When Kris Beech and Yogi Švejkovský took the ice at TCS Live 2023, both coaches already had extensive experience developing players at multiple levels. Since then, their coaching careers have continued to progress.

Beech, a former NHL and professional player, is currently an Assistant Coach with HV71 in the Swedish Hockey League, where he works with the club's professional program. Švejkovský, a former NHL player and longtime skills and player development coach, is now an Assistant Coach with the Philadelphia Flyers, after previously serving as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks.

That makes revisiting this presentation particularly interesting. The concepts they're teaching here are rooted in player development, but the coaches delivering them have since taken those same teaching principles into NHL environments.

Less than two minutes into the presentation, a telling statistic sets the stage: an average NHL game features roughly 660 attempted passes, with a 72% completion rate. Of those, 202 are contested passes.

That's hockey at its highest level. As you move down through the levels of the game, the number of completed passes drops, and at the youth level, many games can quickly turn into battles over possession and turnovers.

So the question becomes simple: How can we turn more uncompleted passes into completed ones?

“At the youth level, we have to encourage players to share the puck and understand it’s a good thing to move the puck.”

At TCS Live 2023, Beech and Švejkovský took coaches through a detailed look at situational passing and receiving, focusing not only on how to make effective passes, but also on how players can receive the puck properly and make better decisions under pressure.

The presentation builds from technical passing and receiving skills into playmaking vision, showing how progressions introduced at the 10U level can evolve as players advance toward 14U.

Together, they cover the characteristics of effective passers and receivers, techniques for handling contested passes, and how players can identify and execute multiple passing options depending on the situation.

Watch the 35-minute presentation to explore practical progressions that can help players move the puck with more purpose, receive it with more confidence and make better plays under pressure.

Noteworthy timestamps

• 01:20 Intro to situational passing

• 02:50 What makes a good passer and receiver?

• 03:50 Contested passing techniques

• 07:00 Maneuvering around stick-on-puck checking

• 09:45 Drill: Situational Pass/Receive

• 15:20 Drill: Track and Strip OZP A

• 22:00 Drill: Track and Strip OZP B1

• 25:50 Drill: Track and Strip OZP B2

• 34:00 Drill: 3-Player Passing Warmup