W W W . WESTERN ELITE HOCKEY . C O M



Welcome to the Blog home of Western Elite Hockey. We will discuss upcoming events, training strategies, player bios, special interviews as well as general hockey talk. If you have off-ice training questions, ask away. Maybe the answer to your question will be the next article. If you are an elite level player and want to be featured, contact us.



Friday, April 30, 2010

2010 Bantam Draft

Western Elite Hockey wants to congratulate our current and past members that were drafted into the WHL in the 2010 Bantam draft on April 29th.

#5 Morgan Klimchuk
#45 Brett Zarowny
#62 Jaedon Descheneau
#127 Tyson Predinchuk
#132 Ryan Rehill
#240 Macklin Pichonsky

Way to go guys.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Special Announcement - Tim Fragle to Coach

Western Elite Hockey is proud to announce that Tim Fragle will be the head coach of one of the teams at the 2010 Western Elite Prospects Game.
Tim is a Nait graduate in Business Management (specializing in Human Resources). During his time at Nait he played for the Nait Ooks hockey team, where he was the captain for 2 seasons. Tim played junior hockey with the Trail Smokeeaters from 1997-1999 and the Sherwood Park Crusaders 1999-2000. Tim also captained both of these teams.


Tim has 12 years coaching experience; he has coached the Canadian Athletic Club Bantam AAA, Fort Saskatchewan Midget AAA, five seasons as head coach of the Canadian Athletic Club Midget AAA hockey team and is currently the Assistant Coach of the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Tim is a qualified NCCP high performance Advanced 1 coach and has been the Head Instructor for the Nait hockey school for the last 5 years. Tim coached the Edmonton South Bruins for the Alberta Cup and has help with Hockey Alberta under seventeen programs as well. He is also currently the Director of Hockey Operations for the Northern Alberta Selects Hockey Club. Tim is also an Associate Director at the Vimy Ridge Hockey Academy

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Player of the Game Award

Western Elite Hockey would like to thank United Cycle Sports for thier partnership in our 2009 and 2010 Elite Bantam Camps.
United Cycle has once again stepped up to the plate and donated a Bauer One95 stick valued at $260.00
The One95 stick will be awarded to the player of the game from Team Black in the Western Elite Prospects game on Saturday July 31st, 2010.

United Cycle Sports is Edmonton's premier supplier of hockey equipment with over 100 000 square feet of sport related shopping.
Special thanks to the staff for their continued support.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Special Announcement - Craig Simpson to Coach

Western Elite Hockey is proud to announce that Craig Simpson is to be the head coach of one of the teams at the 2010 Western Elite Prospects Game.

Craig was drafted in the 1st Round, 2nd overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1985 NHL Entry Draft. Midway through his third NHL season, he was traded as part of a package to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Paul Coffey. Simpson blossomed in Edmonton, playing on a line with future Hall of Famers Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson. He scored a career high 56 regular season goals during the 1987–88 season, and won two Stanley Cups with the Oilers, in 1988 and 1990. He would be dealt to the Buffalo Sabres prior to the 1993-94 season.

Simpson suffered a serious back injury in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 1, 1993. Though he continued to play, the injury would eventually end his playing career at age 28. He retired as a player in 1996, finishing with 497 career NHL points. He holds the record for best career shooting percentage with a 23.66% mark.

Simpson joined his former team, the Edmonton Oilers, in 2005 and served as an assistant coach of the team. He helped lead the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2005–06 season.


Currently Craig is the color commentator along with Jim Hughson who does play by play on CBC Hockey Night in Canada’s marquee games.


The 2010 Western Elite Prospects Game will be held on July 31st at the Kinsmen Arena in Edmonton.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Star on the rise

Another 2010 Western Elite Hockey Camp attendee has had a great finish to his season. Defenceman Matej Kolar and his team, HC Sparta Prague, just won silver in the 1996 Born Czech Republic National Hockey Championships.
At 5'9" and 140Lbs, this smooth skating defenceman shows great poise when skating the puck out of his zone. Good hands and vision of the ice will have a number of North American major junior teams watching him closely in the coming years.


