The State of Canadian Hockey Goaltending Development
The State of Canadian Hockey Goaltending Development
When we examine the condition of Canadian goaltending today we are confronted with the reality of numbers.
In the 2000-2001 hockey season, Canadian goaltendersaccounted for41 out of the 64 who had played 10 or more NHL season games. That was 64%. US goaltenders made up 19% with 12 goaltenders. When we look at those 42 goaltenders who played 30 or more games we find 25 Canadian goaltenders or 60%. US goaltenders made up 17% with 7 goaltenders
By the 2009-2010 season that number has changed. In the intervening 10 years Canadian goaltenders who played 10 or more games make up only 47% of the total playing with 29. (The US numbers had remained constant at 9 or 15%.). When we look at those goaltenders who played 30 or more games we see Canada has slipped to just 45% of the total with 18 of 44. The US stayed constant with 15% of the total having 6. Where the major change has occurred are with the increasing large number of Scandinavian goaltenders. Sweden and Finland now make up 22% of the total number of goaltenders who have played 30 games or more. With just 4.56% of registered players internationally the Finns alone make up 17% of those goaltenders who played 30 or more games.
As for Canada the major producer of goaltenders is Quebec but even their numbers have dropped in the interceding 10-year period. In 2000-2001 with just 17% of the CHA registered players they had 11 goaltenders who had played 30 games or more, 44% of Canadian goaltender numbers. They have now dropped to 8!
The OMHA, which alone has 22% of all Hockey Canada's registered players, have improved their goaltender NHL numbers. When we look at those NHL goaltenders who played 20 or more games we see the OMHA had 4 who played in 2000-2001 but had 8 goaltenders in the 2009-2010 season. The Toronto (GTHL) numbers have almost disappeared with only 1 playing in the NHL last season and none playing this yearas compared to 6 goaltenders 10 years ago. (The curious thing to note is thatthe numbers went down despite the fact that there are over 10 "elite" goaltending schools running programs in the Greater Toronto Area. These programs have been operating for over 10 years. Itappearsthat what they have been doing in Torontois notworking anymore.)
We also see considerable changes is in the area of performance markers.
10 seasons ago Canada had 5 of the top 10 goaltenders and 13 in the top 20 in the Games Won category, plus 8 of the top 10 and 13 of the top 20 in Goals Against Averages (GAA). In Save Percentage (SV%) Canadian goaltenders made up 7 of the top 10 and 14 of the top 20.
Ten years later, although Canadians remain strong in the GAA category with 8 of the top 10 and 15 of the top 20, we have just 3 of the top 10 and 6 in the top 20 in Games Won, and 0 of the top 10 and 6 of the top 20 in SV %.
In addition, Goalies World magazine ranked the 2009-2010 goaltenders using an equation which combined games won, save percentage and total shots stopped. Canadian goaltenders made up just 2 of the top 10 and 6 of the top 20!
The biggest increases in each of the 2009-2010 categories in the top 10 and top 20 were the US and Scandinavian goaltenders.
As I mentioned before with just 4.5% of the world's registered players the Finns are making a tremendous impact upon goaltending development.
The secret to this success dates back to 1985. At that time the Finnish Ice Hockey Federation (FIHF) introduced a standardized certification program for goaltending coaches. This program virtually provided each goaltender on every competitive team with a goaltender coach who taught the same basic fundamentals in goaltending. This started with goaltenders 8 years of age! This program has continued to the present day.
This past June I spent time working at the top elite goaltending school in Finland. It was run by Finnish goaltending coach, Jukka Ropponen. There I saw the high level of expertise the young Finnish goaltenders displayed. With a sound basis in fundamentals these goaltenders were able to movemore quickly into the next level of elite instruction. I spoke with some of the top goaltending experts in Finland and they confirmed what the Finns were doing well and where they needed to improve more.
In the intervening years Finnish goaltenders have become a predominate force. Finland has almost 67,336 registered players, 29,447 of whom are minor hockey aged players. To put that into perspective take a loo at the Ontario Minor Hockey Association. As the world's largest amateur hockey orgnization, the OMHA has 110,000 registered minor hockey players. Simple math dictates that we should therefore have 3.7 times the number of goaltenders the Finns have in the NHL. Instead we have gone from having 5 times their number in 2000-2001 to having just 1.14 times their number today.
We have to examine how we can better develop goaltenders.
Unless we do something significant and longlasting to change these numbers we will only continue our downward slide in the next 5-10 years.
And know we have the Swedes with whom we will have to contend! The Swedes have decided to focus their attention on developing goaltenders using the same approach as the Finns. The significant difference will be, where the Finns have been basing their goaltender development using a volunteer system, the Swedes will bring their financial clout to bear and will hire goaltending coaches. The Finnish head of goaltending development, Petri Tuononen, resigned while I was in Helsinki this past June. The reason given was his volunteer position had yet to be elevated, as promised, into a full time paid position. Now the Swedes have a full time goaltending head coach in place, Tomas Magnusson, and he is working to improve goaltending development there. In addition, the Swedes are looking to provide goaltending equipment free to new goaltenders in an attempt to reduce personal costs.
We in Canada have the potential to improve. We have the potential to create, implement and monitor a goaltending development program similar to the one in Finland and with the potential to grow into an elite development program which will far surpass that of the Scandinavians.
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