Dustin Wolf ProRead 10
With Dustin Wolf
Awareness, Rotation and Projection Keys on Backdoor Plays
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Dustin Wolf is one of the best young goalies in the game and an informative delight in these video breakdown sessions, so after a month sharing this space with others, it’s time to get back to the Calgary Flames sophomore for another Pro Reads.
THE SEQUENCE
After deep diving his incredible breakaway and shootout skills in the last Pro Reads, we’re back to more settled in-zone play this time against the Buffalo Sabres:
The freeze frame above isn’t necessarily the best test of your ability to read these moments, but looking at that picture alone, is there any way to anticipate where the biggest threat on this play might be? Yes, we gave away some of that information in the headline for this Pro Read, but what can you learn from that picture alone?
If the player with the puck a shooting threat here?
What do you take away from Wolf’s stance and position?
THE SAVE
Now watch the entire save sequence, going all the way back to the zone entry by the Sabres and see if you can answer those same questions before the final play:
THE PRO READ
Now that we know where the puck goes, what clues were there that a player might be open on the backdoor? That’s the read portion of this save, but what do you notice about the save execution? What stands out as key to Wolf making it?
Now let’s hear from Wolf’s thoughts on managing breakaways:
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- Dustin Wolf breaks down his backdoor save against the Buffalo Sabres, a broken play where the puck deflected off a teammate's stick before reaching the danger area.
- Wolf explains that in-zone zone scanning — actively tracking all five skaters, not just the puck carrier — is the key to anticipating backdoor threats before they develop.
- Even on a messy, unscripted play, Wolf shows that a single freeze frame contains enough positional information to identify the backdoor option if a goalie has built proper scanning habits.
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