09/11/2026
What does it really take?
When Kris was around 12 or 13, DeLo, the Head Player Skills Coach for Progressive Hockey Development at the time asked me what Kris needed to do to get to the next level. DeLo had gotten very close with Kris' family. I told DeLo that the kid's skills and techniques were very refined for his age and he was just about as good of a goalie as it gets for a kid of 12/13 years old. The only thing he really needed was to do everything quicker and faster.
DeLo, who was about to begin Physical Therapy school to become a doctor and a full time PT, began working with Kris off-ice with strength and conditioning. In 3 months, Kris' game began to hit another level of play. Quicker in the net and moving faster. He was becoming a very good goalie.
We always knew the importance of off-ice training, but to see the development first hand was incredible to witness. Applying off-ice strength and conditioning to on-ice skills development produced tangible results and it didn't take very long to witness the improvement.
Kris' road was still long. From Little Capitals to Team Maryland to Colorado Thunderbirds to the USHL to the NAHL, then to NCAA D-1 at Providence College, then almost to Norwich University before landing at NCAA D-1 Alaska Anchorage and finally to NCAA D-1 Long Island University to complete his college hockey career. Perseverance. Patience. Continued hard work. Being a great kid on and off the ice.
Concerning being a great kid, I'll also share how things can often work in the very small world of hockey.
Providence College decided that they were going in a different direction and they did not have Kris in their plans. At that moment, he faced challenges transferring to another NCAA D-1 school where he could play, so he was about to settle on NCAA D-III Norwich University. (Norwich and D-III are hardly "settling") I recall telling him that with him in goal, Norwich would contend for a National Championship every year. However, I had to admit that I still regarded Kris as a D-1 level goalie, so I was somewhat disappointed.
Not long after, I was in Boston for our The Goalie Academy Elite Camp and in my hotel room about to go out for some Italian food in the North End, when, out of nowhere, the goalie coach for Cornell University called me. I had coached this guy when he was a player when I coached for Reading Royals of the ECHL. Prior to that he was at USNDTP and Ohio State University. He had coached at our Elite camp for years, but couldn't make it that particular summer. In any event, he asked what Kris was doing. I told him that he was planning on going to Norwich, but that I wished that he had another opportunity at D-1 because that is the caliber goalie he was. The Cornell coach said that he just received a call from the Head Coach at Alaska-Anchorage and that they needed a goalie right away. I told him that I would call Kris and the rest is history. He went to Alaska-Anchorage and then played a fifth, "red shirt" year at LIU.
I relay this story for several reasons:
1. On-ice training and off-ice training need to go hand in hand if you really want to fulfill your potential as a player. There are no exceptions.
2. To that end, off-ice training now, if it is with the correct coaches and program that know how to target training to make you quicker and faster and stronger and build endurance, is so much better than it has ever been. I cannot endorse All-In Performance (Ken Hetzel's program) enough. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY!
3. Reaching goals of playing at high levels takes a lot of hard work for many years and even then nothing is guaranteed. But if you don't put in that time and that work, then you have little to no chance.
4. It takes more than working hard on-ice and off-ice. It also takes being an excellent, respectful person. The Cornell coach remembered Kris from camps. When the Anchorage coach called him, he thought of Kris, and believe me, it wasn't just because he thought he was a solid goalie. It's because he didn't mind helping out a great kid! The Cornell coach did not have to make the call to me. He could have just said that he really didn't know anyone that would meet the Alaska coach's needs.
IMPORTANT!: When coaches take the time and the effort to recommend a player, the coaches have to be sure that they, the coach, is going to be represented well be the player he or she is recommending. It is the coach's reputation in the world of hockey that is on the line. I don't think players and parents consider that fact nearly enough. Make sure that you do.
5. The Hockey World is SMALL. Much smaller than people think. Who in the world would have thought that the Alaska coach knew the Cornell coach, who knew me, who knew Kris. Welcome to the real network! You have no idea who knows who and how many degrees of separation it takes to get to the coach of the place where you want to play. From where did the Cornell coach know the Alaska coach? I don't know. Was it youth hockey, junior, college, maybe pro? Was it playing or coaching? Was it hockey camp? Not sure. I actually still don't know, but I know that I knew the Cornell coach from coaching him and that connection branches out to hockey everywhere both foreign and domestic.
The moral of this story is; Work hard, both on and off the ice, and keep your nose level and clean!
True story from the Real World of Hockey
