Canadian Goaltending Development: Crisis or Challenge?
Rod Wisco and Asia Wisco Almost a decade ago, some hockey observers declared that Canadian goaltending development was in a state of crisis. By using minutes played in the NHL as a measurement of Canadian goaltending success, we will argue that there was a crisis in the Canadian crease earlier than previously thought. In the early part of the last decade, some hockey observers noted that Canada was facing a goaltending crisis. In the spring of 2013, Damian Cox summarized the arguments being put forth that Canadian goaltending was indeed in trouble. The multi-year drought of gold medals in the IIHF World Junior Tournament was thought to be, in part, due to a lack of goaltending excellence and depth. Only one of eight (Corey Crawford of the Blackhawks) of the starting goalies in the second round of the NHL playoff rounds at the time was Canadian. The three finalists for the Vezina Trophy that season were all Europeans: New York’s Henrik Lundqvist (Sweden), Antti N...
