Patrick Roy, Roberto Luongo, Martin Brodeur, the list goes on. Canada was in the golden age of goaltending… but where did that go? We dive into the disappearance of the great Canadian goaltender ahead of the 2025 4 Nations Face-off.
@Montreal Canadiens
40 Comments
Main issue is that goaltending is overcomplicated from the moment kids put the pads on now in Canada.
There are many 6 years old out there that'll loose motivation by the time they get to high school just because coaches are making movements are technique a priority (which isn't wrong when the goalie is like 12) but for that age (6 to 10), goalies should just be having fun stopping the puck and learning the basics (goalie stance, butterfly, butterfly slides, t push, shuffle, puck tracking and that's it). They shouldn't be practicing more complicated stuff like moving out of RVH etc.
And when goalies are old enough, it feels like most coaches are soft, but want you to practice 7 days a week. On the other hand, when I went to the US and had the opportunity to work with one of their goalie coaches, it was short, simple and intense.
Canada suffers from a quantity over quality issue when it comes to goalie in my opinion
Start Fleury
Bought all new equipment; costed me $4000. That’s the answer folks
I’ve been between the pipes in 5 different countries. It comes down to coaching. Canadian coaches have failed their pupils. They have adopted the lacrosse style of goaltending. Be big, be in position and block the shot. The Europeans have done a great job of adopting their floor hockey style of quickness and athleticism. The latest SCF proved just that. Sadly canadian coaches want quick results and scam parent into turning their kids into blocking ridged commodities. I’ve done goalie evaluation for teams and it’s gotten so much harder to evaluate the goalies because they’ve all been coached the same way. They move the same way. They treat the game the same way. Nothing sets themselves above the rest. Every once in a while you’ll get an outlier who hasn’t been trained the NA way. It’s a thing of beauty when you see them actually make saves.
If I am an elite athlete I am going to play the position that pays me the best, seemingly any position but goalie. I think for a time elite athletes were becoming goalies because they were valued and were payed well (I think of Roy, Brodeur, Bobby Lu and flower to name a few). That trend seems to be gone. NHL teams are not willing to pay big money for goalies anymore. The few exceptions were Price and Bob who had salaries at 10m or more, to name two. Goalies also seem to be the easy scapegoat if an NHL team gets bounced early in the playoffs. Samsonov seemed to be blamed for the Leafs early playoff exits but the Leafs offence dries up in the post season but easier to blame him. I also think the CHL allowing import goalies into the leagues reduced the opportunity for Canadian tenders. If I recall, I think the CHL reduced this. My two cents.
I know where all the Canadian goalies have gone,the Hockey Hall of Fame. Best ever goalie,Jacque Plante.He was the innovator of goaltending, he won 6 Stanley cups,6 Vezina Trophys,and played to age 43.Other greats,Glenn Hall,Tony Esposito, Ken Dryden,Grant Fuhr,Rogie Vachon,Patrck Roy,Martin Brodeur,Roger Crozier,Terry Sawchuk,Johnny Bower,Turk Broda,all in the hall.And based on the current demand for goalies over 6'4 only Ken Dryden would get drafted today.That limits the choice of players.Right now,I don't think any NHL goalie is worthy of the Hall of fame.
I think more ball hockey should be played there isn’t kids playing on the streets anymore that’s where the greats came from.
Hello from Victoria BC ! I am very proud to say that my son got the news today after about two hard weeks of try outs made the U15 Rep tier two team , his first year and he is about a year younger than all the other ? kids ? hopefuls ? just to play hockey
most great goalies like roy , luongo , fleury or brodeur in canada were from quebec. back then there was also jacques plante who owns many records. there are still good goalies in canada but hockey is an international sport and they do find even better goaltenders elsewhere. the hockey did not change much in canada but other countries did improve in many ways. btw jacques plante was in my family 🙂
we're fkd
Simply put, the sport as a whole has become too expensive. The big equipment companies don’t care, minor hockey doesn’t care and kids don’t want to play under the pressure at young ages AND we haven’t even touched on politics in the sport pushing kids away and end up hating hockey.
hire hasek to train lol
Hofer or levi are my bet for the next era
Picture of Pavel Francouz and not Darcy Kuemper with the Avs for 2022…
Covid really set behind a lot of Canadian goalies.. We completely shut hockey down..
While other countries Continued to play and train
As a kid i played goalie, couldn’t afford proper ice hockey pads so i just stuck to ball hockey
No, his name is Stuart Skinner.
I remember hearing similar concerns during the late 90's and early 2000's too. Back when Hasek, Kolzig and Carey prevented any Canadian goalies from winning for 8 years straight. Even when Brodeur, Luongo, and Price were the best Canada had… they still had to contend with Lundqvist, Thomas, Miller, Nabokov, Kiprusoff, Quick, Bobrovsky, etc. Now with the best goalies being Vasilevskiy, Ullmark, Demko, Shesterkin, Hellebuyck, etc… similar trends with the NHL overall, more European players with an impact. I wonder if it has to do with the pool of players that filters through the system. Competitive hockey is basically reserved for the richer upper class… with annual costs ranging from $15000-60000/year. The prices are probably higher for goaltending. Maybe the key for European goalies is that it's overall cheaper to get into the sport. I mean, if university in Sweden is way less than in Canada, then hockey fees (besides travel and equipment) are probably way cheaper than in Canada.
