vancouver -- steve briere knew when he was named the toronto maple leafs new goaltending coach monday that a lot of people would wonder who he was, and why incoming coach mike babcock thought he was ready to make the jump from tier-2 junior to the nhl.
The answers can't be found by looking up briere's career and noting where or how well he played during eight professional seasons as a goalie. Nor can it be found by scanning the teams briere has worked for since trading his goalie pads for a coach's whistle.
To better gauge briere's work the past eight years, you need to scan his rosters in the ncaa, united states hockey league and north american hockey league and a list of pupils that includes new edmonton oilers no. 1 cam talbot and nhl prospects like zane macintyre (boston bruins), rasmus tirronen (carolina hurricanes) and matej tomek (philadelphia flyers).
but to fully understand why briere, 38, is ready for the nhl, you need to understand his relationship with mentor and goaltending guru mitch korn.
Briere played under korn's watch while with the cincinnati cyclones, who were an echl affiliate of the nashville predators in 2001-02. He's worked closely with korn, now employed by the washington capitals, since starting his own coaching career in 2007.
"i have my level 5 certification in coaching and my master's degree in school, and spending all these years with mitch is like getting a doctorate degree in goalie coaching," briere told nhl.com. "i was coaching division i college hockey and spending days in nashville learning from mitch. So it wasn't like i just popped into the nhl the next day. He is by far the number one reason all of this has come about."
briere, who also spent time as a prospects video coordinator for the san jose sharks, used to make the 100-mile drive from huntsville to nashville to spend days shadowing korn with the predators.
"we'd spend the day," korn said over the phone from his goalie camp in cincinnati. "we taught him how we pre-scout, how we prepare for games, how we post-game, all of that."
today, korn said two weeks don't go by without talking to briere.