Way to go Matej, see you this July.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Coach Darryl Belfry in the Class Room

This is a great video with Coach Darryl discussing the mind set of a hockey player as he tries to climb up the depth chart of his team.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Post Season Transition

By Peter Twist, BPE MPE CSCS, Strength & Conditioning Coach, Vancouver Canucks

To prepare a master plan for the summer, coaches need to consider how to make a successful transition from a long season, intense playoff, and the summer developmental phase. Your goal is to recover from minor injuries and fatigue while preparing the mind and body for off-season training.

If your team enjoyed post-season play, your players went through a grueling regular season and then were in a peak output condition throughout playoffs. They have drawn upon every available reserve—including physical, physiological, mental, emotional, and hormonal components. Some players immediately cease all activity and are sedentary until their summer conditioning program begins. This can be problematic. Since playoff teams have a shorter summer phase, it is important to maintain a base of fitness to work off of, as opposed to allowing yourself to become completely deconditioned. A general base will allow you to make a quicker improvement you can accomplish within the summer period before camp begins.

Additionally, while you need time to rest and repair, you also need a transitional unloading phase. The body, mind and spirit need time to adjust from a peak output environment to one of rest and recovery. Your body’s mechanisms for recovery and repair do a better job with light activity. Active regeneration will help facilitate the process of unloading, allowing your muscles, organs, hormones, mind (etc.) time to unwind, gear down and recover. Activities that are low impact and low stress can be prescribed with a moderate intensity three times per week. If players are together, activities should be characterized by play, cooperation, and fun. If players are on their own, they should use a variety of activities that they personally enjoy. Swimming, cycling, 2-on-2 volleyball, hiking, tag football, Frisbee throwing, and pick up games from various sports are suitable. The purpose is to achieve mainly aerobic exercise within an activity that also has lateral movement and anaerobic components.

I also prescribe a low volume full body strength training workout twice per week, followed by static stretching. Three sets per muscle group is sufficient. I encourage players to complete this outside the weight room, using body weight exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, step-ups, squats, and lunges. Smaller muscle groups are accommodated with surgical tubing or using a partner to apply manual resistance.

Being active and having fun in an unstructured environment is a key factor in the body’s, mind’s and spirit’s response to tapering down from the playoffs to active rest and recovery and on to the generality and intensity of initial off-season training. Stay off the ice and out of the weight room, but utilize an active transition with pick up games and activities you particularly enjoy. Top this off with plenty of social, leisure, rest, and relaxation opportunities. I encourage my players to fulfill a four-week phase of unloading, rest & recovery, and fitness maintenance before they begin their structured hockey-conditioning program.

About the Author: Peter Twist is the Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Vancouver Canucks, the B.C. Provincial Director for the NSSCA, and the President of the Professional & Collegiate Hockey Conditioning Coaches Association. Twist, an Exercise Physiologist and Sport Scientist, has written two books on hockey conditioning, published dozens of articles on player development, and peer reviews submitted articles for academic journals.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Executing the One-Timer

By Greg Siller


The one-timer, or one-time shot, is one of the most exciting and difficult offensive plays in hockey. It is
actually a play because it combines two players executing a pass and a shot. The one-timer combines three main elements: quickness, accuracy, and, of course, timing. The quickness and accuracy come from the passer; as this player must setup the shooter with a crisp and accurate pass, moving the puck toward the shooter’s front skate. Generally, a pass across the slot or from deep in the offensive zone to the point works best because as the goaltender attempts to follow the puck, it is moved from the initial location toward the net before the goaltender has a chance to prepare himself for the shot. As the goaltender quickly moves to get into position, the shot has already been taken.

Timing for the one-timer must be accurately gauged by the shooter, because there is only a fraction of a
second opportunity for the shooter’s stick to contact the puck and put it into the net. Practice is the only way
for your timing to improve. The shot of choice for the one-timer is usually the slap shot, however players
should begin practicing this play using the snapshot. The snap shot will allow the shooter a little more
margin for error due to the shortened backswing (as compared to the slap shot).

