compete and win as opposed to just being comfortable and complacent.

And I think it says something about Jake that he wanted to stay in a place where he was happy and where his family was happy. It's just and rather than just trade chase the money. So good on Jake and congratulations to him and and all the goaltenders, who signed this week. Okay. This week, we, have something special in our Vizual Edge ProReads, Woody.

Well, we have two things that are special

We have two.

In our Vizual Edge ProReads. We have two things. Oh. The first would be the ProReads itself. And this is a little experimentation courtesy of our our host this week, David Hutchison.

And this is this is exciting. This is twenty one straight minutes of Connor Hellebuyck sitting down ProReads with him. We have combined

Hart trophy winning Connor Hellebuyck.

I there you go. Three time Vezina Trophy, heart trophy winning, Connor Hellebuyck sitting down and doing video for twenty one straight minutes. You can watch it exclusively at InGoal Magazine premium, ingoalmag.com with premium membership. We've combined all the past ones. We've heard from you.

We've gotten feedback from listeners. We understand that not everybody digests content the same way. And as much as we can't do this every week, because even with our archives, we don't have enough, we'd run out, and there's a reason we do one video per week. We're combining all the ProReads we've done with Connor Hellebuyck this week so that our audience has a chance to sit down. You can screencast it to a TV and sit there with the young goalie in your life or sit there as a older goalie or just you're the young goalie listening now, sit down and watch Connor Hellebuyck breakdown video for twenty one minutes.

Nobody reads the game better than him. Nobody is playing at the level he is as consistently as he has for the last five years. He walks us through why. He walks us through the reads. You can sit in on that video session and just watch as he goes through.

Twenty one minutes is how many different ones, Hutch? I think it was like seven or eight different place and arrows.

There's eight there and let's just, be clear. One of the things that we do is show you the save. We give you sort of the title, what it is he's looking for. We then show you the save. If you want, you could pause it at that point, and we ask you the question, what did you see here?

What would you do? And I really think it's important to be engaged with your learning. Sorry, my teacher out there. So take a second, watch the save, see what you might be doing in that situation, then you get to listen to Connor give his breakdown. And that's how Woody originally designed ProReads when we put it together.

If you do read individual ones, you get that opportunity, but we also laid it out in this full video to do our best to give you the full ProRead experience for all eight of those.

Yeah. And so twenty one minutes of of sitting down and watching that video, you're gonna become a better goaltender. And so this is a little bit of experimentation on our part. You know? Like I said, one of the best in the game.

Let's show everyone who's ProReads that all of them together rolled in one. Tons to learn, and let us know what you think.

Yeah. Please do. Please do. Because, we have an opportunity to do more of these with other goaltenders. We have an opportunity to maybe do these with specific types of saves.

So we've had a lot of goalies break down breakaways, for example, and we could include some of those into a a roundup segment at some point. So let us know what you think. Maybe we can produce more of these. Do us a favor. If you enjoy them, share it with buddies.

Share the Link Ingoalmag.com, other goaltenders you know, other goalie parents you know, and just say, hey. This is something that you might enjoy. I think it's it's well worth, and we'd really appreciate it if you did that.

Okay. So now to part two. We said there were two exciting new things with ProReads this week. And we got Connor Hellebuyck, twenty one straight minutes of Connor Hellebuyck, the best in the game, the best way ProReads to learn how to read the game. Well, we've also got something special on our sponsor of ProReads, which is the best way to train your eyes and your brain and warm them up to see the game.

Visual Edge. One week only, and we sent out an email at the beginning of the week to let people know starting on June 30, ending at midnight eastern time on Monday, July 7, so hopefully you're listening to this before then, over 30% off, over a $170 off an annual subscription plan to Vizual Edge, the ultimate visual and cognitive training tool. They send you glasses. It's all programmed on your computer or tablet to help you train your eyes and all the different facets to help you see the puck and see the play and, hey, read the play like you would in ProReads better as a goaltender. We've had ProReads participants like Cam Talbot talk about how this has improved, their tracking and ability to sort of react to pucks through screens.

We've had Jordan Binnington talk about how he uses it every game day to warm up not just his eyes, but his brain before he goes out to play. And now you can get 30% off, basically less than a dollar a day payment on an annual subscription plan to Vizual Edge using the discount code InGoal12. I n g o a l 12. InGoal12 at checkout, 30% off annual plans. And of course, as always, if you don't wanna go annual, monthly plan, we still have discounts.

InGoal gets you $5 off a month. And if you're a subscriber to InGoal Magazine premium, check out each week's ProReads for a specialized code that will give you $10 off the monthly plan. But if you're looking for annual, now is the time to do it until midnight, Monday, July 7, 30% off an annual plan from Vizual Edge.

Gear

Outstanding. I think we're gonna have a whole lot of people looking for their edge in net by trying out Vizual Edge. Speaking of edges, a great place to find an edge in Goal is at The Hockey Shop Source for Sports and at thehockeyshop.com. What is new over at The Hockey Shop with Cam and crew, Woody?

Well, I feel like we should be talking about skates, but that was two weeks ago or coming up. I can't even remember. Have we done the new skates for Bauer yet? We should have done that this week. We're gonna have to hold that off, and that's just an example.

My inability to remember what we've done and haven't done is tied to the fact there is so much new stuff at the hockey shop, and it's coming in constantly in waves. So whether it's the Bauer skates, the Bauer Flylite stick that we're gonna talk about today, the Flylite gear, CCM EFlex 7, and boy, am I getting a lot of feedback on the CCM EFlex 7 test set that we've got out there right now, Hutch. Some of these text messages

need Yep.

It's it's it's instant on the sliding, which I think we actually undersold the sliding in our review and the way the glove snaps close. So they have got tons of inventory of all the new stuff. And, of course, that means discounts on the preexisting line. So whether you love EFlex 7 and you need the newest or you're thinking, love EFlex 6 and I wanna discount on that or same with Bauer Flylite, Warrior, Vaughn, all the big brands, all the new gear in stock, discounts on the old stuff. Now is the perfect time to go check out the Hockey Shop Source for Sports in Langley or the hockeyshop.com, including as we're about to get to.

