Chris Driedger

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on May 18, 1994, Chris Driedger took one of the more circuitous routes to establishing himself as a National Hockey League goaltender. Selected by the Ottawa Senators in the third round, 76th overall, of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, he spent the better part of a decade grinding through the minor leagues before two seasons with the Florida Panthers announced his arrival in the top league in the world.

Driedger grew up in Winnipeg and played his junior hockey in the Western Hockey League, first with the Tri-City Americans and then with the Calgary Hitmen after a trade. He signed a three-year entry-level deal with Ottawa in 2014 and made his NHL debut with the Senators in the 2014-15 season — a one-game appearance in which he did not allow a goal. A second scoreless appearance followed in 2015-16, before a more difficult outing in 2016-17 produced his first NHL loss. Between those cup-of-coffee appearances in Ottawa, he spent the bulk of his time in the American Hockey League and the ECHL.

The turn came in 2018, when he signed with the AHL's Springfield Thunderbirds, the Panthers' primary affiliate. After 16 games there, he earned an NHL contract with Florida for the remainder of that season. He re-signed with the Panthers for two more years, and the results over those two seasons made his name around the league.

In 2019-20, Driedger appeared in 12 games for Florida and posted a 2.05 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage — numbers that InGoal Magazine noted represented a breakthrough moment for the Winnipeg native ^[1]. The following shortened season, 2020-21, he appeared in 23 games, went 14-6, posted a 2.07 GAA and a .927 save percentage, and recorded 3 shutouts. Those two Florida seasons — 35 total games, a combined GAA well under 2.10, and a save percentage above .927 — formed the foundation of his NHL reputation.

InGoal Magazine covered that Florida run in depth. Driedger appeared on Episode 69 of the InGoal Radio Podcast, an hour-long conversation about his path through the ECHL and into the NHL ^[2], and his mental approach to the game became the subject of a drill breakdown in which InGoal paired his pregame reset routine with mindset coach Pete Fry ^[3]. In that piece, Driedger described the visualization he performs during national anthems — cycling through shots to different areas of the net — and the physical cue he uses to re-engage after breaks in play: "I just use my setup as the reset. I hit my stick over the crossbar as one of the things I've done over the years and then I kind of shake the helmet a little bit and then just get into it." He also reflected on what he had learned about mental energy management: "I try and take my little breaks when I can and when the play starts again, I get back into it and save my focus for when I need it."

His practice habits became the subject of two InGoal articles in April 2021. Driedger credited a shift in his battle level during practice — cultivated with Panthers goaltending development coach Leo Luongo — as central to his revival after Ottawa released him ^[4]. The follow-up piece addressed his approach to the goalie-unfriendly drills that appear at every level of the game ^[5]. InGoal members can find both pieces in full.

The Pro Reads series with Driedger ran to six installments, all available to InGoal subscribers, covering how he handles cross-crease plays and backward flow ^[1], his approach to screens and traffic ^[6], breakaway depth and timing ^{[7] [8]}, a scramble-and-recovery sequence against Dallas ^[9], and screen management against Chicago ^[10]. In his second Pro Read, Driedger articulated his philosophy on aggressive positioning: "I feel confident when I am more aggressive on them. I just need to make sure I don't get too aggressive and pick my spots." ^[6] And on recovering to his feet after a save: "If it's possible to get to my feet, I am getting to my feet every time." ^[6]

For the 2021-22 expansion draft, the Seattle Kraken selected Driedger and signed him to a three-year contract as their number-one goaltender. His Kraken debut season was difficult — 27 games, a 9-14 record, a 2.96 GAA, and a .899 save percentage in the franchise's inaugural 2021-22 campaign. He appeared on Episode 187 of the InGoal Radio Podcast that fall ^[11]. Injuries and roster changes complicated his subsequent seasons in Seattle, and he spent time with the Kraken's AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, including in 2023-24 when the Firebirds reached the Calder Cup Final before losing to the Hershey Bears in six games.

He did return to Seattle for a brief two-game NHL stretch in 2023-24, producing a 1-1 record, a 2.51 GAA, and a .917 save percentage. InGoal caught up with him ahead of the Seattle Winter Classic that season, where he detailed his custom stick grip — borrowed conceptually from Panthers teammate Sergei Bobrovsky, with a modification of his own — in an equipment feature ^[12].

After Seattle, Driedger returned to the Panthers organization before being traded to his hometown Winnipeg Jets ahead of the NHL trade deadline, though he played that season exclusively at the AHL level with both organizations. He then signed with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the Kontinental Hockey League for one season in Russia.

That KHL year and its aftermath became the focus of Episode 368 of the InGoal Radio Podcast, recorded in September 2026 as Driedger was on a professional tryout with the Vancouver Canucks ^[13]. He described what it was like to return to a tryout scenario: "I've always played my best hockey when I have a bit of an underdog mentality. And I had that mentality when I was in the minors and working my way into the NHL and my first few seasons in the NHL." He also discussed his KHL goalie coach, Peter Skrelly, whose central teaching Driedger boiled down to a single concept — balance — and how that idea had become a foundational keyword in his game. The episode also covered how his gear switch from Vaughn to True came about, and why he arrived at Canucks captain skates wearing former Seattle teammate Joey Daccord's gold-medal-winning Team USA pads from the World Championships — a detail InGoal also covered in a separate article ^[14].

Across 67 NHL regular-season games, Driedger holds a career record of 31 wins, 24 losses, and 5 overtime losses, with a 2.45 goals-against average, a .917 save percentage, and 5 shutouts. InGoal Magazine has covered Chris Driedger in three podcast appearances, six Pro Reads, one drill breakdown, and four InGoal articles.