342 Parents: Connor Hellebuyck’s Path

Lean into it. Let it help you in your game as we slide over to Stop It Goaltending U, the app, with our paired segment with, David Hutchison, who'll join us in just a little bit. Stop It Goaltending U, the app, an incredible resource for being able to lean on them for any part of your game.

Well, do you wanna have twenty five years of NHL goalie coaching experience at your fingertips? You wanna tap into the goalie parenting perspective that helped Joey to chord reach the NHL? That's what you get with a subscription to Stop It Goaltending U, the app. All the knowledge from Brian Decord has been an NHL goalie coach, scout, and director, as well as the insights and expertise from his staff at Stop It, which last year celebrated twenty five years as one of the world's top goalie schools and has a long list of instructors that include a lot of veteran NCAA coaches. It's all delivered in easy to digest chunks, including five short daily primers each week, style analysis, breakdown videos, and drills that you can take onto the ice with your team and coach.

Plus, you get a subscription to InGoal Magazine premium included with your subscription to the Stop It Goaltending U app. So check them out now at the App Store or Google Play and get the best of both worlds when it comes to improving your goaltending.

Hutch.

Hat tip to clanko media over on x for this one. It's worth reading twice. Connor Hellebuyck. Never played tier one, never played in the Brick, never played the Quebec PWE tournament, never made a development camp, did play high school hockey, did play NHL, did play NCAA div one, did win a Vezina, did win Olympic gold, and yet we've got parents stressing over which AU team. And since we're listing accomplishments, they forgot that he also won the heart trophy as the NHL's most valuable player.

Not bad for a kid who skipped all the so called mandatory stops on the path to hockey greatness. Now I saw the comments. I know what some of you were thinking. Sure. But look at the rest of the USA roster.

Most of those guys did play tier one. Lot played in the brick. They did follow the prescribed path. K. Fair point.

You're right. But here's what the argument misses. Those players followed a path that worked for their family, their situation, their circumstances. Connor Hellebuyck followed the path that worked for his. The outcome, Olympic gold, was the same.

The prescribed path isn't wrong. It's just not the only path and it's definitely not a guarantee. For every kid who checks every box and makes it, there are thousands who checked every box and didn't.

The prescribed path isn't wrong. It's just not the only path and it's definitely not a guarantee. For every kid who checks every box and makes it, there are thousands who checked every box and didn't. The boxes, they're never the point. Your job as a hockey parent isn't to replicate someone else's checklist.

It's to find the path that fits your kid, your family, your finances, your values, and trust that if the love and work are there, the path will take care of itself. I've said many times and I'll keep saying it, the hockey dream is as individual as the kid chasing it. And let's be honest about what we're really hoping to get out of this journey. For the overwhelming majority of families, it isn't an Olympic gold medal, though congratulations to every player and every family who gets there because that is something special. What we're really chasing are the moments, the lessons, the friendships, the early mornings and long drives, and watching your kid figure out who they are through this game.

That's the dream worth protecting. Don't let anyone else's checklist convince you your kid is already behind.

Hutch, thank you. Appreciate it. Yeah. There's, all different ways, to handle it, from an athletic performance, but also, the parent segment, and that side of things, in our sport, all sports, really. You can take a lot of what Hutch talks about and then put it into, your kid's soccer or baseball or softball or any type of Or in my case.