Not just do they have the Flylite sticks and a whole rack of them, but they've got a special version with a trigger grip.

You did it again. Cam wanted you to tease it at the beginning of the video and you just couldn't you couldn't hold back. You had to tell everybody what it was at the beginning of the video and now you've done it even before the beginning of the video. Woody gets so excited.

I like me a trigger grip. Oh, colors. Pretty colors. And that's not all that's new on the Bauer Flylite stick. I guess colors aren't new, but the graphic kinda is.

Oh, colors. Pretty colors. And that's not all that's new on the Bauer Flylite stick. I guess colors aren't new, but the graphic kinda is.

So is the toe. Brand new. What other features are new? Can you actually get a trigger grip off the rack? Maybe just here at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports.

We're gonna get into all that as we go over the new Bauer Vapor Flylite stick. I'm here with Cam Matwiv at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports Goal Utopia. Cam, 555 grams for a 25 inch.

I was gonna make them wait.

Oh, we're gonna give them the the good stuff off the top, but we we got something even better at the end, folks, so make sure you stick around. It's a trigger grip. Alright. Ladies and

Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, already said it once.

We gotta show it to them. Make them wait to see it there.

Yeah. A lot of tease. Alright. We have the new Flylite stick. Ladies and gentlemen, this stick has excellent, excellent feel.

If you like your Hyperlite two stick, you have a great option here because it is now upgraded. We have a lot of similarities between this and actually an agent stick in particular. So what that means is when we look into the actual paddle construction of the stick itself, they're borrowing a lot of the same tech and spec we found actually in the agent stick.

What made that special from a fit and feel standpoint?

So before we saw the materials of boron that's actually not being used in the stick itself, but in terms of how they laid the actual stick itself in terms of the composite and how it generally is put together, that's where it gives it that general pop and feel and also flexibility in terms of for that shot as well,

which is it's like a mid mid kick point, flexible, good shooting stick, rigid.

Not as flexible as the shadow.

Okay. There's Exactly. What I

And it's got that more rounded actual shape, so it's not exactly flat in particular. So if you look at that nice and close-up, we can see that we can have a little bit more of that rounded shape. So in terms of those pucks deflecting off, I mean, we already are starting to create that surface to help deflect it into the corners as opposed to being flat completely. Okay. Hand to grip makes its return.

We saw this on the previous year's Vapor Sticks as well, so we're still getting that same bumped out finger. Great overall feel. I love this feel especially in the hand itself. When we move down to the blade of the stick This is new. We do see

It's a hybrid.

Their hybrid toe rounded at the bottom, squared off at the top, really to help pull that puck away from the boards. Still a p 31 stock curve.

So hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Pucks on the ice. Yes.

Pulling it away with the rounded. What's the benefit of the square at the top? Just a little more so it's not gonna skip over?

So once you have the on the boards? Pulling away from the boards, but as it's coming over top, for example, say it's riding just a couple inches up, that'll help you jam that stick into the boards to help fill that puck.

I like it. I this again, innovative, new. We haven't seen it. You always used to have either rounded or squared. Now you got a combination.

It's their hybrid toe. I love that they're trying new things.

So speaking of new things

Before we get to new things, just to remind you folks, this is kinda like the Cary Price version of Bauer stick. A little shorter in the shaft.

Yes. That's not new. That's carry over.

Stand, carry oh, carry over. Nicely done. I've got a Cary price wrapper. Very good Cam. I actually applaud that one. They're about two inches shorter than the shaft on a shadow stick.

So if you don't like that, there's the ability to order custom to get that a little longer, but hey, we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's talk about something new sizing. So something that was available in intermediate before. No problem there. Now available in junior. In terms of further price points.

We have senior in my hands. You've also got it

in intermediate. Senior is 24.

Okay.

Intermediates, 23. Junior, 21 and 22 available now.

And junior is new. Junior is new.

So that brings the highest Pro stick down into that junior price point, not something that was previously available.

You know what else is new, Cam?

And available mostly just here at The Hockey Shop Source for Sports. Oh, look at that.

It's a trigger grip, folks. Not a pro return, on the wall, stock, Source exclusive.

Colorway, only this one.

It's kind of cool colorway. Like

it. Yes. We're gonna see this off the wall. I believe I have the 26 & 23 in stock ready to rock and roll. That trigger grip stock, seat here.

What a great way to try it, right? Because we've been talking about this. Exactly. Sometimes you need to get a pro return to try a trigger grip. Here it is stock on a Flylite paddle and as know what mean?

Great Available at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports. You know how Cam went like this? We've been talking to Goalies, especially Swedish Goals, know, they want to choke down a little bit. Other fingers, using different fingers on this.

Different grips, different feel wise.

Get different feels for different situations.

Find your fish.

Depending on like maybe on a breakaway, want a little more reach, get some tight.

If this color doesn't jive for you, this is something that is available to order custom. It has to be done on a bit of an offline form. It's something you can contact us specifically about.

And how do they do that?

(604) 589-8299 or 1-800-567-7790 or send us an email. We can look into getting you set up. Minimum order of two. Something we can do, custom colors, custom grips.

Minimum order to on custom not to buy this beauty today at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports.

No? You've got options. Give us a call. We can check it out.

Okay, Woody. I'd be excited to try out that new trigger grip, I'm sure a whole lot of people are going to, But we're gonna slide over and talk about something else and that's about skate sharpening. It's not part of the Gear Segment. It's gonna be part of the Parent Playbook, which every week is brought to us by Stop It Goaltending U.

Well, you taught you teased edges and then we went to a stick on the Hockey Shop. We should have mixed up the segments this week. Now we're back into edges.

I didn't even think of that. I'm the dad joke guy.

Yeah. See? I gotta you see, as soon as you have to wear Daren's hat, you're so focused on on driving the bus, as they say in the industry Wow. It's hard to remember the dad joke. So I gotta step in and help.

