Bauer Pro Chest Protector Goalie Review — Vasilevskiy’s Gear

Brilliant observation, Hutch. One of the best. Let's get over to our Gear Segment brought to you by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley, thehockeyshop.com. What are we looking at this week?

Well, we've got there's new gear coming in all the time, so keep your eyes at thehockeyshop.com. There are some new launches in. They're actually going straight onto the website in the coming weeks. We recorded some of those segments, but they were literally tagging the boxes, taking the gear out, and getting it ready. So it's not on the site.

We're gonna hold off on those, but keep your eyes on their website. There are new launches from Vaughn coming as well as, and we're gonna get into this today, some special edition chest protectors, some of which are on sale right now. Again, trying to create room on the floor for all that's to come in the spring as well as sales on other lines. So make sure you check them out, whether it's the latest coming right in out of the boxes onto the wall or the discounts that accompany that on previous generations plus a whole bunch of and when I say custom, we're about to get into one here. There's custom chest protectors with sort of extra protection.

They call it the pro beef, and they've got a lot of models, not just that will help you feel fewer stingers, feel less pucks, always like that, but it'll save you some bucks right now early in 2026 as they try and clear some of that inventory out. So make sure you check it out.

Pro beef? That's that's one of the best names I've ever heard.

Pro beef. Pro beef. Yep. Daren, we're of a certain generation where the as soon as I hear that, my instinct is, where is the beef? You know, the old Wendy's commercial?

I don't think anyone listening under our age will know what that means, but it may have dropped into one.

It did. Don't remember

if it's this week's segment or next week's segment. It's dropping.

Let's get into it. It's the Gear Segment brought to you by The Hockey Shop Source for Sports Langley at hockeyshop.com Pro Beef.

Some of you may have seen this before secretly hanging in the background of one Andrei Vasilevskiy stall. I think that made the social media rounds. This is the Bauer NHL chest protector, and it's available at the Hockey Shop Source for Sports. Welcome back to the goalie department of the Hockey Shop Source for Sports. Cam.

Hi. How did you get your hands on these beauties and and and make it available for the rest of us?

[crosstalk] As they say, don't kiss and tell. Don't chest and tell. Here, we're just gonna leave that one hanging.

What exactly is it?

It was a chest protector.

Yeah. Okay. But, like, what makes it different? We have. This is like, right here in the back, Bauer, NHL, chest and

arm. You're like, hey. There there you go. Nailed it. That would be the name? Roll the credits. Bauer credits.

Bauer pro, Bauer, NHL. Like, this isn't in any I haven't seen this before other than the back of Vassy's stall. So tell me what's going on.

Exactly. So what we have here is NHL spec 100% through and through of Bauers new unit. So how we ended up with these What's the unit? It's a unit. It's a unit.

So a little bit of a difference between this and what now Vassi and Jake Fowler are currently doing. Jake Fowler? Yes. These are the two within in the NHL? Yes.

So these ones are unsigned but not because they're NHL legal by any means. They are 100% through and through. NHL legal. The only difference is is that there was a slight mod to the sternum plate. So the current NHL's have that.

These are the ones that didn't get that proper

So you got your hands on the version pre sternum plate change?

Pre sternum modification.

Okay. Yes. Tell me about this unit other than being extremely well padded. Yes. And protective.

Very beefy. Now with NHL units, you're not gonna see Velcro adjustments on the shoulder floaters. Anything like that. The only thing that is adjustable actually is the arms physically themselves with held on by Velcro. So you are able to pull those up or down.

That would be your minimal adjustment beyond again, your sides to be able to actually Velcro the chest on and give that a little bit of a tighter fit. Now that is NHL spec. You are not allowed to have Velcro on the shoulders or anything like that to be able to move around those shoulder floaters. So in terms of specifications for NHL, NHL Where did I zip my

lip on maybe having seen the odd one with the Velcro on the top? So it'd be quiet for now.

Oh, there you go. Okay. NHL, obviously, legal arm floaters. NHL, legal shoulder floaters. Body of the unit, and it's quite, quite beefy.

No Velcro down low, so these are stitched in. One of the things that we have seen with a couple of customers that have already picked these ones up, if the chest tractor was too long, they have unstitched or actually cut these bottom blocks off just to be able to get that proper mobility. Okay. So very

does compare to any of their other models or just completely unique? Like in terms

of fit and feel? I mean, it does still have what I would call like the original Hyperlite arms. Okay. Just in terms of for overall fitment wise. But even just the way that the body wraps to the unit, how it kind of like physically presents, I would say it's its own unique fit.

