NHL goalies support proposed smaller equipment rule

Of the topics to emerge from the current NHL GM meetings in Boca Raton, Fla., the most agreed-upon seems to be the decision to make goaltenders’ equipment “more streamlined.”

It’s not that much of a surprise, necessarily. After all, the idea of making goalie pads smaller has been a hot topic for multiple seasons now. What makes the decision to adjust the pads a bit more intriguing, however, is how widely liked the decision is — not just by the GMs, but from players as well, especially some of the league’s top goaltenders.

Perhaps the support comes from the fact that former NHL netminder and current league goaltending supervisor Kay Whitmore is behind the design of the proposed new equipment. Whitmore first debuted the streamlined padding to goalies attending the All-Star Game in Nashville this past January and was met with positive feedback.

ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun reported on Whitmore’s presentation to the GMs on Tuesday, in which he unveiled equipment he and the NHLPA have been working to create and reflected on the response from the players:

Whitmore credited the NHLPA and the goalies involved for helping this finally become a reality.  

"… You've seen the goalies involved, Cory (Schneider), Devan (Dubnyk), Braden (Holtby), these guys have spoken out after All-Star [weekend]. It's a joint venture between us and them. The cooperation has been there and that is something that has been lacking. … You are hearing from some of the best goalies in the game and they think this is what is right. They want a level playing field within their ranks. They want to look at the other end of the rink and feel that the guy down there looks appropriate for his size so that if a guy is 6-4, 250, he should look that big, and if you are 6-1, 170, there should be a difference between those kind of guys. That's what we are going after. We have different measurements of guys."

Netminders wanting a “level playing field” speaks volumes, especially since the decision to shrink the equipment has mostly to do with scoring more goals.

Goal-scoring has been down in the NHL in recent years, so of course there is talk about how to create more offense and draw in more casual fans. The subject spiked earlier in the season after Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock very passionately suggested that NHL nets to be made larger since “goaltenders are getting bigger.” Just a couple days after those comments were made, Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby suggested in an interview with ProHockeyTalk that he “would rather see the goalies get smaller equipment before the nets get bigger.”

Such a suggestion might be expected coming from the coach of a team that had trouble finding the back of the net or a well-known forward who was having trouble scoring goals early in the season. But some of the top netminders in the league — the guys who would actually be wearing the equipment — have been in support of smaller equipment.

Sure, there has been concern over whether smaller pads up the risks of injury. But the idea of new equipment even got the stamp of approval from injury-riddled goalie Robin Lehner, Yahoo! Sports reported:

… some goalies say equipment is already smaller than it used to be, and that if it shrinks any more, someone is going to get seriously hurt. 

This opinion, however, is not shared by every goalie. Robin Lehner, for example, believes that goalies are way too big these days, and thinks that more should be done, and that it can be without increasing the risk of more goalie injuries. In an interview with Buffalo's WGR, he noted that a lot of that is just a smokescreen to improve save percentages anyway, and that most of the padding they do have is superfluous, and because plenty of goalies are gaming the system anyway... 

And it's not like Lehner is spitting out some sour grapes here, either. He has a .926 save percentage in his injury-shortened season, which is a really good number. If even he's advocating for smaller pads, you know that he does so in spite of the fact that the bigger ones have clearly been to his benefit…

The new goalie equipment is expected to be ready for players to try out over the summer, ahead of the 2016-2017 season.