Pro Drills with Seattle Kraken Goalie Coach Colin Zulianello
- Flank shots are a primary goal-scoring location in the NHL and AHL, making them a priority focus in goalie warm-up drills.
- Practice movement before every shot — Zulianello stresses that goalies are always repositioning in games, never static.
- Use a high, narrow, relaxed stance when the shooter is far from the net, only dropping into a shot-ready stance at the moment of release.
- Run each shot type from both sides of the ice to build balanced, game-realistic preparation.
- Warm-up design should mirror common in-game scenarios, with passes from center to the flank replicating how real scoring chances develop.
Since we first started this series of warm-up drills and tips with Colin Zulianello a couple of months ago, he moved up from the AHL and was named the Seattle Kraken goalie coach.
This latest entry is a continuation of the warm-up Zulianello ran through with goalies Victor Östman and Ales Stezka, with shots now tied to a common scoring play in pro hockey.
“This is just predicated on the fact that a lot of goals get scored in the NHL and the AHL from the flank,” Zulianello explained. “They get delivered to that location in multiple ways, but that’s essentially where the shot is coming from, so if we can do a good job making sure our goalie see pucks from those areas in our warm-up, then that’s a bonus.”
There’s also a movement element instead of just static shooting, which is key.
“Name a time in the game where you can be stuck in the same position for five seconds and a shot hits you in the chest,” he said. “So you’re always moving and repositioning.”
This two-part drill incudes four different types of shots off passes from the middle to the flank, and starts with the shooters up above the top of the face-off circles:
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