The power of positive coaching and its impact on the Stanley Cup playoffs
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Emily Kaplan, ESPN
Following one of his nine seasons coaching the Winnipeg Jets, Paul Maurice had an idea: Could he be more intentional about the video he showed his players?
Video sessions are one of the most common teaching tools coaches employ. Maurice, now coach of the Florida Panthers, the eighth-seeded darlings of the Stanley Cup playoffs who are one win away from the Cup Finals, wondered how his staff could maximize these meetings. How many times did they have to show a system before it appeared in a game? Could they identify lag time from a teaching moment on video to tangible success on the ice?
Maurice also wanted to quantify something deeper: Was his clip selection affecting players’ psyche and performance?
“What happens if we put the same player on all of our negative clips, even though I know it’s not all on that one player, like I’m picking on him? Or if I kept showing a player just doing good things, because I love that player?” Maurice said. “We wanted to find the cumulative effect of the video we were showing.”
So Maurice and his staff embarked on an offseason project.
“From Monday to Thursday, the whole summer, from 9 in the morning to 1 or 2 in the afternoon, we all got together and reviewed everything,” said Pascal Vincent, then one of Maurice’s Winnipeg assistants. “We were looking for ways to improve.”
The Jets’ staff charted videos they showed the team the previous season and tracked the results in the subsequent games. They labeled each clip in one of three categories: positive clip, teaching clip, negative clip. The analytics department took it from there.
As the data accumulated, the coaches couldn’t help but notice a pattern.
“We realized that we were getting results and seeing more success when we were showing more positive clips,” Vincent said. “Of course, there are many other variables, but that is what the data said. I’ve done a lot of reading on the topic across other walks of life, and it confirmed what I was feeling.”
The feeling has become a massive trend in the NHL: Coaches are finding that it’s more productive to build up confidence through encouragement rather than hitting players with constant criticism. And it’s especially true with young millennials and Generation Z.
“The bully coach, right, wrong or different, has no chance in today’s game,” Detroit Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “It’s the reality of the players today. You still have to hold them accountable, but you have to do it in different ways.”
Call it the Ted Lasso effect. Heck, NHL players are even quoting the fictional soccer coach, known for his extremely upbeat attitude. Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark committed a puck-handling blunder in overtime of Game 5 of Boston’s first-round series, directly leading to Matthew Tkachuk‘s winning goal for Florida. Afterward, Ullmark met a scrum of reporters and cameras at his locker, relaxed, composed, and even smiled at times. “You just have to have the mind of a goldfish,” Ullmark said, a verbatim quote from the TV series.
The popular show is a microcosm for a shift in societal norms, which includes a new emphasis on mental health. Workplaces across multiple industries are adapting as younger generations crave different — and in many instances, less negative — environments than their predecessors. Historically, that contrasted with the high-pressure, demanding nature of professional sports. Not anymore.
“Positive, constructive feedback — maybe people needed it generations before as well,” said Bruins forward Garnet Hathaway, 31. “It just wasn’t mainstream or they didn’t advocate for it. But now, you see it as a way of unlocking even more potential.”
The change in the sport is noticeable, and it’s leading to periods of self-reflection.
“Overall it’s become a more conservative, sensitive world. Kids now grow up not being yelled at so they don’t know how to react to being yelled at,” Colorado Avalanche forward Evan Rodrigues, 29, said. “Growing up, I loved to be yelled at, it got me into the game, it got me focused. Now when someone yells at me I take it differently. I’d rather them come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I know you’re better than that.’ I used to love proving people wrong whereas now I like proving people right.”
That idea feeds into one of Vincent’s tried and true teaching techniques. This season, Vincent served as an assistant coach for the Columbus Blue Jackets, one of the youngest teams in the league.
“Even if a player is struggling, there’s a reason that they’re here [in the NHL],” Vincent said. “So you need to find out what that player is good at, then reinforce it. When you lose your confidence, you go back to the foundations of what you’re good at, and it helps them find it again.”
Many players interviewed for this article pushed back on the idea that coaching has to be all positivity all the time — or that the NHL has fully transformed.
One player on an Eastern Conference team said: “My coach reads me the riot act pretty much twice a week. And I’m fine with it, if I deserve it.”
Another player described a “passive aggressive” style from one of his former coaches, who is still behind an NHL bench. “He’d say mean things about you loudly, while you were in earshot so you can hear it,” the player said. “Obviously because he wanted you to hear it.”
