NHL teams
Scott Burnside, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Streamlined goalie equipment unlikely for start of NHL season

NHL

The tortuous process of reducing the size of equipment worn by National Hockey League goaltenders has once again been delayed. The question now is whether it will take another full calendar year to complete the downsizing.

At the annual meeting of NHL general managers in Florida last March there was optimism from both the league and the National Hockey League Players' Association that tapered or streamlined goaltending equipment would be ready for introduction this fall in an effort to level the playing field for goaltenders and by extension drive up scoring.

The plan was for the new equipment, contoured to more snugly fit goaltenders based on their individual body size, to be produced by four designated manufacturers and be ready for the start of the World Cup of Hockey training camps on Labor Day weekend and for the balance of NHL goaltenders when their respective team training camps begin the third week of September.

But multiple sources said only one manufacturer provided updated equipment and there is little hope that the equipment could be ready for the start of the NHL regular season on Oct. 12.

"It is a little frustrating because it's not like we started this six months ago," New Jersey Devils netminder Cory Schneider said in an interview.

"We had this discussion 18 months ago at the competition committee of 2015," added Schneider who is a member of the committee made up of representatives from both the players' union and league tasked with examining and recommending changes to the game.

"Sure enough here we are with a month to go before camp opens and nobody knows," Schneider said. "Nobody knows for sure where it's going to go. So that's a little disappointing from everyone's perspective," he said.

Part of the problem for manufacturers is in how to produce the downsized equipment, especially the chest protector which has a number of interconnected parts that must all work in unison while maintaining protection of the goaltender.

The chest protector and goaltenders' pants are the main areas being targeted for reduction. Goaltenders' pads were downsized several seasons ago as part of an ongoing process to ensure that some goaltenders aren't getting an unfair competitive advantage with outsized gear.

Still, there has also been some ongoing resistance from some within the goaltending fraternity to have the gear reduced.

"Some guys are probably a little bit more worried about it than others," Schneider said.

"And I think we as players have to have an open mind and trust the people running this are not going to get people injured or anything like that. It's just been kind of tough to bring it to the goal line," he said.

The failure to move the process from concept to implementation raises a potentially contentious issue of how to proceed.

League sources, determined to make the changes as quickly, indicate they are exploring whether the new gear could be phased in during the coming season and have not ruled that out as a possibility. It's possible, for instance, that the pants could be ready sooner than the chest protectors, given that downsizing the pants is less complex and that they could be introduced once the season begins. But it's almost certain there will be resistance from some goaltenders who will argue that changing their equipment in midseason is unfair.

"I personally wouldn't mind it," said Schneider, who is also a member of Team USA in next month's World Cup of Hockey being held in Toronto. "It wouldn't be ideal. But I would understand if that's the way it had to be done. I think once the season gets going and you're in it, you have so much to worry about anyways [that] I don't think guys are going to want to try to break something new in.

"Some guys may have to change the way they play a little bit," he added. "I think that would get a lot of pushback I believe because I think guys wouldn't be willing to make that kind of transition midseason."

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