So we got it. We talked about edges with Vizual Edge. You know what else can give you a great edge? The Stop It Goaltending U app. Drills every week, this week, grade B clear shot with a broken play variation drill they walk us through, full videos every week, this time, playoff recap looking at styles and systems of the goaltenders involved, and then daily primers.

This week's daily primers, five questions to ask your goalie coach, which is great heading into the summer. You wanna engage in conversations with your goalie coach. You wanna make sure they're productive. You wanna appear like you're eager to learn. Here are five great questions that will help you get better that you can ask your goalie coach.

This is just a sample of the type of content you get every week on the Stop It Goaltending U app. And, of course, in addition to all that great content and the archives, you can go back and look through, you get a subscription to InGoal Magazine. So we talked about that Connor Hellebuyck ProReads sitting down for twenty one straight minutes, all included with your Stop It Goaltending U the app subscription. You get a subscription to InGoalmag premium. So make sure you check it out today.

Stop It Goaltending U app wherever you download apps, whether it's Apple Store or wherever you Android people get your stuff. I really don't know any of this thing, but it's there. It's there for you as well as upgrades that can get you access to journals and advice on junior teams and college. They've got recruiters. It's all there in the Stop It Goaltending U, the app.

Make sure you check it out today.

Parent Playbook

Speaking of primers and speaking of edges, today, I wanna give goalie parents a primer on their kids' edges, their skate edges. I think a lot of parents drop skates off at the shop and they give them some number that they've just heard or maybe they even just ask, just sharpen my kids' skates, please. Whatever you think. And I've had a few questions on this lately, so I thought I'd give you a little bit of a refresher. There are no easy answers, but maybe this would be helpful for parents and for some other people as well.

I'm gonna be honest, Woody. It's sad, But, even though I played to a small cup of coffee in university, I didn't know any of this stuff back when I was playing. I I think I sharpened my skates maybe once a year, sometimes twice. So maybe you'll forgive me for not learning much about what was at that point maybe a relatively ignored part of the game. We wanted to be able to shuffle around really easily but hard pushes and athletic edge control were not a thing for most of us because I'm that old.

But I've learned a lot since so here it goes. Your skates, a lot of parents don't even know this, have two edges. It's not like a knife. There's an inside edge on your skate, and there's an outside edge on your skate. Most goalies spend the vast majority of their time on the inside edge.

But Woody, quiz later, when do goalies need to use their outside edge? You got about five minutes to think about that. So two edges because we have a rounded stone that is run down the middle of your three or four millimeter blade when it's being sharpened. It essentially hollows the center of the blade out, thus giving us those two edges. The stone itself is convex.

It's rounded up like a bump and the blade then becomes sharpened in a concave way with the depression in the middle. It's like going into a cave. Concave. Get it, Woody? Okay.

Nice. You didn't forget

the dad jokes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's it's how I learned it actually. Everybody who is listening to this and not driving their car might want to pause this for a second and go grab a skate.

Okay. Whether you have a skate or not or you're just imagining one in your mind's eye, hold it up, look down the length of the blade, and I hope you'll be able to see the two edges on either side and then that concave, depression in the middle. That's what we're talking about here. Now, how rounded that stone that does the sharpening is determines how deep that concave rut in the middle is, and that's what determines how sharp your edges are. So where do the numbers you hear at the skate shop come from?

Half inch, three quarters, seven sixteenths. Without getting too too technically technical, that is the radius of the curvature of that stone. It's hard to put it into words in a podcast, so we'll include an illustration with the write up. But here's the key information. A bigger number means that stone is curved to a bigger circle.

The bigger that circle is, the wider that circle is, the less it's gonna carve a groove into the blade so you get less sharp skates. So big number, less sharp. Small number, sharper.

Hold on. What? You can still have they're still sharp.

That's why I said less sharp. They're still sharp.

I'm gonna have to think about I didn't say dull. Think about that one too.

Big bigger bigger number on that stone makes that that arc a little bit wider and so it doesn't carve as deeply into your skate. Big number for that wide arc, less sharp skate. Still sharp, just less sharp. A smaller number, that's that stone is a little bit tighter. It's a rounder stone.

It's a it's a tighter circle and so it's gonna carve a tighter groove into your skates and make them sharper. Small number, sharp skates. Now Woody, it's a good time to work on your fractions and I know you were a math student in university, you should be able to do this. Not everybody can. Do you know I actually read once that a significant portion of the population would not order a certain chain's burgers when they went up to a third of a pound because they thought they were smaller than a quarter of a pound.

So you need to work on your fractions. Yep.

Need to have a conversation with the education Yes, we do. Levels in our country.

Okay. So if you're still with me and you're wondering what to do, start at a half inch. It's a really great place to start. And then we can work on a couple of things that might affect how you want to change the sharpening for your skate. Not that long ago, a lot of people wanted their skates sharper, maybe three eights.

I think you do three eights, don't you Woody?

Yes. Because there's a lot of extra body that I have to push around from the knees.

Some would actually suggest you should go less sharp as a result, but that's okay. A smaller number, say three eights is a smaller number than four eights, which is half an inch. Because it's smaller, it's sharper. Three eights is a little bit sharper. That comes a little bit more from the old push hard, stop hard days.

Now, some goalies would like them to be a little bit less sharp so they can still rip around the crease, but they have less strain on the hips and the knees. So they go from three from half an inch to maybe something a little bit less sharp. I, I actually had a spy who was at the Canucks development camp this week. Woody, wasn't Woody. My son Matthew was, one of the invited goalies there.

Wasn't drafted but was, given an invite to the Canucks camp. And, I got him to ask me, ask Ty Young and Aku what they did for their sharpening. And so here's another example. Ty Young actually sharpens at five eighths. So that's an even bigger number than four eighths, bigger than a half inch.

