I’ve learned first-hand in the past 12 months that it’s not what the team says, it’s what the prospect hears.

Goaltending is toughest position to recruit. For the past few seasons I’ve noticed there’s a disproportionate relationship between the amount of goalies looking for jobs and the amount of jobs a team has to give, namely two in most cases. There are a lot of goalies out there. It’s bottleneck the further you go up the depth chart. College and university hockey in Canada doesn’t have a farm system to look to when they need reinforcements, and you’re dealing with multi-year commitments. A goalie exiting college, on the other hand, can look to North American pro and reasonably slot themselves into one of six our seven spots between the NHL, the American League, and the coast. Most ECHL teams have relationships with southern professional teams as well, so there’s a backup plan. And then there are various European leagues that offer players the chance to make an honest living while travelling and enjoying life. 

So, there are a lot of goalies out there, but we all want to find the right goalies, or the right fit. We want the right combination of character, compete, and ability. Can she or he stop the puck and be a positive influence in the room? Can they steal a game here or there? If I started a new team from scratch and I had an entire town foaming at the mouth for a home opener 12 years in the making, would I be comfortable putting this kid in charge of the net? 

I don’t know what I don’t know. So why would I tell a potential recruit that I do?

A Player’s Perspective

People in the hockey business get annoyed when players look for guarantees, but who wouldn’t seek a guarantee if they could get it. Coaches and managers have contracts, employees working in an office downtown have salaries, the people who built your house have unique skills that will never go out of style. 

But work ethic isn’t guaranteed, and non-professional hockey players aren’t competing for the ability to feed their family. Time remains undefeated in every line of work, and there’s always someone coming along to steal a job. 

That’s not easy for a teenager to hear. It’s not easy for a 26 year-old looking for a contract to hear. Put yourself in their skates – if one team is guaranteeing power play time and a spot on the first line, and the other is promising a long look at training camp, what would you choose?

I personally doubt many teams make such guarantees, but I’ve learned first-hand in the past 12 months that it’s not what the team says, it’s what the prospect hears. Nowhere else in our game is clear communication more important, because the last thing your organization needs is a disgruntled player claiming promises made weren’t kept. Maybe it’s an irrational fear of mine, but integrity is the middle block in my personal pyramid of excellence, and I look at this thing every single day. 

I want to recruit players who are willing to earn their spot in the lineup, earn their contract, and earn respect from their teammates above all else. Building a team from scratch meant there were some smart bets we made on players who we believe can make a positive contribution, but I tried to make it as clear as possible that it was up to them to earn their spot. 

A Team’s Perspective

Every team on Earth has these challenges. I recently read a report that suggested Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky was a buy-out candidate in the summer of 2022. He of the 10 million per year cap hit half-way through his contract. This was a report, and not insider information from the Florida Panthers, but the question remains – would the team make a different call with the benefit of hindsight? We’re back on goalies, which further cements their voodoo-status. So until we have time machines, it’s impossible and unhealthy to revisit the path. We make the best decisions we can based on the information at our disposal, and as we saw above, the match has to be a two-way street. 

Recruiting and committing to hockey players isn’t an exact science, but I believe it’s a ceremonial method of saying “hey, come aboard the ship, and you can stay as long as you’re helping it float.” Nothing is guaranteed because neither player nor manager can see the future. 

And that, for me, is the most important thing to tell recruits and prospects. “Nothing is guaranteed, but if you play the way I believe you can, then this is the opportunity you’ll earn.” Forwards can’t guarantee 40 goals, goalies can’t guarantee 15 s&%*-outs (I can’t even spell it out because I know that dooms my first game of the season), so we can’t guarantee power play time or a certain number of starts. And if they need that guarantee, then maybe they’re just not a player for you.

That said, we’re still allowed to believe, and we ought to share that belief when we’re recruiting. If you believe in the player and they believe in themselves, then you’ll be right more than you’re wrong. The nice thing about coaching is that you don’t have to be right on the first day. You get to improve the situation, which you should be doing regardless of who you’re working with – your power play half-wall specialist or your 13th forward who’s getting their feet wet at a new level of play. And if your belief isn’t strong enough and the player finds a home elsewhere, you have to be comfortable with that. It happens in every league in the world. 

By the way, here are the blocks on the bottom of my pyramid, ranging from mental (how you think) to physical (how you act):

• Enthusiasm: how you do anything is how you do everything
• Insight: make space for what comes naturally
• Integrity: the unmovable rock within the tide
• Diligence: gather information from every angle
• Creativity: innovation will take you to places you didn’t think existed

I encourage you to create your own pyramid, it’s been valuable to me as I go through the recruiting process, and it’s really helped me shape the career I want and the impact I want to have on my teams. Check out legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.