New ways to think about hockey for kids
Pandemic has pushed B.C. associations to consider changes to how the game is structured
“The uncertainty about the world and the fall is really what’s on everybody’s mind,” says B.C. Hockey CEO Barry Petrachenko.
Hockey associations are used to the metronomic pattern of their year. League and playoffs would have long wrapped up by now. Provincial championships, too. Registrars would be getting set for next season’s registrations.
But, like almost everything else, the novel coronavirus pandemic has put those plans on hold. No one knows when the new season will start. Even the provincial association’s summer elite development programs are on the verge of being postponed.
And yet, it’s proven far easier for Petrachenko and his colleagues to wrangle themselves together for planning meetings.
“This time of year, all of our volunteers tend to move on to lacrosse and soccer and baseball and other sports, so we usually can’t get them in this key planning time where now we’re running weekly meetings with them online,” he says with a small chuckle that suggests a grin.
Petrachenko and his staff have been meeting with member associations to go over issues like should they try holding their AGMs virtually and should they continue with the registration process but perhaps hold off on collecting fees for the coming season?
“You don’t want to end up in a bunch of refund situations or put stress on families who may not be able to pay right now,” he says.
They’ll also looking to push out home workouts and skills training videos through their social media channels.
Most intriguingly, however, is what else they realized the pause in activity is allowing for: Thinking about how hockey’s schedule could perhaps be made to look a little different.
“I’m not jumping up and down because we’re in a crisis but everything’s an opportunity as well, and if we’re smart about it, we might be able to maybe utilize this as an opportunity,” he says. “Sometimes your own system locks you into certain things, and I’m not trying to change everything about our world but if there’s an opportunity to change a few things then I think we should look at that.”
Over the past two decades — prompted by Hockey Canada’s
summits, which called for a renewed focus on skill development and building more player-centred models — plenty of tweaks have been made to how minor hockey operates. Among those changes was a revolution at the introductory level, with the old tyke and novice divisions being turned into the “Hockey Initiation” program, and the focus put on skill development and playing games in smaller formats, allowing for players to touch the puck more.
Locally, the creation of the B.C. Major Midget League in 2004, which has been complemented in the last few years by minor midget and now major bantam leagues, made for a more focused pathway for elite players. That allowed local associations to redirect their energies back toward grassroots development.
“Locally, too many minor hockey associations had put too much money already into elite players, hiring elite coaches who were getting paid a good salary to coach, but I felt like that meant house hockey kids were being neglected,” says Jimmy Ghuman, who spent 14 years coaching rep hockey, including stints with the BCMML’s North East Chiefs and Team B.C.
Now he’s back in the grassroots, helping out with his sixyear-old son’s hockey initiation program in North Vancouver.
Associations are better at taking care of their whole pathway now, Ghuman says.
The efforts made to make hockey initiation’s focus all about fun and skill development, aided by deploying paid skill coaches to work with the parent coaches at the youngest age groups, have paid off, he says.
“The talent we have now coming out of minor hockey are more skilled than we saw 10 years ago,” Ghuman says.
There’s a reality that while B.C. Hockey and its members are hopeful they can return on their usual schedule at the beginning of September, there’s a likelihood of having to wait until October or November.
“When we do get back to playing hockey and gathering in arenas, in communities, if it’s a little delayed, then perhaps we have to look at our seasonal structure,” Petrachenko said. “Maybe it’s an opportunity to get more players involved on a shorter term session, that sort of thing, who maybe wouldn’t normally register for a full season of hockey but might be interested to try for a couple of months. And on that tight time frame, things that we haven’t been able to offer in the past might become options and we just want to be ready for that sort of thing when we get back.
“We’re always trying to make the game better and we are going to come into a time frame here in the next few weeks where we’ve done our planning for our standard programming and we’re going to be able to get into some really interesting discussions about what the game can look like when we come back.”
Ghuman is intrigued to hear that Petrachenko and his colleagues are pondering new approaches to scheduling.
“We can have a lasting impact for generations. It could work out better,” he says. “We should always being thinking outside the box.”
Voices of real reason are hard to find in any NHL locker-room.
Some players talk without saying anything while others are politically correct. Then there are those who stare at a microphone like it’s the barrel of a gun and cough up a few clichés before making quick exits.
It’s why taking the true competitive pulse of the Vancouver Canucks — everything from on-ice performance, office intangibles and why unrestricted free agent winger Tyler Toffoli deserves a contract extension — falls on those who have a performance pedigree and are wired to tell it like it is.
In the past, that was Mikael Samuelsson.
He won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2008, had a 30-goal season with the Canucks in 2009-10, and his critical edges were sharp when asked to address team shortcomings.