It's a little bit less sharp. Easier on the hips, easier on the knees. He's You probably have to be a better skater to rock something that's a little bit less sharp, but that lets him get around the crease a little bit better. I can tell you bit more about Ty's sharpening as we go on, down the road. What do you had an example of somebody else who also goes even less sharp than that?

An even bigger number.

Yeah. But only when the ice is super soft.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're allowed to tell us who that is?

Actually, I no. But it's over an inch. Okay. Some of the ice conditions are so bad in the NHL and so soft that I had a goalie tell me he goes over an inch and I didn't even know such a profile.

I did not either. Yeah. So there you go. So you bring up the climate. There's a couple of reasons that we might change that number for ourselves personally.

We might dial it sharper. We might dial it duller based just on personal preference, but then a couple of things can affect that. If you're an older kid, if you've got an older child, they're obviously gonna be a little bit heavier as they've grown. They have the weight to bite into the ice a little bit more. So they tend to go a little bit less sharp.

So they might not like half inch, they might like something even less sharp. A Ty Young, for example, or the NHL goaltender that Kevin is referring to goes a little bit less sharp. They're a little bit heavier, they dig in a little bit better. A younger child, now we're talking eight year olds, nine year olds, 10 year olds, whatever, a little bit less heavy on their blades because they're smaller kids, they might need to go a little bit sharper. I know when my kid was quite young, he was at three eights all the time.

He's now gone to half an inch since then. So your size can affect it. How you like to feel the bite in the ice can affect it. And then climate was the other thing that you brought up, Woody. Some rinks, whether you're an NHL rink under the TV lights or you're in a hotter climate like Florida, Texas, wherever, you're already gonna get more bite because that ice is not as firm.

So you go a little bit less sharp on the blades. I remember Carey Price told us, Woody, that the Canadiens' trainer had dialed his edges in for every different building in the league depending on the ice conditions. Not suggesting he had 32 different sharpenings, but he was aware of what he'd be facing depending on where they were playing and sharpen the skates accordingly. And I mentioned before, I'd come back with a little bit more on Ty Young's skate sharpening in the warmer weather. Remember, he goes five eighths, a little bit less sharp than a half inch or four eighths for regular rinks, but sometimes he said that in hotter rinks, actually goes all the way up to three quarters.

Three quarters being the same as six eighths. So a lot of people four eights, tie in regular buildings five eights, tie in hot buildings six eights because you get more bite into the ice so they don't need to be as sharp. All that to say you might need to experiment the next time you're at the shop and you'll have to think a little bit about what you're asking for, and it'll give you the understanding so that you can have a discussion with your kid as well about what you're seeing. But two edges, big number, less sharp, small number, more sharp. There's your guidelines and a couple of things that can affect them.

This is all about edges, but the curvature front to back of your blades is a whole another matter. Goalie skates are not flat. They were a fair bit flatter when I was younger, but they're not super flat anymore. That is known as the profile. I will not dig into the profile here today.

Maybe we will in the future, but we will link in the show notes a great gear segment that Woody and Cam did all about profiling your skates. Another thing that you can look at, but there's a beginning. Back to our homework. Our feet are a little bit wider than shoulder width usually as goalies, so we live mostly on our inside edges. And we don't stop even with two feet very often as goalies.

Henrik Lundqvist, I think Woody used to sharpen his inside edge high because he knew he spent most of his time on the inside edges. Uh-oh. Know a

lot of skate sharpener people that don't want us to talk about

inside edge

because they hate doing it.

They hate it. It's not easy. But so so for all our friends sharpening skates, here's why you want an outside edge as well, Woody. Can you think of why you need an outside edge as a goalie?

When you're going behind the net to play the puck and you're kind of carving yourself around that post on that inside leg, you probably get onto your outside edge there.

100%. Well done, Woody. You get the bonus gold star today. If you want to be a good puck handler, you've got to be good on your feet. And if you're trying to get that hard rim, yep.

Outside edge is going be a big part for one of those legs to get get back there. So learn your edges. Okay. That is the

Which would explain why Henrik inside edge high

Didn't handle

and stop as many pucks as some of his peers.

There you go. So, skate sharpeners listening who are upset with us right now, just give that bit of advice to all the goalies asking for inside edge high. If you have any more questions about skate sharpening, if I completely befuddled you with my clear as mud explanation, hit me up parents@inGoalMag.com.

Now the question is, how are you gonna continue the rest of the show without me? Because I'm about to curl up into the fetal position because I was told there would be no math. I am a former math major, although I have yet to I'm trying to forget that part of my life. So all these fractions have me shaking.

You know what's confusing is we've got half inch, we've got eighths of an inch, we've got sixteenths of an inch, and then bunch of us just live in the world of centimeters and millimeters. It it can get a little confusing. So if you're not sure

Yeah. Well, and on three mil and four mil blades Yeah.

For sure.

For sure. Sharpenings react.

And that will be different and I didn't get into that either. I said it was just a quick primer. But if if you do want a little tip on the fractions, just convert them to sixteenths and then it's easy to compare. So eight sixteenths is a half inch. And then when somebody three eighths is six sixteenths and then it's a little easier to compare the numbers.

And and added bonus, you won't be scared of ordering a hamburger because it won't be as much as you

A third of a pound is bigger than a fourth of a pound, but we're not converting those two fractions. Okay.

So I'd one more piece of advice.

Okay. Go for it.

This is simplification. Once you get and figure out what your ideal sharpening is and assuming you're not changing rakes like NHL guys where they need to change it depending on the softness of the ice, which is for sure something that happens, Jot it down. I had it on the

I had it on

bottom of of my skate plate or on the cowling.

When we had cowlings.

In that way, in that moment, whether your parents are taking your skates in or you're taking them in and you're not sure, somebody can't remember, it's right there on the cowling. Easy for the sharpener to get and easy for them to dial it in properly for you.

I love that tip actually, Woody, because quite often at tournaments, mom and dad might not be there. They might have sent little Johnny or little Sally along with another set of parents. And now the skates need to be sharpened. That's a that's a great tip. Thank you.

