Offseason Recipe for Long-Term Development (2024)

With the nonstop, heart-pounding action of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it’s easy to be excited about hockey in the spring and early summer months, but when it comes to our own young hockey players, it is important to be cautious about too much ice time during the offseason.

All athletes (including NHL players) need time away from the rink for a number of reasons, but children especially so. While they are taking a break from the ice, the best way to promote their hockey skills is by playing other sports and activities. Participating in a variety of sports enhances kids’ overall athletic ability, which will make them better hockey players.

“Athletic development at any age is important,” said Christian Koelling, USA Hockey’s Coach-in-Chief for the Minnesota District. “Specifically, if you look at the long-term athletic development phases.”

Many parents feel their children will be left behind if they don’t specialize early and play hockey year-round, but here are some eye-opening statistics. The NHL and NHLPA conducted a player survey in 2018 that shed some light on their long-term development:

• 98% of NHL players participated in a sport other than hockey from the ages of 5-14.
• Nearly 80% of NHL players continued playing other sports during the ages of 15-18.
• The average NHL player began skating and playing hockey after the age of four, and they did not specialize in hockey until after the age of 14. The average age of specialization was not until the age of 16 years old.

Parents and coaches should not be in a rush to specialize youngsters into hockey. They need a good base of athleticism above all else.

“What you’re trying to do as a hockey coach in developing your athletes at the youngest of ages, 6-9 years old, are basically agility, balance and coordination,” Koelling said. “And those things crossover to all sports, so they are the same thing you’re trying to develop whether it be baseball, tennis, lacrosse or hockey.”

These principles support physical literacy, a key component to developing healthy, resilient, active children who can reach their full potential.

Read: The Key to Physical Literacy and Athletic Excellence

USA Hockey’s ADM Technical Director Ken Martel discusses the crossover benefits of multiple sports. He calls them “donor sports.”

Read: Sports That Foster Hockey Skills

As the Director of Hockey Operations with the University of Minnesota Duluth men’s hockey team, who’ve won three NCAA national championships in the last decade (2011, 2018, 2019), Koelling sees the overall athletic ability in the recruits coming to campus and the importance of a well-rounded athlete.

“Most players that we see that are in the mix for college hockey were multi-sport athletes,” Koelling said. “There comes a time in development when they get to be really serious at 15 or 16 and they start to focus on hockey. That becomes more of an issue with time and training being more intense. As a preteen and young teenager, it’s important to participate in other sports and that leads to the overall development path, where you may be in that position to focus on a specific sport once you’re in that recruiting age.”

Even when targeting sport-specific skills as kids get older, it’s still important to take a break from hockey.

Even those NHLers in the playoffs will take time off after the postseason to enjoy different flavors. Year-round hockey for our young athletes is a recipe for disaster. Every summer, Koelling runs into a parent or two who have a similar conversation.

“Youth go through the season and you talk to a parent and they say, ‘We’re going to this tournament and playing on that summer team,’” Koelling continued. “And the parent says, ‘Well, my kid wants to do it. I left it up to them and they want to play.’”

“Well, yeah, they’d have M&Ms for dinner every night if they wanted.”

Coaches should encourage players to take time off after the season, but they should also embolden parents to do the same.

“It’s important for parents to be guardians. To protect that time away,” Koelling said. “And even if kids say they want [to play year-round], they don’t need to be playing 12 months out of the year.”

Two critical factors for ensuring our youth play different sports: overuse and burnout.

“We see a lot of overuse injuries in sports,” Koelling said. “For an athlete to only be focusing on one sport, and especially in hockey when you have the skating motion, there certainly is a risk of overuse.

“Taking that break is good for players physically.”

Dr. Charles Popkin, a team physician for USA Hockey who specializes in pediatric, adolescent and collegiate sports medicine, warns parents and coaches of three dangers associated with early specialization: physical injury, burnout and mental health.

Read: Resisting Early Sports Specialization

Watch: Coaching Webinar Series: Early Sport Specialization in Ice Hockey with Dr. Charles Popkin