When Paul Vincent first made his way into the NHL nearly 20 years ago for the Tampa Bay Lightning, the legendary skating coach sat in on a few scouting meetings. He remembered the parameters teams followed when crafting their personnel during a time when the game of hockey was better known for its gritty, rough-and-tough style.
“Defenseman had to be 6-foot-3 or bigger,” Vincent said. “A forward 6-1 or bigger. And those were the rules.”
Those rules, now, seem far distant. There’s still an undeniable physical edge to the game, but there’s a greater emphasis on speed and skill – a transformation that’s been underway for a few years. More so than ever, it’s changed how players approach the offseason and the work they put in during long summer months.
Consider the Bruins roster and three of their defenseman – Charlie McAvoy, Torey Krug, and Matt Grzelcyk. McAvoy is 6 feet. Krug and Grzelcyk are 5-9. Two decades ago, they’d be considered undersized forwards, let alone patrollers of the blue line. When the Bruins signed David Backes two years ago, the former Blues power forward focused on becoming a slimmer, sleeker wing.
“Even 10 years ago, if you said Matt Grzelcyk was going to play in the NHL, people would’ve laughed at you,” Vincent said. “If you look at the Bruins D, three of them are under 6-1. Size no longer becomes a factor if you have an elite skill set. In the past guys, would just go in the gym and lift and lift and lift. Now they spend the time learning how to develop their skills."
Players work diligently with gurus such as Vincent, the 71-year-old Beverly native who currently is the skating and skills coach for the Florida Panthers – the fifth NHL team he’s worked for, including the Bruins from 2002-07.
Around the same time Vincent began in the NHL, Ben Prentiss hatched a facility called BodyTuning, which ultimately became Prentiss Hockey Performance – an 8,000 square-foot facility in Stamford, Connecticut.
“When I first started in 2000 basically strength and conditioning in hockey just started,” Prentiss said. “Al MacInnis, Keith Tkachuk, Chris Pronger, Jeremy Roenick, those guys were the first crop of guys in terms of strength and conditioning the right way, not so much just show up and ride the bike while you’re drinking a beer, that type of mentality.”
Prentiss works with at least two dozen current NHLers, including McAvoy and Krug. Doubling as the director of hockey performance at Boston University, Prentiss has trained McAvoy the last three seasons. He’s worked with Krug since the 27-year-old’s senior year at Michigan State, when he relocated to Connecticut to work exclusively with Prentiss.
“Torey, and he wouldn't mind me saying, was very chubby,” Prentiss said. “He had no idea how to weight train. No idea how to eat. Didn't have any voice in his ear.”
Each summer, players relocate to Connecticut for specialized training. Vegas forward James Neal did it last summer after he was left unprotected by the Nashville Predators in the expansion draft.
The emphasis for Prentiss is overseeing a highly personalized program for each player. The goal is to guide them to a successful recovery from a grueling season so they can be in peak shape when training camp starts in September.
The process is always gradual. Neal, like all players that come through PHP, underwent a whole-body assessment to determine his physical health and what foods will provide the best nutritional needs. Then comes a visit with a chiropractor, and then gradual steps toward training.
The program is broken down into three-to-five week blocks, with a heavy focus on structural strengthening exercises for hips, knees, ankles, and shoulders. Often times, players won’t skate until later in the summer.
Clayton Keller, the Coyotes 19-year-old forward and former BU standout, arrives five days a week for a 10 a.m. workout. He’ll follow the hour workout with a soft tissue doctor, and then at night return for low-impact aerobic conditioning, such as running in a pool or on sand.
“All of these guys are a mess at the end of the season,” Prentiss said. “Charlie McAvoy, for example, played 97 games including World Championships. “People don't understand the abuse an NHL guy takes on a nightly basis. We gotta take all of that into account and get them healthy before you can worry about cool shit like box jumps and all these cool things people see. What you don’t see is the boring (exercises), but that’s what builds them up from a long season.”
To Prentiss’ point, McAvoy hasn’t even begun his summer training yet.
On-ice skill coaches, similar to Vincent, are now common among NHL teams and work diligently during the season. Kim Brandvold is the Bruins skating consultant and is often responsible for helping players return to in-game shape after an injury. He also puts the players, both with the Boston Bruins and in Providence, through skating and skill exercises on "maintenance days."
Still, many skating coaches work part-time and run their own clinics in the summer. Brandvold works with Dynamic Skating, which is run by Malden Catholic coach John McClean. Brandvold was also the coach at Central Catholic, a post he stepped down from in May.
"His role has been expanding," Bruins GM Don Sweeney said at the Scouting Combine. "You’ve now seen him on the ice with the NHL guys with regularity based on what’s happening in Providence. He’s done some evaluations for us, breaking down some players that are draft eligible and their skating abilities and such. We’ve looked at a little bit of a development and continue to expand without taking away the primary focus of Providence and it all revolves around what his availabilities are there and bleeds over into what Bruce (Cassidy), who is very comfortable having Kim with him out on the ice in situations for players, (is doing)."
Vincent takes a step-by-step approach similar to Prentiss, though more of his work is focused on the ice. In addition to his NHL tenure, he’s worked as a consultant for a variety of colleges such as Boston College and RPI. What he brings to the ice is 45 years of experience, and when he returns to Massachusetts in the summer he oversees skills camps of all ages scattered along the shore. There are ones at Hockeytown in Saugus, one in Springfield, and another in Canton. Vincent works with elite prospects and NHL players in Falmouth.
His client list includes the likes of Ian McCoshen, Alex Biega, Eric Gudbranson, Daniel Carr, and about a dozen others. In the past, he's worked with Bruins Adam McQuaid, Krug, and is a close friend and consultant of Adam Oates.
For Biega, a 30-year-old veteran, the goal is to improve his initial breakout strides and his hands when receiving passes. Vincent starts with a film breakdown, identify a comparable player with a similar body type, and works on emulating what that player does well. The next step is modifying those techniques for Biega, who Vincent describes as a visual learner.
“Alex is an older player, and he’s not even that old, but we’re trying to get some of the wash off of him from years of somebody not breaking his skill down like I do,” Vincent said. “My goal is putting the puzzle together, then putting a lot of stress on them to make them go at a high rate of speed after we’ve developed all the fundamental stuff.”
The Vegas Golden Knights seemed to capture the right formula for what style of play works in the NHL in the era after the lockout in 2003-04. They have the right mix of speed and strength, the balance that has buoyed teams to Stanley Cup success. Of the Golden Knights band of castoffs, six forwards who played in the Final against the Capitals were 6 feet or smaller. Their top defenseman, Nate Schmidt, is 6-1.
As they proved in their magical run during their first season, size hardly matters in the modern NHL, where elite skill and skating ability takes precedent.
“The game has become so technical that every team has some sort of a skills coach,” Vincent said. There are players hanging onto the league, but they’re kinda dinosaurs coming down to the end. They stay on the team for other reasons. They’re leaders. If you can’t skate, you can’t play.”
_____________________
_____________________