Okay. Yeah. Just on the holder.

Just on the holder.

It's perfect. This week, our two feature guests in the NHL Sense Arena feature interview, as Woody said, are Canuck prospects, Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo Did I get that right, Woody?

Nicely done.

Nicely done. There you go. Aku, by the way, sharpens his skates at half an inch. They move far better on the ice than either of us do. However, their skates are sharpened.

I'm looking super forward to hearing those chats, Woody. Two separate feature interviews. I think we just wanna make that clear.

Yeah. One after the other. So have we decided? I think we'll start with Ty because

Okay.

I started with Ty, and I think we referenced my conversation with Ty when I'm talking with Hockey. And Ty started his pro career a year ahead of Hockey, so we'll go that way. I've already talked about all the great things we get into, so we'll we'll save that for the universe itself. But first, before we get to the featured guest, we gotta remember who brings us our featured guest, NHL Sense Arena, which I have been digging into big time with their gap goalie advancement program.

You just took my first line away from me, Woody. Well done. The gap or the goalie advancement program. I was just mentioning that Woody was gonna talk about that. It comes with guidance from long time NHL goalie coach, scout, and director Brian Daccord.

They created the gap program, which is Sense Arena's first comprehensive training program designed for two months of structured activities to optimize your development and skill refinement. And guess what? There's about two months left in the summer. So great time to check out NHL Sense Arena. Woody's review that we published over at ingoalmag.com was part one.

That's the shot release mastery course. You should go check it out, please. It's a powerful tool for your goalies. One of the, drills is called ghosting and no, Woody, that's not what your daughters do to you when you're texting them. It's watching releases and worrying about making a save, which is tough to do when you're on the ice with your team, but you can do it all the time in NHL Sense Arena.

There are two more of those primers coming soon. Angles and managing traffic. That's Woody's review of the GAP program. There's three parts to the GAP program. Woody's gonna come back with two more reviews with us soon.

So check it out. Head over to sensearena.com and use the code I g m 50 to save even more as you get into the goalie advancement program on Sense Arena.

It's a perfect way for the summer. It's like there's it's it's such a great tool. The ghosting, Devon Levi uses it. I'm into the we're gonna part two, just to give people a heads up, is gonna be on the angles, which I'm digging into right now. And I gotta say, summer's a time when I only play once a week, sometimes once every two weeks.

And having NHL Sense Arena doing these reviews, I don't feel like there's been a huge gap every time I step on the ice. Actually, guys are already telling me, hey. Like like, you're actually getting better this summer. So it's a pretty low bar for me, but I think if it can help me, it can help anyone.

Okay. So should we tie things up here and learn from a couple of people who are very accurate on their edges?

Wow. The dad jokes are back.

Best I could see.

Up before he gets carried away.

Here we go. Ty Young and Aku Koskenvuo.

Feature Interview - Ty Young

First year pro at 20, what are some of your biggest takeaways from taking a

step that big at this age? Yeah. I think you just see all the guys working at pro. It's a big step from junior. You see what they do to their for their bodies off the ice, on the ice, all the extra reps, and then also you just learn that you gotta take advantage of any opportunity you get.

Going up and down, you never gonna kinda know what's gonna happen. To be able to make a name for yourself, you just gotta step up in those opportunities that you do get and then just try to put yourself on the map.

Walk me through the process of getting to that stage. Like, what was that like, the conversations with PG? We had another year of eligibility. Like, what can you share with me about how you ended up there?

Yeah. I think at dev camp last year, Clark was talking about it. Trying to, like he's just, like, asking if I wanna make that step to pro and how it's forward. And then my exit meetings in PG, they were kinda like they just had they kinda knew where my game was at, and they were prepared for me to take that step to pro, and that's what their plan was over the summer. So, yeah, I think they wanted to get Rav his reps there, and and then it kinda worked out that I went up pro at the same time.

So I've had many guys over the years tell us that the biggest step is not to the NHL, that the biggest step they make in their careers from junior or college to first year pro. So you talked about the learning curve, but there there must have been some differences that took some adjustment from the speed, pace. What was it? Yeah. I think it was speed, pace, shot qualities, especially from the coast to the A. It's a big jump even with that too.

Yeah. I think it was speed, pace, shot qualities, especially from the coast to the A. It's a big jump even with that too.

So ECHL was a little more scrambly? A little bit more scrambly. Yeah. For sure. And then the a is just you got it's like considered one of like the second best league in the world.

So, yeah, like, you got really good guys, smart guys, and they kinda know where to put pucks in the net. They do all their goalie scouts and everything like that before every single game, not just playoffs like it is in junior kinda. So they kinda know how to pick you apart, and you just gotta be smart about your game. Is I mean, as

much as the level gets higher in the AHL, is the control element we hear it from AHL to NHL. Easier with a big asterisk. Can it be easier in some ways as a goalie to read off the play in the a compared to the ECHL? And I know it's only a handful of games, Ty.

Yeah. No. Definitely. I think it is. Obviously, I don't know how it is for every team because we had a pretty good team in Abby this year, obviously, with champions.

So it was pretty controlled in front of me. They they knew exactly where they're going. The systems were pretty tight. So it was it was with asterisk easier, and you can kind of predict it a little bit more and kinda know what's coming, shots from the outside, and what they're giving you. So in that point sense, it's a little easier unless kinda scrambling on the coast.

Development to your game.

What do you what would you say since being drafted has improved the most since your time with the Vancouver Canucks? Development camps and now turning pro.

I think skating has improved a lot and just kinda controlling that. And if you look at my junior games, I'm pretty bent over wide all the time, and now I kinda got that little bit more upright, try to be a little bit bigger, play bigger, and have a stronger high stance. And because in junior, I had no idea what a high stance was before I came here. So, yeah, I think that's kind

of the biggest improvement. Okay. So we hear skating. Obviously, you're it's a goalie audience, so we interpret it somewhat differently than the rest of the world. When we talk about different stances and learning to manage them, obviously, I know Clarky system high mid low.

