Inside Mitch Korn’s Summer Grind, 50 Years In
Five Vezinas, a Stanley Cup, and he still drives a van full of training props across the country every summer. Why? From InGoal's 2026 Coaches & Camps Guide
- Mitch Korn has coached goaltenders to five Vezina Trophies and is the only goalie coach to win the Jennings Trophy with three different teams.
- At age 68 (turning 69), Korn still personally drives a Ford Transit van loaded with training equipment from Nashville to D.C. to run his summer goalie schools.
- Korn's camp philosophy prioritizes accessibility over exclusivity — 40 goalies on the ice at once, with two classroom blocks and 90 minutes of group teaching on a wireless mic each day.
- Korn actively rejects 'set your feet' as a coaching cue, instead teaching goalies to stay mobile and dynamic — 'be Jell-O' — because the puck is always moving.
- More than 20 alumni of Korn's mentorship, the 'Children of the Korn,' are now working as goalies or coaches at the NHL, minor pro, or college level.
Goalies Mitch Korn coached have won five Vezina Trophies. He’s the only goalie coach to win one with two different teams, the only one to win the Jennings with three, and he hoisted the Stanley Cup with Washington in 2018. And every summer, turning 69 this fall, he still packs a Ford Transit van with deflection boards, ramps, white pucks, and a giant mirror, and drives from Nashville to Washington, D.C. running the goalie schools that bear his name.
In an exclusive interview in InGoal’s 2026 Coaches & Camps Guide, Kevin Woodley gets the full picture of why, and what almost 50 years of camps have taught the man who helped shape Dominik Hasek, Pekka Rinne, and Braden Holtby.
I hate the term 'set your feet.' If the puck is always moving, how can you stay square by setting your feet? If we set our feet, we can't be a brick wall. We need to be Jell-O, and we show it, and we talk all about it, because that's the way the game is played.
Organized Chaos, by Design
The story walks through a full day at Korn Camp: two classroom blocks, 90 minutes of group teaching on a wireless mic, and a 10-station afternoon Korn describes as conducting an orchestra. Forty goalies on the ice, and he makes no apologies for it; the camps are deliberately built to stay accessible, not elite-only.
There’s also the “Children of the Korn”: more than 20 goalies and coaches he mentored now working in the NHL, minor pro, or college hockey, and Korn’s own answer for why he keeps coming back, which has as much to do with what the kids teach him as the other way around. It’s a masterclass in what a great goalie school actually looks like, which makes it perfect reading before you pick one.