Collin Delia

Collin Delia was born on June 20, 1994, in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Standing 6'2" and weighing 208 pounds, the left-catching goaltender played 52 NHL games across stints with the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, finishing his NHL career with 19 wins, 18 losses, 7 overtime losses, and a goals-against average of 3.51 with a .897 save percentage. He currently plays for Brynäs IF of the Swedish Hockey League.

His season with the Vancouver Canucks brought significant changes to his game — adjustments that, by his own account, required considerable time and work to become instinctual. Working with Canucks goalie coach Ian Clark, Delia added a tall, narrow stance for situations when the puck is on the perimeter, and worked to get across the crease on his skate rather than sliding, which he said allowed him to "cut my route a little bit short." He described the broader goal of those adjustments as "just being more controlled." ^[1]

InGoal Magazine has covered Collin Delia in one podcast appearance and three Pro Reads. The Pro Reads, published in the summer of 2023 and written by Kevin Woodley, feature Delia breaking down his own decision-making on specific sequences from his Vancouver season — a layered screen against the Carolina Hurricanes ^[2], a Colorado Avalanche power play with Cale Makar carrying the puck and Mikko Rantanen as a one-timer threat ^[1], and a 3-on-2 against Tampa Bay with Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, and Nikita Kucherov involved ^[3].

On screens, Delia described his priority as maintaining his sightline rather than moving unnecessarily. "If you have a sightline on it, don't move," he said. "So often in the past you want to seem like you are working super hard and you are battling out there and you see goalies do that all the time: They have it and they try to move through it or whatever and it's in the back of the net. So, if you have it, hold that as long as you can." He and Clark developed what they called a "tall side look" — a slight movement of the head and a kink in the torso without abandoning the chosen angle. Delia also acknowledged that before his Vancouver season, he had been prone to giving ice back when his sightline was compromised. "I don't know why we do that," he said. "When we don't see the puck clearly we want to give ice back for some reason." ^[2]

On rush situations, Delia described a clear rule for zone exits: "Never think you are going to leave the zone clean. You trust your teammates but you never underplay that. Always try to honor that situation until the puck is over the red line." He also explained how he reads a one-timer threat, noting that a drill with Clark centered on stick position — whether the stick is on the ice or in the air — as the trigger for different decisions. "The fact he's got it loaded up you can slide there," Delia said of the Kucherov sequence. ^[3]

Delia signed with the Winnipeg Jets following his season in Vancouver before his current stint in Sweden. ^[3]