That's not always an easy adjustment. We, as goalies, tend to feel like a high stance is a long way from the ice. The process of getting comfortable with it. What was that like for you? What helped you?

What advice would you give to other kids to keep hear hearing narrow, tall, narrow, tall. This is the way

the game's going. How do you get there? Yeah. You just kinda play with it a little bit and learn how to kinda when to lock in and get into your medium stance or low stance, whatever you feel comfortable with your shots. And that's kinda like the big key is figuring out what works for you and that and when to get set, like, in the release, if it's before the release.

And, yeah, I think that's kinda the hardest part is just figuring out the timing

of it and when to lock in. The read that's a read element largely. Do you like, do you start with a plan, like, a zone map per se per se, or is that a lot more feel?

I think it's a lot of feel, but, like, off the start, I think it was kinda like a zone map when it's kinda just getting used to it. It was your, like, if it's closer to you, you wanna be in the low stance. If it's on the blue line, you wanna be in the high stance. So then as you get better and more comfortable with it, then it's kinda like a feel. Like, as they kinda come in, you can hold your high stance a little bit longer.

And then once you kinda understand what they're doing when the shots are coming, you can hold your feet a little bit more in case they do pass it over or you lock in them kinda a little bit faster.

Transition from high to mid and high to low, whatever it is. That's one of the hardest points is not getting caught in transition. Any advice? Again, for you all young goalies

that are seeing you make this step in this evolution that you would give you know, how would you help them get through it? I think even just to kinda taking the time, you don't need we need shots to kinda work on it. You kinda when you get on the ice and you take your warm up, you do your t pushes, kinda get your legs underneath it, you just go you just play around with the stances, try to transition fast in between them and because you gotta get those as fast as possible, especially in the pro level. So, yeah, I think you just kinda hold your highest stance, go medium, go low, hop back up, and just keep

on doing that. ECHL, one of the things that can be tough about starting there, and we see a lot of first year pros in a lot of organizations. It used to be it wasn't considered a development league. Now it is. Quite often, get left down there without much help, so you're learning on your own.

How have you learned to manage your game? Did you have help? Like, was Poggy working with you? Was Ian working with you? How'd you get was there help when you were down in the in the coast?

Yeah. Clarky, we opt on Zooms and stuff, and he kinda showed me some video and clips of the game. And then even just working on the ice, even with the team there, just working in practice, getting lots of trial training games and stuff, and I think that kinda really helped her development. You know, obviously, we weren't a playoff team down there, but that's almost better for goalies sometimes is getting those yeah. You get busy, kinda get in the games a little bit easier, you just get your reps in.

So Okay. Talk to me about your work in the off season. I saw you up in Kelowna with Adam and and, I mean, an impressive group of pros. How has the way you train and the way you hold your body on the ice changed from a stance and and sort of movement standpoint in your work with him? And what can you tell me about that?

Tell our audience about that.

Yeah. I was kinda going in with Adam. I went to net March before and then last summer Saw you there? Yeah. It was my first full summer, so or I guess month there.

So it was all pretty still kinda new for me. I kinda knew what to expect a little bit, but not fully. And just working with him was amazing for the hips, way stronger. Course of the ability is a lot stronger. Rotation's a lot better too with working on those med balls and stuff on your ice because that was all new to me too.

So that was a really good experience. I'm kinda looking forward to go back this summer and take bigger steps.

A lot of unique work, taking things from the gym onto the ice. Was was a lot of it new to you, and was there were there moments where you're like, what the

Yeah. No. It was it was all pretty new to me on the, gym on the ice stuff. So, it was really fun, though. You kinda get to have fun doing that.

Obviously, a grind a little bit and definitely hard, but took big steps with it. Last one, when you

get up to the AHL and get your first starts, get your first moments, the influence that Justin Poggy had, the the the work you got to do with him, other goalies in the organization that have helped you take pretty big steps at a pretty young age, Ty.

Yeah. They're they've nothing like, had nothing but belief. I mean, coming up with bogey, it wasn't even a lot about, like, technique. His was a lot of help with the mindset and stuff. I've just kinda you don't need to do too much.

You take you kinda get up and you wanna be taken out of level to your game and you're almost doing too much and trying too hard. His big thing was just kinda relax and just have fun, kinda do your thing with that without you here.

So It's funny. Like, it might be one of the maybe golf and goaltending. The two sports in the world where trying harder does not work.

No. Exactly. Yeah. Like, when you start kinda overslide and kinda holding your hands tight and trying to be perfect with your hands, it kinda tenses you up. It doesn't really work for goalies.

So was there any advice I I promise this will be the last one, but was there any advice in terms of, you know, that let it come one like, all those things that we hear, but but being able to relax and go out there and play, was anything that he told you that resonated more than than anything else that really helped you get to the point where

you could go on the ice and just play and not try too hard? Yeah. I think his big thing was just trust in your and belief in what you got, like, what got you here. He's I've kinda always been told by the goalie coaches here that I got pretty good hands and pretty good eyes. And when I started doing too much and try to lock in and kinda hold them a little bit tighter, it's it doesn't work.

So just kinda being able just to relax and kinda let shots come to me like you said, and that was helped me a lot immensely.

Tension is the enemy of goaltending as I'm sure

you've heard from me, Inner. Yep. Definitely. Thanks, Ty.

I really enjoyed this. Thank you.

Feature Interview 2 - Aku Koskenvuo

Alright. So we just finished talking to Ty. He just went through the transition that you're about to. What have you learned? What are your expectations turning pro?

You got a little taste at the end of the season, maybe not a games, but a practice. It's a big jump. What's the impression so far to you? What it what what are some of the things you've heard from others, whether it's Ty or the coaches about what this next step is gonna be like?

Well, first of all, I think it's exciting. You know? Just, what I've been dreaming of for my whole life, so exciting to go pro, but, what I'm expecting the most is, you know, you gotta take more ownership, more accountability. You know, it's pro pro, so it's only you. You know, the coaches won't be up your ass in the same way.