Practice makes perfect

To work on this play during practice, divide your team into two lines and place them near the
boards at each end of the center red line. Start the drill by having the first players in
each line skate toward the net, passing the puck as they go. As they get within 20 feet of the net, the puck
carrier passes the puck to the shooter, who executes the one-timer. It is best if right-handed shooters skate
down the left side of the rink and left-handed shooters skate down the right side so that the shooter will
always have the puck in front of him as he prepares. The shooter prepares by drawing his stick back and
times the travel of the pass so that his follow-through with the blade of the stick coincides exactly with the
arrival of the puck. Alternate this drill so that both sides have a chance to perform the one-timer.

The second drill has all players except the passer and the goaltender lined up near the center red line. The passer should be positioned about five feet from the net and behind the goal line. Start this drill by having the first player from skate toward the net. As the skater enters the slot area, he is given a pass for the one-time shot. The passer needs to be aware whether the shooter is a right-handed or left-handed shooter so that the pass will be toward the correct side of the shooters body.

Practicing and perfecting these one-time drills will add an elite talent to your offensive arsenal and you will see the results from the surprised goaltenders who rarely have time to move across the crease to stop your quick shot.

Friday, April 2, 2010

5 Goaltending Myths

Throughout hockey there are misconceptions and myths that coaches, parents and goaltenders have heard about the position of goalie. Here are five of the top 10 most common myths and my thoughts about them:

1. Goaltenders do not have to be able to be great skaters

Not true! Goalies must be wonderful skaters. In fact on a lot of occasions, goalies are some of the best skaters or at least one of the most agile skaters on the team. Skating is more than just speed forward, it is balance, agility and body control on the ice. Goaltenders must be quality skaters.

2. Goalies should have dull skates

Nothing could be further from the truth. Most goalies like a sharp skate. The frequency at which a goaltender skate is sharpened is certainly based on the amount of ice time. But not only is frequency important, but the way the skate is sharpened is critical. Most goalies at the professional, college, or junior level put a hollow into their skate rather than the old myth of using a "flat ground" sharpening. Whether it be a very deep hollow at 1/4" or a shallow hollow at 3/4', goalies are now sharpening their skates more often and putting more and more hollow grinds into their skates.

3. A goalie's stick-side leg is weaker than his glove-side leg

That would seem logical as more goals are scored low to the stick side than to the glove side, but it is not true. On most occasions the goalies' stick leg is significantly better in terms of skate saves or half-butterflies than the goalies glove-side leg. Why is this the case? The answer is simple, on the stick side the goaltender does not have the luxury of getting the stick involved in many of the saves, it's the leg and leg alone. On the glove side, the goalie has the ability of using the stick as a crutch as an additional saving vehicle which prevents the goalie from utilizing the glove-side leg as often as the goalie utilizes the stick-side leg. Should the goalie lose his goal stick during the game, you'll find the goaltender is far better to the stick side than the glove side.

4. Goalies make kick saves

You hear announcers in pro hockey using this term all the time. "Kick saves and a beauty," but there really is no such thing. A goaltender either makes a skate save, or now in most cases, a pad save which includes a half-butterfly or two-pad slide... but rarely does the goalie actually make a "kick" save. We'll leave kicks to the soccer players.

5. The best goalies are the goalies that always stand up

While we want our goaltenders to remain on their feet for as long as possible, the game today has changed. No longer can a goaltender expect to make a lot of saves standing. Now, it's not if the goaltender leaves his feet, but rather when and how. The key is timing. When the goaltender leaves his feet too early — the shooter will adjust and go over or around the goaltender; too late — and a lot of pucks end up going under or through the goalie. How the goaltender goes down is important because the goaltender, when leaving his feet, must fill space — not open holes — by staying off his butt and using his pads and his arms to close holes and take away large portions of the net. Yes, a goaltender must stand up more in moving, but now goaltenders must end up leaving their feet in saving. Remember - it's not if — it's when and how... that's the key.

Mitch Korn is the goaltender coach for the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL. In addition, he is an administrator at Miami University (Ohio) and directs the 8-week Summer hockey school. Miami has Division I ice hockey in the CCHA.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Evaluation Camp

This Easter long weekend the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League will be holding their spring evaluation camp at the Sherwood Park Arena. Best of luck to present and past Western Elite Hockey Camp members who will be in attendance:


• Ryan Rehill
• Masen Presisniuk
• Keenan Shaw
• Luc Topolnyski
• Garrett Storms
• Aaron Irving
• Macklin Pichonsky