What NHL Goalie Coaches See That Youth Hockey Often Misses

When parents think about developing a better goalie, it is easy to start with technique.

Should they butterfly differently? Get deeper in the crease? Challenge more? Work with another goalie coach? Take more lessons? Train more often?

Those questions matter.

But after years coaching goaltenders at the highest levels of hockey, including seven seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, three with the Seattle Kraken, and now with the Wisconsin Badgers, Steve Briere sees goalie development through a much wider lens.

Before technique comes something deeper.

Does the goalie focus?

Do they compete?

Do they move like an athlete?

Do they enjoy the position?

Do they genuinely want to stop the puck?

And, eventually, do they begin taking responsibility for their own development?

Those qualities may sound simple. They are anything but.

In a wide-ranging conversation on Our Kids Play Goalie, Briere joined Lee Elias and Mike Bonelli to explore what elite goalie coaches notice that youth hockey sometimes overlooks — and why raising a successful goaltender is about developing the person as much as the player.

Start With the Look in Their Eyes

When Briere evaluates a young goalie, he is not searching for one magical characteristic.

But one of the first things he notices is focus.

Can the player stay engaged? Are they present? Is there an urgency to stop the puck?

From there, athleticism matters. Not simply whether a goalie possesses impressive physical tools, but whether they move, react, and compete like an athlete.

Then comes something youth hockey sometimes makes unnecessarily complicated:

Are they enjoying themselves?

For younger goalies especially, that matters enormously.

Sometimes the clearest indication that a child belongs in the crease is not a scouting report. It's the smile underneath the mask.

Maybe they're dancing during whistles. Maybe they're excited every time they put the equipment on. Maybe they love being the person standing between the puck and the net.

That joy matters because enjoyment fuels repetition.

When athletes enjoy something, they want to do more of it. When they want to do more of it, improvement has an opportunity to follow.

That doesn't mean hockey should remain effortless forever. As athletes mature, their definition of fun evolves.

For a young player, fun may mean laughing with teammates.

For an older competitive athlete, fun might mean working hard, testing themselves, winning battles, solving problems, and experiencing the satisfaction of improvement.

The grind itself can eventually become part of the joy.

At Some Point, the Drive Has to Belong to the Goalie

One of the most important messages for hockey parents in the conversation is also one of the hardest to accept:

Parents can cultivate drive. They cannot manufacture it.

You can expose a child to hockey.

You can provide opportunities.

You can ask good questions, celebrate effort, find coaches, drive to practices, help create routines, and encourage curiosity.

But eventually the athlete has to want it.

Briere's own development provides a powerful example.

Growing up as an undersized goalie, he realized he needed to become exceptionally quick laterally. Nobody handed him a perfect offseason program. Instead, he began finding his own solutions — including training on hills while wearing goalie equipment because he wanted his legs, feet, and body to become stronger moving side to side.

Was that the only way to train?

Of course not.

That isn't the point.

The important part was that the idea came from the athlete.

He had identified a problem:

I need to move better.

Then he asked:

What can I do about it?

That mindset is at the heart of long-term development.

Eventually, players cannot depend on an adult to provide every answer.

They have to begin asking:

• Where am I giving up goals?

• What part of my game needs work?

• What skill would help me reach the next level?

• What can I do away from organized practice?

• Is what I'm currently doing actually working?

That transition — from receiving development to owning development — is enormous.

Don't Become So Technical That You Forget to Stop the Puck

Modern goalie coaching has improved dramatically.

Today's goaltenders have access to specialized instruction, video breakdown, movement training, biomechanics, technology, statistics, virtual reality, and more information than previous generations could have imagined.

That progress is valuable.

But Briere also offered an important warning:

Sometimes goalie development becomes so focused on looking technically correct that everyone forgets the objective.

Keep the puck out of the net.

A goalie can execute something beautifully and still give up the goal.

A particular movement may feel comfortable. It might even look great on video. But if the same situation repeatedly results in goals against, the goalie and coach have to be willing to reconsider the solution.

That is why Briere described an approach of continually challenging his own assumptions as a coach.

Instead of beginning with:

"This is how a goalie should do it."

Start with:

"What is this goalie showing me they need?"

That difference matters.

Goalies have different bodies, movement patterns, strengths, weaknesses, sizes, and tendencies. Effective development should help the athlete solve the game in a way that works for them — not simply force every athlete into an identical template.

Use Data and Technology to Ask Better Questions

Goalie development doesn't need to choose between traditional work ethic and modern technology.

The best environment can use both.

Briere spoke enthusiastically about innovation, whether through video, visual training, virtual reality tools such as NHL Sense Arena, or future technologies that could more accurately show how much net a goalie gives up from different positions and save selections.

Technology is most valuable when it removes guesswork.

Instead of saying:

"I think this technique is better."

Imagine being able to say:

"For your body, your positioning, and this specific situation, this option consistently gives shooters less net."

That creates a far more useful conversation.