They expect more accountability. So so that's the one thing. And then the second thing is that, you know, I think the pace is a lot better when I was there for ten days. You know, shots are a little quicker. Guys are more skilled, more physical games quicker.

Maybe it was a little more predictable in a way because the systems work better, but, you know, just gotta keep working in the gym, work on my reads on the ice, you know, just gotta, you know, you know, refine all of my skills even to a higher level. So just, you know, summing it up, it's exciting. Be more accountable, gotta take more ownership, and then just get a hone all skills to a new level. So really exciting time coming ahead.

So I'm sure a phrase you've heard from Ian, be your own best goalie coach. I think part of this. Right?

Yeah. Exactly. You know, you gotta take ownership. You wanna be the best. You know, you gotta know what it takes to be the best, then I feel like that's you gotta know exactly what you're doing, why you're doing things.

So Okay.

So with that in mind, where's your game at? What's changed the most since you became a Vancouver Canuck? I know you're at Harvard, but I know they keep an eye on you. I know they they talk with the goalie coach. There are things you've added in terms of the system.

Net play, for example, has changed. What what do you think has changed the most for you, and what are you still focused on?

Yeah. I think what we've done with Clarky and Marco is just working on the game, making calmer. So I thought the game when I got drafted was pretty raw. You know, a lot of athleticism, you know, explosiveness, but maybe the systems weren't in there to the degree that the guys would want. So we'd be

That that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Oh, not not always. Not always. Obviously, you're really young getting drafted, so we've been working on that. I think it's improved quite a bit, but it's still something we're working on. You can always be calmer and more composed, but, you know, other things I think skating has taken new new new yeah.

No. That's taken it to a new level. You know, the fine details, think they're improving. Not to say, you know, there's always things to work on, but I think over the last three, four years, it's clearly progress. So I'm happy about that.

I think one thing we're still working on is, like, tracking, like, tracking inside, you know, getting the first touch on puck. That's not an issue, but, like, just staying connected in the game. I think that's that's a big focus this summer. Just working on the ice, work working on the hands. And then I think last year, a big thing was just, like, refining the mental side of the game, you know, bringing consistency game after game, especially toward the end of the year.

I felt like that was starting to click, you know, having, like, not just like physical systems on the ice, but also mental systems, you know, preparing, executing, then also like resetting. So, you know, getting all those things going. So I think that's something we've been working on and I think something we're gonna keep on working and we need to keep on working, but it's I think it's taking a step, so I'm I'm happy about that. Can you say skating?

Or we just had this conversation with Ty a little bit too. Goalie skating is a little bit different. Right? Like, it's not like power skating. It's edge work and

Yeah. Things like can you give me

a taste of how you've improved that, how you think it's improved? Advice for other young boys who maybe were you were three, years ago?

100%. You know, I think I've got a little more explosive, but I think I was already pretty quick when I got in here. But I think I think the big thing that Clarky and Marco helped me do and are still helping me do is maybe not. You don't have to go a 100% every time. You know?

There are a lot of more important stuff like getting on your angles, getting your alignment, you know, having good starts, having good stops, and I think those, like, finer details that maybe a lot of more often than not go unnoticed by the average viewer have have improved. Not to say there's still a lot of things to improve, but I think, like, the finer details, having good starts, good stops, getting alignment, getting rotation when I move, you know, they've taken new steps, still working on it, but maybe to sum it up, was, like, just calming skating down and knowing when you have to go quick and when you don't because the game is really never that quick as you think it is. And then maybe advice for younger guys, it's like, you know, quantity and quality, you know, those two go together. You're like, you know, if you wanna be one of the best skaters, you're probably gonna be the guy who's skating the most. Right?

So you really gotta get your reps in, but without quality, but with that in mind, like, you could obviously start with quality first. Like, doesn't matter if you're a Ferrari out there, if you're going the wrong direction. Right? So so Sounds like you see my driving. Yeah.

Start you know, you start start off slow, get the quality right, but then just keep pushing into a new level, you know, try to add some pace. You know, I think that's how you get new levels and, you know, quality and quantity, get your reps in. You talked about alignment, so we're talking post integration, things like that. Yep. The system, be comfortable with it now.

You talked about alignment, so we're talking post integration, things like that. Yep. The system, be comfortable with it now. It's different here than a lot of other places in terms of inside out recoveries and things like that. That process, what was that like, and how comfortable are you with it now?

I think I'm a lot more calmer. You know, not to say there's still a lot of work to be done, but, feeling more calmer, starting to internalize what, you know, Marco Marco wants out of us, and they're starting to come more more automatically, you know, the post entries having, like, one step processes instead of, like, two step processes, understanding what the terminology means, like, what does alignment mean, you know, What does, you know, anchoring mean and stuff like that? It's a lot. It it is a lot. It's quite a lot what they, threw at us during the first couple of camps, and you kinda get maybe a little over overwhelmed and, you know, overanalyzing when you're skating, but feel like, you know, just like day in and out, you know, just getting the reps in and on your own, whether it's in team practice or here or wherever you are, you know, I think it's helped, and I feel a lot more comfortable, and it's just something I gotta still keep on working to, like, take it to the new level.

So Okay. So they threw a lot at you. We've talked about a lot of different things. Advice for taking all these new things and making them automatic in a game, like you said, so to to get to the point where you're not having to think about it Yeah. Once the puck drops and it counts. Yeah.

I think it's like, again, it's easy to say. Did you hit yeah. Exactly. So in theory, how I would maybe do it or how I did it is, you know, you gotta be conscious about it at the start. Know?

You gotta get the quality up. You gotta know what you do. You know? You gotta kind of mechanically turn your head, then move your hands, then the body, you know, focus on one thing, the one thing at a time, do it for a week. You know, once you feel like that's going well, then start taking next steps like, you know, getting good starts, good stops.

