[CaptainYooh]

Good three-page long article in Globe and Mail this morning analyzing Canadian goaltender development system with similar systems in Sweden and Finland. Also, some good charts/video.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle15786050/

The larger concern is Canada’s goalie-developmental system is falling behind, a fear fanned over the summer, when the three major junior leagues made the controversial decision to ban import goaltenders. NHL teams now scout European netminders more heavily than ever, with some employing goalie experts in Stockholm or Helsinki to unearth hidden gems.

First, the Finns invested in developing goalies after realizing they could be a great equalizer for a small country. Then, Sweden started borrowing from their neighbours and rivals, improving upon the Finnish system. Now, Russia wants in and plans to buy and implement Sweden’s system into its junior ranks.

Around the time Canada’s dominance in goal reached its peak in the early 1990s, Finland began pumping resources into goaltending, taking the unprecedented step of training huge numbers of goalie coaches as a way of focusing on the position. As a country of only five million, competing in hockey internationally had always been difficult for the Finns until they hit on the idea that developing great goaltenders would have a bigger effect than great defencemen or forwards.

Those working to develop goalies in Canada paint a very different picture. Many goaltenders in this country don’t get any 1-on-1 instruction they don’t pay for, at least until they make it to the elite junior level.
One outspoken critic of the Canadian system is Steve McKichan, a former Toronto Maple Leafs goalie coach who runs high-level camps throughout Southern Ontario. He argues the financial burden associated with the position means it’s becoming dominated by the “kids of lawyers, doctors, accountants and hedge-fund guys.” As a result, it’s not always the best athletes who become Canada’s goalies.

“There’s great money in it, and I couldn’t handle the demand,” McKichan said of starting his Future Pro Goalie School in 1992. “And there’s a reason why there’s great money in it: People aren’t getting [training] where they’re supposed to be getting it – in their minor hockey organizations.” Jim Bedard, the Detroit Red Wings goalie coach, said he sees kids “with masks that have $400 or $500 paint jobs, never mind the cost of the mask – it’s just amazing.”