Some in the league see a downside to the uber-positive approach. After the Maple Leafs‘ disappointing second-round loss to the Panthers, a narrative emerged in some circles that Toronto management created an environment where its star players were too coddled, and therefore ill-equipped to handle the adversity of playoff hockey.
One longtime veteran player in the league said he has noticed a gradual change over the past few years and “it doesn’t sit well with me.” “Not to be the ‘back in my day’ guy, but … it really feels like we’ve become softer as a league,” the player said. “There are some dinosaur practices that need to go. I’d never advocate for mental or physical abuse. But this is professional sports, and it demands a level of accountability and toughness. It’s OK to feel uncomfortable sometimes. It’s OK to be yelled at or called out when you’re not meeting standards. That’s what makes you stronger.”
Former player Ray Ferraro, an 18-year NHL veteran and current ESPN analyst, put it bluntly: “Sometimes you need to be demanding, but not an a–hole. Because the old way certainly doesn’t work.”
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen, 26, called himself “a younger guy” but said “I don’t mind negative [coaching] sometimes.”
“I think the positive way of seeing is better, but it can’t be all positive; it needs to be a balance,” Rantanen said. “[Colorado coach] Jared [Bednar] does a good job of that. When we don’t play well, he shows it. Even when there’s a game where we fall asleep just for a few plays, he’s going to show it the next day and be mad. And that’s the way it should be.”
After Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, Dallas Stars coach Peter DeBoer said he laid into his players a bit following their loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.
“There’s certain pressure points with your team that you have to decide as a coach,” DeBoer said. “Is this a time to be supportive and a calming voice of reason, or is this a time to turn the screws and get into them a little bit? I think you can only go to the latter one so often.”
Coaches have also adapted to another trend younger millennials and Generation Z covet: transparency. Younger players don’t need to agree with what is happening, they just want to know why. Bednar said he has adapted by being clearer with communication.
“The trend, and it makes sense to me now, is that if guys get no information, they’ll go to the negative thought process,” Bednar said. “I always thought if I don’t give feedback on something, then you know you’re doing good. I like my guys to know that: If I’m not coming to you, it’s a good thing.”
But over the past few seasons, Bednar noticed that approach wasn’t always working, especially with younger players. If players didn’t receive any reaction from him, they’d assume the worst, or look to other places for feedback, such as social media, which can get dicey.
“If a guy plays 10 minutes a night generally, then all of the sudden he has a game that’s 7½, he’ll be like, ‘Oh my god, what did I do wrong?’ Then the negative thoughts come in,” Bednar said. “So I try to interrupt that. You have to go out of your way more. Now I try to brush past them in the locker room and just say, ‘Hey, good job last night,’ so they have something, even if I’m not having meetings with them.”
Lalonde said he has made transparency a top priority for the Red Wings.
“I’ve never had a lineup go up until I told the player he’s not in, and exactly why,” Lalonde said. “You have to be honest.”
Lalonde cited an example this season of a game in which he scratched one of his forwards.
“We spent just as much time as a staff putting three or four points together for the guy not in the lineup as we did on game planning the next night,” he said.
Maurice still thinks back to his tape study but isn’t ready to draw any grand conclusions.
“I don’t know if there’s a solid theory for every team,” Maurice said. “Every team is different, every player is different. The most important thing is to understand the human nature aspect of it all.”
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Rachel Doerrie
There are late-round gems in every NHL draft class that go on to have impactful careers. With the increase in scouting coverage and analytics, teams do a better job of drafting those players earlier, but inevitably, a few of these late-round diamonds in the rough emerge.
Gone are the days of getting Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Lundqvist or Brett Hull in the late rounds. However, smaller players who possess skill seem to be drafted much later. The reigning Calder Trophy winner Lane Hutson is hardly a late-round pick — he went 62nd overall in 2022 — but he should’ve been selected a lot earlier.
Some recent late-round gems include Troy Terry (No. 148 in 2015), Andrew Mangiapane (No. 166, 2015), Jesper Bratt (No. 162, 2016), Brandon Hagel (No. 159, 2016) and Mark Stone (No. 178, 2010). There were concerns about all of them in the draft process, whether it was size, skating or questions about the translatability of their game to the NHL. But each has far exceeded their draft expectations and gone on to represent their country on the international stage. Your draft slot does not make or break you. The earlier picks will get more chances while the later picks have to earn their looks, but there is a pathway to success.