Today, that guy is J.T. Miller. He has been on the gut-wrenching side of two Eastern Conference Game 7 home-ice losses, with the New York Rangers in 2015 and Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018.
Deemed expendable last June, he is the league’s best trade acquisition in the past year, leads the Canucks with a career-best 72 points (27-45), and ranks 17th in league scoring.
Miller is also second overall in faceoff efficiency (59.2 per cent) and the first to give any teammate verbal assurance or an acid-tongue lashing for indifferent play. Cut from an old-school cloth, he has brought an admirable level of effort and leadership without wearing a letter.
Who better to ask about a new Toffoli deal?
It’s not just meshing with a talented new linemate that excites Miller. It’s how Toffoli plays in the hard areas, how quickly he can take a puck in his skates and find the top of the net with a flick of his wrist.
It’s how hard he is on himself to be defensively responsible, and how driven he is to be a difference-maker.
“He’s super predictable,” said Miller. “It’s when you start playing the other way that you start hoping a lot and that’s not good. You know the puck is getting in deep and (Toffoli) is going to be in the right spot. That’s easy to play with. And he’s bigger than people realize.
“He’s a solid dude and good around the net.”
That’s quite the compliment for a player who has played just 10 games for Vancouver after being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings in a Feb. 17 trade. Toffoli has responded with 10 points (6-4), and a snapshot of his present and future worth was on display two days before the season was placed on pause March 12 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a 5-4 shootout win over the New York Islanders at Rogers Arena, Toffoli scored with a quick release off an Elias Pettersson pass and also set up Bo Horvat on a power-play effort.
“Winning is fun, it’s contagious and we’ve got to do more of it,” Toffoli said at the time. “We’ve been playing playoff hockey ever since I got here.”
His quick snap release startled goalie Semyon Varlamov.
“You’ve got to get (the puck) up because he slides across with big legs,” added Toffoli. “And with the things that (Pettersson) and (Miller) do, you’ve got to be ready at all times. They’re good at holding onto pucks and making plays in tight spaces, and if anything, I can do a better job of shooting the puck quicker.”
In a season split between L.A. and Vancouver, Toffoli has 24 goals and 44 points in 68 games, which places him seventh in club scoring.
So, what’s all this worth? Miller’s contract might be a good starting comparable.
Miller has three more seasons at an annual US$5.25 million salary cap hit that now looks like a bargain — despite the conditional first-round pick to be surrendered in the Lightning swap — because he is playing like a high draft selection.
Toffoli has three 20-goal seasons and a 30-goal campaign, and is going to get a good bump on his expiring $4.6-million cap hit. But how high?
Two years ago, Jason Zucker signed a five-year, $27.5-million extension with the Minnesota Wild after amassing 33 goals and 64 points. He has also had four 20-goal seasons and the consistency got him money, term and a $5.5-million cap hit. That should resonate with Toffoli and the Canucks on some level because the tradeoff for salary is always term.
Toffoli turns 28 on April 24 and has turned the competitive corner after a rough start to the season in Los Angeles.
The 2014 Stanley Cup winner was scratched Oct. 30 in a 5-3 home-ice loss to the Canucks, and with just 13 points in the first 30 games, he was demoted to the fourth line. However, he rebounded with 21 points in his next 28 games to prove his mettle.
“Definitely a tough time personally,” Toffoli recalled. “I stayed with my game and got through it, and since then my game has been the best it’s been in a long time.”
Toffoli has made a seamless transition to a city he loves and has been reunited with former Kings linemate Tanner Pearson.
“I don’t want to talk for him, but I think he has liked his time here,” said the Canucks winger.
If that’s not enough, Toffoli was also a Canucks killer.
Three games after being recalled by the Kings in November of 2013, Toffoli had two goals and an assist in a 5-1 win over the Canucks. He would amass 13 career goals and 21 points against Vancouver in 28 games.
“I always enjoyed coming into the city,” he said. “And I’ve always had my shot. It was never one of those things were I had the hardest shot, but I was able to get it off in tight spaces and that obviously helped.”
So did understanding both ends of the rink.
Toffoli will hustle hard in retreat to angle players off pucks and that’s a rare trait for an offensively gifted, hotshot junior, who had a pair of 50-goal OHL seasons with Ottawa and was named top AHL rookie.
“That was one of the main things when I was trying to make the Kings,” Toffoli said of his two-way game.
“To be able to play for Darryl Sutter and Dean Lombardi, the most important thing was to make plays on the wall so you’re not stuck in your zone.
“And when you are, you’ve got to take care of it. That’s how I got in the league and one of the things I take pride in. You need to do it to stay in the league.”