Why aren't there many (or any) ex-NHL sons who play goalie?

[1989]

Forwards and defencemen seem to have some success at producing sons who play skater positions but where are the Hasek Jr./ex-goalie's sons, or even ex-NHL skaters with kids who end up playing goalie?

Click to read more...

 

[Maliks PlusMinus]

Primeau

 

[Esq]

Great question. Probably because they were too talented and skating out scoring a ton of goals was more fun.

 

[Coffee]

NHL goalies are NHL goalies so that their kids don’t have to be when they grow up

Seriously, what kind of question is this ?

 

[LeProspector]

Scoring points is more fun

 

[Jumptheshark]

Forwards and defencemen seem to have some success at producing sons who play skater positions but where are the Hasek Jr./ex-goalie's sons, or even ex-NHL skaters with kids who end up playing goalie?

Because the players hope their sons grow up to productive members of society and not these bat shit crazy people who are willing have 100 mile an hour slap shots aimed at their junk

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Forwards and defencemen seem to have some success at producing sons who play skater positions but where are the Hasek Jr./ex-goalie's sons, or even ex-NHL skaters with kids who end up playing goalie?

Goalies are weirdos, is one answer. Having access to skill development throughout life is easier if it’s a forward/dman, is the other. Goalies gotta have that mindset, so unless a goalie really pushes his kid- wouldn’t shock me if a kid wanted to emulate dad and ended up good, someday, but the odds are kinda low. There are just fewer goalies, too, so lots of reasons.

 

[NVious]

NHL players know how crazy goalies are, you have to draw the line somewhere with kids and letting them play "goalie" is just too far for most (sane) parents.

 

[QuizGuy66]

Jeremy Brodeur still plugging away in the ECHL

 

[QuizGuy66]

There is practical math here a little bit though. A lot less goalies overall - there are about 756 players in the NHL and only probably what 70 goalies on rosters (figuring 6 teams keep 3).

So there are a lot less goalies jobs to go around.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

ron hextall and cayden primeau were second gen NHLers, hextall actually was third gen. his grandfather won an art ross and was a hall of famer.

pete lopresti, john grahame, and philippe sauve were second gen NHL goalies

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

because kids don't inherit their parents' skills as much as we'd like to think. The sons who become skaters benefit from all the knowledge about technique that their parents possess. Natural talent is more important for goalies.

 

[Habsrule]

Forwards 384
Defencemen 192
Goalies 64

Those are how many players are in the lineups for all 32 teams in the NHL. It doesn’t include healthy scratches.

If you want to be a NHL goalie it means that you need to be one of the best 64 people in the world at that position. To be a forward you need to be one of the best 384 people in the world at that position.

Plus also goalies take the longest to develop and to reach their primes.

 

[BB79]

ron hextall and cayden primeau were second gen NHLers, hextall actually was third gen. his grandfather won an art ross and was a hall of famer.

And now we have Leah Hextall

 

[kingsholygrail]

Quick mentioned in a relatively recent interview his son recently expressed an interest in goaltending after largely ignoring hockey in general. Maybe it goes somewhere, maybe it doesn't.

 

[Brodeur]

There's probably a joke to be had that even former NHL goalies can't afford the equipment for their kids.

One factor is we're still kinda early into the retired 90/00's era goalies having kids. Goaltending technique shifted in the 90's. There were many 6 foot (and under) standup goalies and by the lockout teams started to favor 6'3+ butterfly goalies.

How many children of NHL goalies ended up being the height that most teams prefer nowadays? Martin Brodeur had a couple sons who took up goaltending but they were shorter than their dad.

As others pointed out there's limited NHL goalie spots. Somebody uploaded the 1997 Draft on YouTube and the commentators made a joke when Mika Noronen was drafted by saying he might be the best Finnish goaltender ever. The joke being that there really hadn't been a Finnish goalie with NHL success. In the early 90's, the vast majority of goaltenders were North American but by the early 2000's it was more diversified.

Even within the US, it took awhile but the California/Texas/Florida pools have started to produce more talent. Thatcher Demko and Dustin Wolf are from southern California. Prospect Jacob Fowler hails from Florida. There's just more kids playing goal now than there were before.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Because Hockey Canada destroyed the goalie market for Canadian players, and most kids don't want to play goalie in lieu of scoring goals/points instead.

I may be the exception personally since I was a goaltender, but most kids dream of scoring a game-winning goal, not making a game-saving save.

There does seem to be less of a correlation of goaltender's sons playing the same position as opposed to F/D as well.

 

[Machinehead]

Who would wanna be a goalie?

 

[Stive Morgan]

Who would wanna be a goalie?

"I could never hack the pressure and being blamed for everything" - my coworker when I told them I was a goalie lol

And in fact, the only reason I ended up a goalie myself was because my team needed a goalie lmao

 

[Drake1588]

Kurt Russell (who played Herb Brooks in the movies) and Goldie Hawn had a kid, Wyatt, who played goalie professionally. He had a cup of coffee at the Caps' camp 20 years ago, and toiled in Alabama, BC and Europe before his hips gave out. Then he joined the MCU, was Captain America for 15 minutes, and fought Godzilla. He's getting called up to the Thunderbolts this summer and the Avengers next year. Sort of counts.

 

[Took a pill in Sbisa]

ron hextall and cayden primeau were second gen NHLers, hextall actually was third gen. his grandfather won an art ross and was a hall of famer.

pete lopresti, john grahame, and philippe sauve were second gen NHL goalies

And Manny Fernandez was Jacques Lemaire's nephew which sort of counts

 

[GMR]

It’s Patrick Roy’s fault.

He deterred all future goalies from having children who became goalies.

 

[Appleyard]

Ron and John Grahame
Bob and Brent Johnson
Sam and Pete LoPresti

All goalie son NHL duos.

Primeau ofc right now.


Brodeur
Bryzgalov
Esche
Niitymaki
Huet
Aebischer

All have sons who play in goal too... but it is just so hard to make the NHL as a goalie.

Maybe one of Bryzgalov, Esche, Huet or Aebischer does.

Huet-Aebischer is actually the Swiss u16 NT goalie tandem right now!

 

[Brodeur]

I forget that Jaxson Stauber (cup of coffee with Chicago/Utah) is the son of former NHLer Robb Stauber.

 

[Melrose Munch]

Its just too expensive