You gotta get the quality up. You gotta know what you do. You know? You gotta kind of mechanically turn your head, then move your hands, then the body, you know, focus on one thing, the one thing at a time, do it for a week. You know, once you feel like that's going well, then start taking next steps like, you know, getting good starts, good stops.

You know? Keep on pushing these things. And then, you know, if you do that for fifteen minutes before a skate or during a goalie skate, then when the drill start, then you kinda gotta let it go. Like, if you think about that stuff where it's while while you're trying to stop the puck, you know, you're not gonna be stopping a lot too much too much. So just, you know, when the drill start, you gotta do your own thing, but, like, you know, really gotta be, like, deliberate, honest about it and, you know, just stick with it.

You're not gonna see gains the first day, the first week, first month. You know? For me, it took, like, a couple of years until I, like, started feeling comfortable being like, uh-huh. Like, hey. This is what they want.

Right? So it's like an incredible amount of reps, but you just gotta stay patient, believe in the process, keep doing it, and just gotta throw yourself at the process and trust that it works out. Right? Because if you think out there,

Because if you think out there, you're dead. That's that's an old top gun, but I'm dating myself here. Yeah. Second movie might have helped me for you, young guy. Last one.

Plans for the summer. Like, what do you go back to Finland? Do you get a chance to work with Marco at all in the summer?

Yeah. Marco lives nearby, so we'll we'll see what the situation is. But the plan is to go back back home tomorrow on a flight and spend time until August, see when they want me to come back up here. Obviously, I know rookie camp starts around September, so at the latest at that, but, you know, all these are often, you know, yeah, that's that's the thing. So, you know, I gotta see what management wants me to do.

I'm ready and, you know, enjoy the summer, but keep working. I think this is a good Dev Camp's a great, you know, point to, like, turn a new chapter, you know, really, like, leave last season, everything, leave college behind now, reset and now, you know, start fully preparing and, you know, a lot of working out. You know, I've got a new partnership going with an athletic trainer back in Finland, so excited for that. And, you know, we got skates in, work on the stuff, found the feedback that I got here. And, also, I was battling with a small hamstring injury, so we've been doing a lot of, you know, feedback with the trainers here.

They've been absolutely amazing. We we we run quite a lot of testing on it, so it feels like we know what's what's wrong there, what we need to do. We have a good plan right now. So nursing that up for maybe three, four weeks or whatever it takes and then fully attacking the ice and the gym and then coming to camp and seeing how things go. So super excited for the summer.

Who do you do you skate with anyone else? Anyone we know in terms of summer skates in Finland?

I skated a couple weeks ago on a ice where Mikko Koskinen was, so I think I'll be skating, you know, couple of times with Lankinen if if that's possible. And, you know, you know, over the past couple of summers, you know, has been on the same skates, Luukkonen, you know, here and there. Obviously, everyone's doing a little bit of their own thing, you know, and, you know, summer skates are a little unpredictable, but, you know, seeing those guys around, you know, here and there and, you know, looking up to the guys who are on the next level where I wanna be. So, you know, it's just a privilege getting to work with those guys. Alright.

Well, thank you very much for this. We look for have a good rest of the summer. We look forward to seeing you in as a pro next season.

Alright. Thank you so much.

Outro

So, Woody, you've already given us your overall impression of these two young goalies. And how do you think these seasons are gonna play out for them? I think the fascinating development path, one major junior, one Euro/NCAA. What what a great combination in that interview there.

Yeah. And interesting, like like, Ty, we've heard this from all kinds of goalies over the now twenty five years that I've been doing this. You know, the last fifteen with you and InGoal Magazine talking to goalies about their development, the number of guys over the years that have talked about the biggest jump being not to the NHL, but from junior or college to pro, I think makes Ty's first season success remarkable and puts a little bit of, I don't know, pressure, but it certainly sets a high bar for Raku to follow-up. And to me, it'll be really interesting to see how much of a role Ty can carve out now in the American Hockey League, presumably with Nikita Tolopilo, but they still have Jiri Patera under contract. And as of now, Arturs Silovs' in the system.

What they can't do in Vancouver is let Ty rot. And, you know, one of the things with Arturs is a fifth year pro, five years in the American Hockey League, and he's only played a 110 regular season games. That is not a good way to do things, so they've gotta find minutes for him. And it will be interesting to see how he does, although in that interview, you heard him say, the more structured league, the less scrambly even from the ECHL to the AHL. Yes.

The shooters are better, but the game in some ways for a goaltender is easier. We hear that from the AHL to the NHL, and it sounds like it works ECHL to to AHL. So curious to see if he can reproduce. There'll be ups and downs. There inevitably are in development.

But whether he can reproduce a remarkable breakout season in the ECHL as a rookie into the American Hockey League next year. As you've heard in those conversations, both really bright guys that really think the game, and so I like their chances of surviving those ups and downs that inevitably come because of the way they process things.

Love interviews like that with the young up and comers. They tend to be so open, share some great answers with us. And the other thing I love about them, Woody, is that I know there's gonna be a lot of people who listen to the InGoal Radio Podcast checking up on both of these guys this year and really intrigued to see how their seasons go. Gonna have a whole lot of new fans for both these young men. So, Woody?

Yes, sir. I hope you get a little bit of NHL downtime, and I hope you find a way to enjoy a little bit of the summer sun.

Well, I am going to enjoy some summer sun. I'm gonna stick my head in the headset and stop some imaginary pucks so we can finish that second review from NHL Sense Arena so I won't be completely away from

the But you can do it in the backyard, which is something you can do with Sense Arena.

That's true. Now consider this a warning, however, for all the NHL goalies who I am about to start bugging because I know you're back on the ice, that means I need time for ProReads and feature guest interviews. So NHL season may be over for all the insiders and the bigwigs, but here at InGoal, we're about to grind. And that means that a bunch of NHL goalies are gonna have me blocked on their text messages because those messages are coming fast and furious, So get ready.

Right on. Okay. To all of you, from all of us at the InGoal Radio Podcast on behalf of Daren Millard, he's Woody. I'm Hutch wishing you all another great week in goal.