TORONTO – There might be no hockey fan in Canada more in tune with the country’s current goaltending concerns than the man tasked with assembling the 2014 Olympic team.
And Steve Yzerman fully acknowledges that the development model for the position merits examination.
“You look at Sweden and Finland, small countries, (they) seem to be producing a lot,” Yzerman said Thursday at the NHL draft combine. “We should be studying: What are they doing? Why are there so many goalies? (We need to look at) the techniques, the system.
“We should look at it to try and get better, we have to. If you sit and always do the same thing over and over and over you’re going to get passed by.”
While Yzerman indicated that he’s “not concerned” about the goaltending pool he has to pick from for the Olympic tournament next February, he did seem warm to the idea of potentially barring Europeans from playing that position in the Canadian Hockey League.
As first reported by Damien Cox in Thursday’s Toronto Star, the CHL and Hockey Canada met to discuss that possibility earlier this week. Those organizations are looking at keeping junior teams from using an import spot in the crease moving forward.
“The bottom line is that goalies need to play,” said Yzerman. “It’s hard. They need to play. They need minutes.
“And there’s only so many nets.”
Even though there is still no agreement in place guaranteeing that NHL players will participate in a fifth straight Games, Yzerman and his management staff are proceeding as normal. They have plans to get together next month to discuss players and still hope to hold a camp in Calgary at the end of August.
There is currently no sure-fire pick for Canada’s No. 1 job at the Olympics.
Roberto Luongo, Carey Price, Cam Ward, Mike Smith, Marc-Andre Fleury, Martin Brodeur and Devan Dubnyk have been mentioned as possibilities and Yzerman indicated that Chicago Blackhawks starter Corey Crawford is “kind of emerging” as well.
Beyond that, he was reluctant to discuss specific players.
“I’m hesitant to throw out a name because I don’t want to put any undue pressure or any unfair expectation on anybody,” said Yzerman. “We take note of everybody.”
This is a familiar position for Tampa Bay Lightning general manager, who also served as executive director of the 2010 Olympic squad that claimed gold in Vancouver. Luongo backstopped that team to gold after taking the job from Brodeur early in the tournament.
A hot start to next season by one of the main contenders will likely be enough to wrap up a spot in the Canadian crease.
It would also quiet some of the discussion about the country’s far-reaching struggles at that position.
“I think it’s a little bit in transition – and I’m talking at all levels, not just with the NHL,” said Yzerman.
Canada has failed to get top results in international events over the last couple years. The country has been eliminated in the quarter-finals of the IIHF World Hockey Championship the last four years and last won a world junior title in 2009.
Yzerman was in charge of the world championship entry that fell short in Stockholm earlier this month. That team featured the likes of Steven Stamkos, Eric Staal and Claude Giroux – players that learned a valuable lesson and might also be in Sochi.
“These tournaments teach us to enjoy winning (like) we can because it’s hard to do it,” said Yzerman. “One-game eliminations, don’t take anything for granted.
“They’re good experiences, they really are,” he continued. “The more of them you play in, win or lose, the more comfortable you are.”
If Yzerman has learned anything during his extensive involvement with international hockey as both a player and executive, it’s that the gap between Canada and other nations has narrowed considerably over the years.
As a result, he knows it will be awfully difficult for Team Canada to defend its Olympic gold in Russia next year.
“With these international events, we want to win them,” said Yzerman. “I think it’s unrealistic now to expect we’re going to win every time and we have to deal with that.
“That forces us to look at all these things and (ask): `Is there a better way to do it?’”