It's easy to feel like you're losing when others start playing.
Canada isn't behind, the world is catching up. ..and It only took a generation for some of those European countries to implement a hockey culture and start producing stars..
Russia’s really become a goalie factory
When you tax the piss outta your people. How the fuck can you afford hockey?
Not directly related to goaltending but more to hockey as a whole…When I was a kid, every other kid played hockey. It's just how it was. Now that I'm a parent, there are so many other sports options available to my son and daughter either at school or through minor leagues that weren't available to me when I was their age. Hockey isn't the go-to sport for everybody anymore. I enrolled my son in hockey and he only played one season and prefered soccer and baseball and that's perfectly fine by me. I'm not going to push anything on him like I see some other fanatic parents do. Not necessarily saying it's unaffordable but compared to other team sports available, hockey is a lot less attractive in terms of affordability, accessibility and safety, regardless of the position. I also noticed politics still creeping into hockey much sooner at Novice and Atom levels than the other sports my son plays. At the end of the day, if your children are enrolled in sports for the right reasons (making friends, being active, and developing teamwork and leadership skills) any other team sport will give you what hockey gives you. Cheers
I’ll be there 2032 draft class trust me (I hope at least)
I blame Trudeau
People have been priced out of hockey. It’s now a sport for rich kids.
Montembault!
Price is last great goalie
I remember watching Roy,Belfour,Cujo,Luongo,Broduer,Fluery,Theodore and now there's Binnington,Kuemper,Hill,Thompson…
Hockey has turned into a rich man's sport considering its 8k plus AAA and junior some places. And Goalies equipment is most expensive. Lack of being individuals has changed everyone trains the same same advice on how to play instead being themseleves.
And development sometimes we talk about a fwd/d prospect being buried in system. Most goalies these days start off ECHL/AHL and get stuck. By NHL carasel
Take a former WJC goalie I think has promising future Milic tore up WHL went undrafted,as overager was drafted by jets playing for Seattle over Ratzlaff who's probably Canada's goalie this WJC and last Years.
But Jets sent Milic Echl then he worked his way up to AHL Starter as a 20-21yr old. And was on Spengler Cup.
This is good development… at 20 most other teams keep goalies in NCAA or CHL. Flaherty has been a great goalie coach to Hellebuyck,Brossoit.
Now other teams you'll see a 1st round pick goalie playing behind a 33yr old in AHL for years never getting better til ages out or gets a chance like JackCambell did Toronto.
Or LoganThompson McCrimmon knew him from WHL/Wheat king days but kept eye on him even when he played University in Canada. For overseas goalies they have chance keep playing high level KHL,SHL ect while here after USports/NCAA/CHL it's over time get real job or play senior mens/AllanCup.
Well, you can't be the best at evrey position, so if Canada has less amount of quality goalies, then Finland, Sweden, USA and Russia can shine more.
In the 90's, the Czech Republic was also a great producer of elite level goalies beyond Dominik Hasek with; Roman Turek, Roman Čechmánek, Tomáš Vokoun,
Milan Hnilička etc. but they also have dropped off.
Sebastian Cossa
Before Putin invaded Ukraine top Finnish goalie coaches were hired by Russians. There's the secret
I keep forgetting that Hellebuyck is from the USA.
Need to subsidize goalie equiment for kids. Only answer
You can blame the affordability. The richest parent doesnt always make the best athlete.
Canadians are busy trying to buy groceries, goalie equipment cost to much, minor sports used to provide goalie equipment in many sask small towns, but they can’t afford to anymore. Not sure if Quebec is the same way? Spending $5000 on equipment for a 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 year old kid, that’s 12 different seasons, so your at like $60,000 in equipment to get develop a kid at goalie. You also got all the regular hockey fees and traveling, hockey camps.
Idk, make starter goalie gear like $200/pads, $300/gloves and blockers. Make the leagues give ‘em free sticks
Hellebuyck played multiple seasons in the NAHL, a feeder Junior B league for College. No way US is “helping in his development” until he’s a top tier college goalie
As a goalie who played against Sam Reinhart and Jake virtanen as a kid I’ll just say what coaches told me my whole life. “Your position is worthless, and any player on this team could play it.” Not joking… A1 coaches told me that. So I’m not surprised that all the goalies left hockey immediately upon hitting 18. Hockey Canada did it to themselves honestly.
there are some really good boys on the way, I'm sure this is just a lull in goalie play for Canada
Due to improvements in Canadian education and healthcare, you can no longer find someone stupid enough or crazy enough to let people flick a puck at their face at 100mph.
I just thought about this the other day. Russian goalies are shining right now.