The common denominator in a late-round pick’s success is that they are elite in at least one category; or as one NHL executive put it, “they possess a separating skill that differentiates them from others.”
This year, there are a few players who may end up as the diamonds in the rough. Generally speaking, a player drafted after the third round has a less than 3% chance of playing 200 games in the NHL, which means it is likely that only four or five players drafted after pick No. 96 will make it. There is a less than 1.5% chance of that player becoming an impact player, goaltenders not included. The darts at the board are worth throwing, but a few players in this class have separating skills that may give them a better chance.
Cameron Schmidt, RW, Vancouver Giants (WHL)
While Schmidt is rated much higher in public rankings — and remained a first-rounder in those rankings for the majority of the season — NHL teams with which I spoke do not view him in the same light. Many scouts believe Schmidt will be selected between the third and fifth rounds because he’s much smaller than the average NHL player at 5-foot-7.
Still, Schmidt’s ceiling as a second-line scoring winger in the vein of Alex Debrincat should excite teams. It is understandable that teams would be hesitant to select a player of his stature with an early pick because of the rarity of success for player shorter than 5-9. Schmidt is arguably the fastest player in the draft, with an elite shot. He has more than one “separating skill” that scouts look for, with one opining that if he were 6-1, he may be in the conversation for being picked in the 10-15 range.
Netting 40 goals in 61 games makers him one of the best goal scorers available in the draft. He can score multiple ways; off the rush in stride, on one-timers, by net-front finishing and a smooth but powerful catch and release. There is a high likelihood that Schmidt leads the CHL in goals over the next two seasons with his separating speed and well-rounded finishing ability.
Debrincat is 5-8, and if Schmidt grows to that height or even 5-9, there’s a real chance he becomes a reliable goal-scorer at the NHL level. Instead of drafting for physicality and size, taking a chance that someone grows who already possesses elite talent could be very rewarding for a team.
Jacob Rombach, D, Lincoln Stars (USHL)
A defenseman who is nearly 6-7 with punishing physical traits and the potential to become a shutdown defender will be very attractive to teams. Rombach lacks a lot of the offensive skill that teams like to see in their top-end defenseman, but there is a real path to becoming a No. 4/5 defender in the NHL.
Defensively, he possesses one of the most complete skill sets in the draft, which will only improve as he refines those skills. He has impressive puck-retrieval ability, scanning for threats and allowing him to pre-emptively escape pressure situations. He employs head fakes to shake forecheckers, and makes a simple and efficient pass when the lane opens.
When defending, he uses his frame to disrupt plays on the rush, kill plays on the wall and makes it difficult for teams to generate off the cycle. He isn’t overly physical, and while that is easily developable at his size, scouts like that he doesn’t get caught out of position trying to make a big hit. When he closes gaps on players all over the ice, he leads with a strong stick and smothers them, forcing turnovers or dump-ins.
If his skating and physicality improve, Rombach has the tool kit to be an effective shutdown defender who can kill penalties and play secondary matchups.
David Bedkowski, D, Oshawa Generals (OHL)
The old-school hockey types love Bedkowski because he loves physicality. He is a throwback in the sense that he lives for the violence. A menacing defenseman at nearly 6-5 and 215 pounds, Bedkowski is the most punishing defender in the draft class. While that doesn’t always equate to NHL success, the Florida Panthers‘ blueprint will surely have executives thinking about Bedkowski’s ability to play highly effective transition defense while inflicting significant pain on opponents with his physical play.
He is one of the best zone-entry defenders in the draft class, and if he can pick his spots a little better in terms of stepping up to make contact, there is a path to becoming an effective bottom-pair defender.
His ceiling isn’t high in terms of becoming a No. 4/5 guy, but teams need depth and brute force to win in the playoffs, and Bedkowski may develop into a defenseman who can reliably provide that.
Viktor Klingsell, LW, Skelleftea AIK (J20)
Another candidate to be a steal in the later rounds is world under-18 championships standout Klingsell. He didn’t produce at the level Jesper Bratt did in Sweden, but he outperformed Bratt when playing against his peers. Given the similarity in height, the high-end playmaking and vision, it isn’t surprising to see some believe Klingsell could be a “Bratt lite” in the NHL. He lacks physicality — which isn’t particularly surprising given his stature — but his instincts and offensive tool kit are amongst the best available among European skaters.
