Stand Out with Often Overlooked Hockey Skills

As my oldest son turned 14, and at the level of hockey he was playing, I started to notice something I'd never noticed before.

Coaches were picking up on the details that had been completely overlooked in the past.

You know, the flat-brim society -- the dads that alternate corners every period to exclusively watch the offense -- were perplexed as players routinely buried on their own personal, openly discussed, depth charts were getting more and more ice time.

Doug? On the powerplay? What the hell is coach doing?

My kid plays defense and has been fortunate to have had a spot on the top pairing every single season he's played aside from one when we switched teams (and a couple of weeks ago for an NCDC camp).

He's never been a goal scorer.

Not really a points guy either -- secondary assists are seldomly awarded in youth hockey...

I mean, the number of tap-in goal scorers I've seen doing elaborate goal celebrations while having absolutely no regard for the guy who got them the puck is staggering.

It is what it is.

Let's just say this -- remind your kids to celebrate with teammates on the ice and not to rapidly skate away from them seeking a "look at me" Instagram reel.

It's a bad look -- and it'll hurt them down the road. I guarantee it.

Body language and just the way a player carries themself on the ice is the differentiator when everyone on the ice is skilled.

Anyway, my kid was often overlooked by those dads in the corner -- and a couple coaches too -- and I get it.

Evaluating defense is a tough concept when you only keep track of goals and always place blame on the defense and the goalie when the team loses.

Defense is strictly for kids that aren't good enough to play forward. Kills me that that belief will never die.

I've been at this a long time...seen it all.

But as I see those low end kids rising up the depth chart as teenagers, and you see this in professional hockey too when you pay attention to the no-namers that last 12+ years and 1000 games in the league, whether they play defense or not, it's more about how few mistakes you make in a game than how skilled you are.

Somewhere on this site I listed a bunch of guys that are considered randos...but have over 1000 NHL games played.

Craig Ludwig comes to mind -- just saw him on a Spittin' Chiclets snippet this week on social media and I'm sure a vast majority of their listeners don't even recognize his name and the few that do probably remember him as being the guy you didn't want out on the ice in video games...

Ugh, this dude sucks.

Except...that dude played over 1400 games in the NHL and never spent a day in the minors.

Scored 42 goals over a 17-year career. Retired a Stanley Cup champion.

Flat-brim dad's kid routinely has 42 goals by late October...but I'll tell you what, his kid is NOT going to the show.

And that's where the disconnect lies...

Complete players may not be exciting, invisible, even...but they're tremendously valuable to coaches that know what they're watching.

Complete players with high o-zone skills...well, those are the guys going D1 or getting drafted as 14- and 15-year-olds. Few and far between.

I personally know three of them.

Just three.

And I'd venture to say my kids have played alongside probably 750ish individual players to-date. It's an incredibly rare combo...and not one my kids have in their back pocket.

And so, as I've said many times before, we're playing the long game.

Not that I have NHL aspirations for my kids...but go out there and be a Craig Ludwig. Be a Travis Green. Be a Kirk Maltby. Be a Glen Wesley.

Get better each and every season.

Be consistent.

Protect the puck.

That's it -- working on those things is the secret to moving up the depth chart.

When my kids were mites, the owner of the program they skated for, a former NHLer, addressed the parents and exclaimed that "No one will ask you how many goals you scored as a mite. No one will ask you how many goals you scored as a squirts. No one will even ask you how many goals you scored as a peewee."

Pretty much none of us parents listened...but he was right.

Hilariously...in the decade that's passed since that night, I've twice been asked to provide "highlights" of my 10-year-old.

Yeah...squirt highlights?!

Pure comedy.

But also a red flag that the dude asking for highlights of squirt players doesn't get it. We'll never play there.

Not because we don't have highlights -- my youngest is 100% that "look at me" Instagram reel that I'm ashamed to call my own -- but because I know playing for a program that seeks stuff like that out won't benefit him as a hockey player. At all.

Tangent regarding "highlight" video requests...it does become a pretty common request as the kids get older and I know it caused a lot of stress in my oldest son.

Playing defense, there aren't SportsCenter level highlights to share.

He doesn't deke the goalie and go bar down in a game. Sheesh, if he's in the o-zone blue paint, something has gone drastically awry.

He didn't like my idea...but went with it anyway because he didn't have any other MP4 files to attach -- they wanted 3 videos.

We sent the coach two videos of stretch passes where he threaded the needle to a forward who couldn't finish, the often ignored pass was the highlight, and then one of him defending a 3-on-1 with the opponent scoring on a snipe where the puck carrier never even made a pass.

Captioned that one -- "Only player playing his position eliminated two players from the play."

Fifteen minutes after we submitted our info with the video clips, the coach texted looking for us to give him a call.

Point is -- that coach saw the value and understood exactly what we'd sent him.

In the sea of bar down goals he probably sees ad nauseum -- these were "tame" highlights that actually showcased the player's potential value. Kid knows his role.

I'm not going to say highlights and video clips don't have their place -- they absolutely do and, well, video doesn't lie...but coast-to-coast bar down efforts are a dime a dozen.

Youth sports are overflowing with pretenders (if you say you're AAA...you're probably not),hype-man fathers, and people who just don't know what they're watching...seek to get your player to stand out for less common reasons...like consistency, decision making, puck possession, and just being a teammate that makes the players around them better.

Hard to produce video clips of that type of stuff -- stretch passes on the tape and in stride are our go-to -- but that's what the people who matter are actually seeking. Playmakers.

So, like, try to refrain from "coaching" your kids to go coast-to-coast at any age.

It'll limit their opportunities. Might seem great in the moment...but it's a bad look.

And here's the thing I probably shouldn't mention but can't help myself as a hockey parent.

As each season passes, more and more players we've played with in the past with move on to other things and hang up the skates. Attrition at work -- nothing out of the ordinary.

But those of us that have been crossing paths since the kids were in learn to skate programs and then having our kids buried deep on the third line or, gasp, playing defense as mites, squirts, and peewees...but are still crossing paths in rink lobbies while our 16-, 17-, and 18-year olds are playing at a super high level...well, yes, we absolutely exchange nods and mischievous smiles at one another.

I see you. Well done. A job well done.

Hockey parenting 101, keep your eyes and ears open from day one. You're always within footsteps of someone whose lead you can follow -- my play right out of the gate was paying close attention to parents of teammates with older children playing hockey at the highest levels, asking questions all the time, and, lo and behold, I've got two right there at those higher levels leading into junior hockey and a third that hasn't fallen off the back yet!

Sure, hindsight is always 20/20...but I can't claim to be surprised by any of the faces, players and parents, I'm continually seeing each and every weekend for over a decade now.

Increasingly rare are the "didn't expect to see you here" moments.

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Agree? Disagree? Let me know -- I love the feedback from all angles!

Chris Rutsch

Hockey Dad

Year round, I spend a significant amount of time and money transporting my three boys to and from freezing cold ice rinks. Not because I expect them to make it to the NHL but because I know the rigorous youth hockey experience will serve them well in the future.