Kinda like like like it's soft and flexible right out of the box, but super beefy and padded. Like, it's kinda like a sweatshirt. It kinda feels A very beefy, thick sweatshirt.

Well, the kids these days, they wear the beefy, thick, the oversize stuff. You know? Haven't you tried that yet?

He's not cool enough. He's Kevin's hipping with it.

Yeah.

So a couple of fitment notes. Doesn't care. A couple of fitment notes with these guys. This does follow a similar system to CCM where it has a fit one, two, and three. We have fit two, three, four in stock.

So fit one, size small. Fit two, medium. Fit three, large. Fit four, guess it. Extra large.

Ah, you did it. Now remember,

these are meant for NHL. So don't think that you're putting your 12 year old in a fit one small.

These are adult sized chest protectors. So one kind of note and how I've approached even like CCM's fitting before, so I used to drop the size small and kind of started a medium and work my way up. So I'd almost consider the fit four getting closer to like the double XL territory just in terms of overall size and fitment. So one thing to kind of keep in mind in terms of for notes. Okay.

So they got a double XL for you then. That'd be amazing. I mean, Didn't skip any meals over Christmas this kid. Let me tell you. Neither did I do gym days, buddy.

Attaboy. There you go, folks. Only place that's available here at

The Hockey Shop Source for Sports. If people have questions about that fit cam, where can

they get you? (604) 589-8299 or 1-800-567-7790 or check them out at the hockeyshop.com. They are up on the website.

Bauer Pro Chest Protector. Now that you know they're here, they're not gonna last long. Don't wait. Give Cam and his crew a call.

Hutch, I I'm telling you, we need one of those wide angle cameras just set up to to the side that shows what's happening outside the lens that you set up and just all the activity that's going on because you you kinda do get a sense. Every now and then, the guy's eyes, flick over at at what is happening beyond, the scope of your lens.

Yeah. We, we would probably need the three sixty because there's so much going on around there. And, this week, we were just over there this week, in fact, filming these segments and gets a little frustrated for the guy who knows he's gotta do the editing later. As you hear, the I don't even know what they call the little dolly that comes in to lift these pallets. Yeah.

Pallet jack. There you go. Creaking across the floor and the poor guy's doing it. I credit to them every now and then they see something's happening and they stop and they wait, but sometimes they just have to get stuff done. And you walk in and you just about feel like you're in a warehouse as the aisles are laden with all these pallets full of gear and sticks and so many things.

And so, yeah, they're getting shuttled all over the shop because they're getting ready to open as we are recording these. We're doing this before the shop even opens and so all this work is happening. And this week, it was even more fun when we finished because, little short staffed because of some illness. And so Cam finished the segment and then had to run and put one of those industrial vacuums on his back and he was running around vacuuming the shop. Ghostbusters.

That's and that's what it looked like. Yeah. It looked like the Ghostbusters.

How did he do?

Pretty well, I guess. Yeah. Looks spic and span. We weren't quite there as they opened the shop, but, but good on Cam.

First time he's vacuumed in his life. I'm sure

his family

and wife were like, what is this?

Anyway, many hands make light work. And as we've said before, there's people coming out, grabbing orders off the shelf as well for the online, delivery and just so much happening. It's a it's a great fun place to hang out.

Not the first time when, Cam's been told he's gotta suck it up. Oh, plenty plenty of time when on the ice. But

Yeah. Absolutely. Daren, yeah, you were saying your eyes guarding around because everything going around. Usually, mine are just rolling into the back of my head after Cam's dropped the new pun.

I'm with Cam. I enjoy it. Gene Principe is one of my, best buddies, and, he he does a great job with the OHL's broadcast. A Vizual Edge ProReads, this week, good week chatting with Matt Murray.

Matt Murray, who is as I was down at some Seattle skates, is just getting ready to come off of IR. He's been injured for about six weeks now, but good excuse for us to go back to him. Plus, we got so many goalies in the rotation at ProReads right now that it's it's it's been a while since I caught up with him. So we actually almost went basically the full six weeks in between episodes with Matt Murray, and he's so good in this environment about breaking things down that we had to get back to him. So it's a two on one, odd man rush, and Matt's gonna give us some of the cues and clues that you look for when it comes to deciding pass or shot.

Daren, what are you looking for? Pass or shot off a two on one?