Some things I learned in Edmonton this past week
On the Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings, and goalie positioning
Greetings, again, from the airport.
I’m at airport today, Monday, because I’m headed to Dallas for a very cool hockey event tomorrow evening that’s been organized by my good buddy Gavin Spittle.
There will be a hockey meet-and-greet at 6 pm, followed by a live recording of the Spits & Suds podcast. It’s at BoomerJack’s Grill, I will be there along with some of my other hockey-loving friends and if you happen to be in DFW, you should join us.
My pal Robert Tiffin, has much more here, hope to see you there.
Since I last wrote in this space I spent about 50 hours in Edmonton for both the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and TCS Live, an annual coaches clinic I try to attend.
(I also played some Magic: The Gathering, with friends on Sunday afternoon in my brief stop at home, if you wanted to know that I am indeed a nerd even when it doesn’t come to hockey.)
Anywhom, I would highly suggest, if you want to be a hockey draft nerd this season, you catchup on the standouts from the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which Hadi Kalakeche compiled here for Elite Prospects.
Personally, I'm very excited about watching Landon DuPont, the presumptive No. 1 pick for the 2027 NHL Draft up close this season at Michigan. I was able to watch him at the Memorial Cup back in the spring and he cooked against his own age group at this event. The CHL to NCAA pipeline is a fascinating one, and still evolving, and I’m curios to see what a high-profile draft-year defenseman looks like.
Speaking of DuPont, I caught up with new Michigan hockey GM Andrew Brewer during the event about his role and the evolving state of hockey management for NCAA teams. That story is going to be published at EP later this week, I believe on Wednesday.
It’s a fascinating role, and it’s something that I think is going to play a big part in success for NCAA teams moving forward. Teams that have good GMs, who are essentially there to allow the coaches to focus on coaching, are going to have better long-term success.
OK, let’s get to some other things I learned in the past week, I hope this all connects in some shape or form.
On the Dallas Stars and the challenge of this season
I spoke with a couple people at Hlinka Gretzky that work for the Stars, and there are a couple key takeaways I had from inside the organization.
The Stars didn’t get better this offseason on paper. They know that, but it’s something that’s worth mentioning, and some of the same concerns/challenges fans have are creeping up for those who work for the team.
Mavrik Bourque was never going to be back in Dallas this season. I had many people push back against the thought that Jason Roberton’s deal and timing of it cost the Stars Mavrik Bourque. There was an offer sheet being prepared, the money wasn’t adding up, and Bourque got his bag. Dallas was only going to have the space if Robertson was gone completely, there was no way the team was going to keep Bourque if the deal had been done earlier in the summer.
There’s a lot of hoping, maybe call it praying, from those in the Stars organization that this season features a fully healthy Tyler Seguin that has turned back the clock a bit.
On the Detroit Red Wings and their GM search
The Detroit Red Wings still don’t have a GM.
What we do know is that right now Shawn Horcoff is handling the day-to-day of the Red Wings, but isn’t allowed to make trades. As one scout joked with me, his job is probably just a daily check-in with Simon Edvinsson’s agent.
The Red Wings have hired an outside firm to run the search, the chatter amongst those in Edmonton was that Detroit is using the same firm that Toronto used when it hired John Chayka.
I have not been able to confirm that, but it tracks with what I’ve heard about Detroit looking at an analytic-based GM potentially, and why the Red Wings may hire Tigers general manager Jeff Greenberg.
OK, let’s hop into one quick on-ice thing before I have to catch this flight to Dallas.
On goalie positioning and the RVH
I watched a presentation this past weekend from Tampa Bay Lightning goalie coach Frantz Jean on how he works with goalies on when and when not to use the RVH, the reverse-vertical horizontal.
I have written a lot about the RVH, and I plan to write about it more in the future.
On Wyatt Johnston's goal, the RVH, and an introduction to "The Panda"
A lot happened in Game 5 between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche.
But for today, I wanted to provide some visual aides on how an NHL goalie coach instructs his players on when and when not to go into the RVH.
Here is the map:
And here is another, more specific to the RVH usage.
The blue area on the map, the pre-load area is when a goalie should be in the RVH. As in pre-loaded into the RVH for a save selection.
If the puck isn’t in that blue area, the goalie should not be in the RVH and they should be on their feet.
I caught up with a Jean a bit after his prevention too, and wanted to get his view on how the RVH has become a bad word and ripped consistently on broadcasts.
He compared it to golf club selection, who the RVH should be treated like a golfer uses a wedge. You can hit the best wedge shot in the world, but if you hit it when you should be hitting driver, it’s quite useless.
As Jean put it, we’ve seen such a ripping of the technique, and not the selection of when to use it.
OK, that’s what I’ve got for today, We will have more later this week. Hopefully see some of you at the event tomorrow night.