The NDL, Rebound Control Myths, and Coaching Pet Peeves

Episode: 152 Hosts: Jamie Phillips and Buj Recorded: Monday, October 5, 2026 The NDL Explained The National Development League is USA Hockey's attempt to create a Quad A tier with 36 to 40 teams, structured like a junior hockey organization, designed to feed the USHL. Teams would operate at U15 and U17 levels with unlimited out-of-state American players and a cap of two international players per roster. For Fox Motors Hockey, it is a damned-if-you-do situation. Join and risk losing local bubble players to travel costs and distance. Don't join and risk becoming a second-tier AAA organization that bleeds top players at 15 and 16. The rumored rule banning NDL players from signing with major junior programs would be fatal. It pushes the best American players away from the league entirely before it ever gets started. Buj's solution, stated for the fourth year running: just make the USHL part of the CHL. NCAA International Player Cap A rumored 20% cap on international players in NCAA D1 hockey came up as a side discussion. Jamie doesn't think it survives the legal exposure. Buj, as a Canadian, admits he'd welcome it. Both agree it would accelerate the fracture of the NCAA model and hand the CHL back its dominance over the junior-to-college pathway. Pet Peeve 1: Changing Stance on Day One of Camp Jamie's biggest one this year. Goalies coming back from high-performance camps convinced their stances are broken after a single ice session. The problem: you cannot evaluate a stance in structured drills with stationary shooting. You need to see a goalie in real situations, under read pressure, over multiple days. Changing a goalie's stance without that context undoes years of development, creates self-doubt, and makes them play uncomfortable. There is no universal perfect stance. Let the goalie be athletic first, then make targeted changes if something is demonstrably not working. Buj's example from the day before recording: a smaller U15 goalie playing extremely wide, equipment too big, pre-programmed to drop straight down. Only after 30 reps of the same miss pattern did a stance adjustment become warranted. He explained why, pointed to Lucas Dol of Anaheim as a reference, and let the goalie decide. That is the right process. Pet Peeve 2: Making Changes Without Explaining Why When goalies can't explain why they do something, you've built a robot. Both coaches emphasize teaching goalies to understand their game, not just follow instructions. Example: a goalie doing a blocker-side elbow wrap on the post with no idea why, because a coach told him to. The fix was explaining the dead arm concept, walking through all the transitions it enables, and letting the goalie decide if it felt better. It did. Changes stick when goalies understand the reason behind them. Pet Peeve 3: Fix It at the Next Level Thinking Making preemptive changes based on hypothetical future problems. Nobody knows what will or won't work at the next level until a goalie gets there. You risk creating present-level problems by dismantling what's currently working. Example: a high-level college goalie being pushed toward more RVH use before playing a single pro game. Jamie's position: if it's not broken at your current level, don't fix it. When you get to the next level and something doesn't work, fix it then. The Roberto Luongo Rebound Control Story Two years in New York working exclusively on rebound control. It never improved. He got traded to Florida. New goalie coach simplified the approach: you give up rebounds, so let's work on tracking them out and repositioning. Hall of Fame career followed. The lesson: rebound control is not a skill you directly train. What you train is tracking, positioning, and balance. Stay square through the shot, track the puck off your body, and the rebound goes where your body naturally puts it. Goalies who say they need to work on rebound control are usually being coached to steer pucks rather than read and react, which creates worse outcomes on both the original shot and the rebound. Pro Coaching vs. Private Coaching An honest conversation about the career crossroads both coaches face. Moving up the pro coaching ladder means censoring opinions, accepting being the whipping boy when goals go in, and playing a political game neither of them is interested in right now. The Sheldon Keefe screaming at Steve Briere clip from the Leafs Amazon Prime series is referenced as the most accurate depiction of what the job actually looks like. Jamie's stated preference on record: AHL, ECHL, and prospects development. That's where the development work actually happens. If anyone in a position of power is listening, he wants the development role, not the NHL bench. Gear Corner Bower's new one-piece skate with a connected boot has surfaced in leaked retail brochure images. The concept checks both boxes: the performance stiffness of a fused one-piece boot with the flexibility benefits of the connected system. Buj wore one-piece Trues when playing in Manitoba and loved them but switched out because a broken component meant no skates at all. The newer iteration reportedly addresses that. Both coaches are excited to get them on feet. CCM TAC line pads and glove: genuinely good. Jamie's working with a U14 AAA goalie in them. The V cutout in the blocker cuff near the stick improves grip and squeeze for puck handling. Small design detail, real on-ice difference. Jamie's takeaway from the CCM summit in Montreal: the engineering hours that go into one small design change are significant, which goes some way toward explaining the price. Flow Drills Not a fan at any age. Buj's preference is five minutes of flow to warm up, then real hockey: two-on-ones, three-on-twos, small area games, PK situations. That's where reads actually develop. Everything should be connected and purposeful from U9 on up. If a coach is running 40 minutes of flow, you're not going to change their philosophy. Coach with people who share your philosophy. Shoutouts Madden Omera and Matthew Brownley earned their first official AAA starts at the Toronto Titans tournament in their U16 draft year. Both had been DA goalies all the way up. The message: not playing AAA at U14 or U15 does not end your journey. Charlotte Payne: another win for Delaware women's D1 hockey, 35 saves on 36 shots against Lynnwood. The Blue Hens are building. Code: GOALIESCIENCE16 for 30 days free in the Ghost Goaltending Club. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.