The main concern is his pace. Klingsell has a boom-or-bust type of profile. If he hits, he’ll be a second-line offensive facilitator who notches 50-plus assists every year. If he doesn’t, he’s likely to become a very good SHL player. That is the type of swing you take in the later rounds, especially when speed is the concern. But it is much easier to develop skating and speed than it is to find a player with the natural offensive instincts and playmaking capabilities that Klingsell possesses.
Filip Ekberg, LW, Ottawa 67’s (OHL)
Another Swede with a chance to make a team very happy is dual-threat forward Ekberg. The first half of the season was plagued by illness and a limited role. As the calendar flipped, Ekberg’s play took off, culminating in a standout performance at the U18s, where he tallied 18 points in seven games and earned himself an invite to Sweden’s World Junior summer team.
There is real reason to believe Ekberg is on the cusp of a major scoring breakout in the OHL that would vault his projection to a middle-six scorer at the NHL level.
Ekberg is a well-rounded forward anticipates and reads the play, facilitates offense and owns an excellent catch and release. He lacks dynamism that you’d like to see, but showed legitimate flashes of ability when healthy at the U18s. If he can improve his skating, he has all the hallmarks of a smaller player who can succeed in the NHL, in a secondary scoring and power-play role.
Aidan Lane, RW, Saint Andrew’s College/Brampton Steelheads (OHL)
If not for a standout performance in the OHL at the end of the season, Lane’s NHL projection would not exist. The CHL/NCAA rule change allowed the Saint Andrew’s College graduate to play the final 13 games in Brampton, where he tallied a point per game.
It is very difficult to project prep school players, as there is limited sample size. However, the high-motor winger looked every bit the part in a top-six role for Brampton. He has a chance to become a power winger in the bottom six at the NHL level, with his strength, physicality and his ability to generate offense.
He was smooth in transition, was able to draw defenders to him and make positive value plays. He was also able to use his physical package to overpower seasoned OHL players. Lane has the motor, physical tools and displayed promising offensive tools that could make him a high value pick beyond the fourth round. His speed and explosiveness will need to improve if he is to effectively use his tools to forecheck and create offence in a secondary role at the NHL level.
Given his chosen path to play in the NCAA at Harvard, he will have plenty of time to develop against the best amateur competition.
L.J. Mooney, RW, USNTDP (USHL)
Another diminutive winger, Mooney is one of my personal favorites in the draft class. He’s a dynamic skater and gets fans out of their seats with his puck handling skill. At 5-7, possessing multiple separating skills should be enough for a team to take a chance on him in the middle rounds.
He’s a non-stop player who is constantly drawing the viewer’s eye. His blistering speed is immediately noticeable, especially when combined with fantastic puck skill. There is real potential for him to become a transition nightmare for defenders. For that to happen, Mooney will need to improve his ability to facilitate offense and read the play. He needs to utilize his elite skating and puck skill to attack the middle of the ice to create high-danger scoring chances.
Given his size and questions about playmaking ability, he’s close to a boom-or-bust player. However, many players with that skill level do not possess the motor and inner drive to compete. Mooney does not leave any doubts about his will to compete given his fearless play, consistent pace, and willingness to play both sides of the puck.
If a team has multiple second- or third-round picks and lacks a dynamic skater, as well as someone who could be a legitimate contributor — the Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens and Detroit Red Wings are in this boat — Mooney is a worth a shot.
The Dallas Stars have re-signed forward Matt Duchene to a four-year contract worth $18 million.
General manager Jim Nill announced the deal Thursday. Duchene, who would have become an unrestricted free agent July 1, will count $4.5 million against the salary cap through the 2028-29 season.
“We are thrilled to have Matt back with our organization,” Nill said in a statement. “As our team’s leading scorer last season, he helped to solidify our forward group while also providing invaluable leadership off the ice and in the community. The fit with Matt and our team has been seamless from the start, and we’re looking forward to continuing to pursue our shared goal of bringing a championship to Dallas.”
Duchene was a point-per-game scorer — exactly 82 in 82 — in his second season with Dallas. He had just one goal and five assists in 16 playoff games as the Stars reached the Western Conference finals before losing to the Edmonton Oilers.
He had played on one-year, $3 million contracts in each of his two seasons with Dallas.
Duchene, 34, is going into his 17th season in the NHL. He has previously played for Colorado, Columbus, Ottawa and Nashville since making his debut in 2009.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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