The Video Room: Thinking outside the box in player development

As hockey training becomes more specialized – and expensive – than ever for young players and their parents, is going back to basics the best way to foster growth?

Recently, I sat down for an informal postseason talk with one of our first-year players at McGill University. This player went from a top-line playmaker on her junior team to playing sparingly on a very deep team at the collegiate level, and wanted to get a better sense of what she needs to do during the offseason to improve her game.

As we chatted, she related her plan for working three part-time jobs over the summer in order to afford private strength training and skills development lessons, which cost up to $200 per hour. It’s…