Why has Canada struggled to develop goaltenders?
It’s been 12 years since NHL players took part in the men’s hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics, and while much on the international hockey scene looks the same, much has changed as well.
Team Canada enters Milano-Cortina as the favorite to capture the gold, just as they did in 2010 and 2014. But while last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off showed they’re still the team to beat, there are areas where the Birthplace of Hockey is more vulnerable than it once was.
That’s particularly true between the pipes. Gone are the days of Carey Price, Roberto Luongo and Martin Brodeur. Jordan Binnington of the St. Louis Blues backstopped Canada to the win at 4 Nations in impressive fashion, but the concern in Canada is palpable over the lack of a true elite goalie in the pipeline.
On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by John Matisz of The Score to discuss why the rest of the world has passed Canada by when it comes to goalie development.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Your story the other day at The Score, it’s a really important one I think, for not just hockey fans in Canada, but I think hockey fans in general, titled “Why Canada Has Fallen So Far Behind in Goaltending Development,” and that is a conversation that I think Canadian fans, to be fair, that’s been happening in bars and pubs around Canada now for close to a decade. It’s an open-ended one for me to start, but when you go to tackle a story like this, where do you even begin?
John Matisz: Funny you bring up the bars and stuff, because what sort of tipped the scales for me in terms of actually doing the story was when Binnington was named to Canada’s roster… My group chat of fantasy hockey, or maybe it was just my buddies, just blew up. Obviously they knew that Canada didn’t have a star, but it just sort of really emphasizes like, why is Binnington the guy? Why is he the presumed starter when he’s having this kind of season? Of course, it’s because there aren’t many good options. In terms of where to start, I mean, it’s one of those things, right? It’s an NHL story in some sense. It’s an Olympic story in some sense, but it’s really a minor hockey story. This is a grassroots thing. Because if we’re talking about development, that goes back to kids. It goes back to 10-year-olds, 12-year-olds, teenagers. When you get to the NHL, you’re not a finished product, but you’re as close as it gets in that sense… I started to poke around and ask… Kind of kept it open-ended, “Hey guys, what are your theories here,” and went from there. I thought it was important to include parents. We like to talk about how expensive it is to not only play hockey in general, but to be a goalie… It’s pretty astounding, the amount of money, tens of thousands of dollars parents are putting into their kids’ goaltending careers at a very young age.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…