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Advice for Players (U10 to Jr. A)

WATCH More Hockey!!!

The skill level these days is off the charts. There is no doubt with the technology available and the social media influence, that players have become very individually skilled as they can shoot the puck harder and do all these puck tricks that weren't seen when I played.

However, with this, has come a very noticeable affect in the Hockey IQ levels, as there is no doubt Hockey IQ levels are down. Players struggle to make the right reads, and the right reads under pressure/time constraints, as so many hockey schools and practices just focus on head-down individual skills through cones and sticks, and our attention spans to watch games have shortened plus we also have so many other things like PS5 & Xbox we play instead, not to mention we rely on highlights on social media to see clips instead of watching the game.

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It seems nowadays, the only NHL hockey players watch are clips on Instagram/Youtube/etc. The probelm with that, is those clips usually just show the highlight reel goal, which often is either not something a minor hockey player is capable of performing, or lacks the sequence of how the player got to that position.

So here's the issue: how did the player get to that moment? When did they get the puck? How did they get the puck? What did they do without the puck to end up in that situation? Players usually have no idea, they just expect themselves to be in that situation and then pull off that "sick move" they saw on social media.

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I strongly encourage players to sit and watch a minimum of 1 period of hockey as well as the pre-game or intermission analysts either every night or every-other night depending on their age. Watch the subtleties in how a defensemen retrieves the puck in his own zone, and why they choose do go the way they did on the breakout, what about the forecheck made them read that decision. Or why did the forward choose that decision on the entry, why did they delay instead of taking the 1on1 or skating hard with speed, what caused them to delay, etc. Listen to the analysts as they use their marker on the screen to draw and highlight plays and describe what they're seeing, learn from them. This is where we can improve our Hockey IQ.

Don't Try and Climb Levels TOO Fast:

Every year I see this at every level: 

  • A player finishes their U16 season, whether they get drafted 7th round or not drafted at all, they think "I need to play Jr. A". (***And I will add: with the new CHL rule change, this is going to change drastically beginning in 2025 as the OHL will become an OLDER league now!! Take your time!!***)

  • A player is playing "AA", they have the (hypothetically) 3rd worst "AAA" team in Ontario reach out and they think "I need to go play "AAA"

  • Etc.

Every scenario is different, so I'm not going to label each situation the same - but I will say "if you're going to climb, you should be climbing into an impactful piece on that team. Or you should have at the least, dominated your current level before moving up". Too many players want to try and get to the finish line too fast - it's not about who gets there the fastest, it's about who can STAY the LONGEST. Don't worry about WHEN you get to AAA, Jr.A, OHL, NCAA, or NHL - just make sure that if you ever GET there, you're able to be an IMPACTFUL player who will STAY at that level (or be capable of climbing to the next level).

Be a LEADER:

After about 8 years of coaching and taking a couple of AAA teams from U14 to U16, I made the decision with our 2008's that we will not have any "letters" on the team. I found when we had letters at the minor hockey level, there were too many players who decided "I'm not wearing a letter so I don't have to act like a leader", which is completely wrong.

With our 2008's, we preached the importance of 17 leaders in our dressing room, and leading by different ways: some were vocal, some were the hardest-workers every practice, some produced consistently every game, etc. We stressed to the players that when they move on from our staff after U16, we hope to see them in the future waring a letter for their U18, Jr. A, OHL, etc. team - that's what we expect. And by the end of U16, I can honestly say we had 17 leaders, all who were pretty much capable of wearing a letter. Sure we had a few who could be our "class clowns" sometimes, but every team needs those guys to keep the room light, and those guys figured out how to balance when to be light vs when to show focus - so even with those guys, they had the leaerdhip qualities.

Being described as a leader goes a long way in hockey - your skill may have you on the bubble but you may stay on a team due to your leadership characteristic, you may make a team at the next level because of the leadership characteristics you bring, you'll earn the respect of your teammates, etc. 

Track PUCK TOUCHES Stats:

Instead of just tracking your "goals and assists", track your PUCK TOUCHES. We get puck touches 2 different ways:

  1. Stealing the puck from our Opponent (Takeaways)

  2. ​Receiving a pass from our Teammate (Passes Received)

The number of puck touches you have is actually more important then the amount of time you have the puck on your stick - we don't want you to have the puck on your stick for long periods of time at once (first off, you're less likely to change the opponents defensive structure, and secondly, it will become more and more unlikely for that to happen the older and higher level you get).
Have your parent keep track some games (don't need to do every single game) the number of puck touches you had offensively (passes from teammates) and defensively (takeaways).

  • Takeaways: if you're stealing the puck often from an opponent, that is a very underrated skill and something that coaches at higher levels value very much. It's an exceptional way to get yourself more offense.

  • Passes Received: Often I hear "his/her teammates don't pass" - while this is true in SOME cases, often when I come to watch a game or do VIDEO REVIEW with clients, the reason they don't get passes from teammates is because they're NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE to get passes from teammates - this is something that is so incredibly important to your development and climbing the hockey ladder year after year. DON'T FORGET: if you get about 15 minutes of ice time in your game, I'm willing to bet you maybe had the puck for 1 minute (if you're lucky), so what are you doing the other 14 minutes to stand out individually and also help your team???

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