But technology should not replace thinking.

A training tool is still only a tool.

The athlete needs to understand what they are practicing and why.

One of the biggest developmental opportunities parents and coaches can provide is permission for young goalies to experiment.

Let them invent drills.

Let them test ideas.

Let them watch other goalies.

Let them solve problems.

Some ideas won't work.

That's part of learning.

Innovation isn't about rejecting everything hockey has learned. It is about teaching young athletes that they can participate in their own development rather than simply following instructions forever.

Parents: Use Hockey to Teach Life

Some of the most powerful moments in the episode had nothing to do with goalie technique.

They involved parents and car rides.

Briere shared how his father, despite knowing very little about hockey, could still teach lessons that shaped his competitive mindset.

That is an important reminder for every hockey parent:

You do not need to be a goalie expert to be a great goalie parent.

Your child already has coaches.

Your role can be different.

You can talk about effort.

You can talk about character.

You can talk about how they treat teammates.

You can talk about responding to adversity.

You can discuss what they learned, how they handled disappointment, whether they competed honestly, and how they carried themselves when things went badly.

Those lessons last much longer than any save percentage.

Lee shared a similar example from a difficult game involving his own son. The scoreboard wasn't pretty, but the conversation afterward wasn't primarily about technical mistakes.

It was about effort, hunger, honesty, sportsmanship, and character.

That is the larger opportunity hockey gives families.

A goalie might play competitive hockey for 10, 15, or 20 years.

They will live the rest of their life with the habits they build along the way.

Coaches: Stop Treating Goalies Like They're On Their Own

Perhaps the most important coaching message in the episode came from a simple observation.

Briere has asked coaches what they initially say when discussing their relationship with goaltenders.

Too often, the answer begins with:

"I don't know anything about goalies."

That may be intended as humility.

But imagine hearing it as the goalie.

You may instead hear:

"You're on your own."

Then practice starts.

The skaters work with the team.

The goalie gets sent somewhere else with the goalie coach.

Everyone talks about how different the position is.

Then coaches wonder why the goalie doesn't always feel connected to the group.

Goalies absolutely need specialized instruction.

But specialization should not become isolation.

A better opening message from a coach might be:

"I'm excited you're our goalie. I want to learn about your position, and I'm going to do everything I can to help you be part of this team."

You don't need decades of goalie coaching experience to say that.

You only need to care.

Design Practices With the Goalie in Mind

There is another practical issue coaches often underestimate:

goalie workload.

A skater might execute a drill, shoot once, then wait while teammates take their turns.

The goalie may face every one of those reps.

If 20 players shoot, that's potentially 20 goalie actions before the first skater goes again.

Multiply that over an entire practice and the workload becomes enormous.

This is especially important on youth teams with only one goalie.

Coaches should consciously think about:

• How many consecutive shots the goalie faces

• Whether the goalie has recovery time

• Whether drills resemble game situations

• Whether rebounds are played out

• Whether shooters are driving the net

• Whether the goalie gets opportunities to track, recover, and finish plays

• Whether a young goalie knows they are allowed to step out briefly when they genuinely need a reset

Goalie development should not be something added to a practice plan after the rest of practice has already been designed.

The goalie is part of the team.

Build the practice accordingly.

Goalies Have Responsibility, Too

Briere did not place all responsibility on coaches.

Goalies also have to work at becoming part of the team.

That can mean developing relationships beyond the defensemen they naturally interact with most often.

Invite a teammate over.

Spend time together away from the rink.

Create competitions during practice.

Talk to different players.

Celebrate teammates.

Build trust.

At the professional level, Briere even used fun goalie-versus-shooter competitions and a ridiculous trophy to help create relationships between goalies and different players on the roster.

The trophy wasn't really the point.

Connection was.

Goalies need teammates.

Teammates need goalies.

And when players genuinely care about one another, hockey becomes a better experience for everyone.

The Best Goalie Development Is Human Development

It's tempting to believe the secret to creating better goalies is hidden inside one technique, one coach, one camp, one piece of technology, or one developmental pathway.

There is no single secret.

The progression is more human than that.

When goalies are young, help them love playing.

As they grow, teach them discipline.

Then encourage them to think critically about their own game.

Eventually, they must develop the work ethic and internal drive required to pursue whatever level they genuinely want to chase.

Along the way, surround them with coaches who include them, teammates who value them, parents who keep hockey connected to life, and an environment where curiosity is encouraged.

Because the goal isn't simply to create a technically perfect goaltender.

It's to develop an athlete who can compete, think, adapt, connect, lead, work, recover from adversity, and continue finding joy in the process.

And if hockey helps produce that person?

The saves are only part of the win.

Listen to the full episode of Our Kids Play Goalie for the complete conversation with Steve Briere, and share it with a goalie parent, coach, or young netminder who could benefit from seeing development through a bigger lens.

Keep learning, keep supporting the person behind the mask, and keep making the crease a place young goalies love coming back to.