The honest answer is… it both is and isn’t.

There are many factors involved, but the most important question is simple: Does your child want to train a lot?
If yes — great.
If no — that’s okay too.

There isn’t one single path that leads to higher levels in hockey. Yes, at a young age, more ice time can often accelerate development. But you have to ask: Is the goal to peak at 13? 15? 17? Hockey is a long journey, especially if your child hopes to go as far as possible. If the joy is burned out early, it becomes very difficult to sustain long-term progress.

I’ve been fortunate to work with and grow up around more than a dozen NHL players, and I can promise you this: every single path was different.

Take Josh Tordjman, for example. He won a Memorial Cup — the championship for the best junior team in the entire CHL. He believed every minute away from the ice in the summer was a minute someone else could gain on him. He trained relentlessly… and played one NHL game.

On the other hand, I’ve worked with players who barely touched the ice during the summer when they were young — maybe two or three weeks of hockey school total — and still went on to build outstanding careers (Mike Matheson, Mike McNiven, Devin Levi, among others). This doesn’t mean they were inactive; they played other sports, developed athletically, and trained off-ice. They simply weren’t hockey 52 weeks a year.

What is consistent across all successful athletes is this: there’s no magic formula.
Anything worth achieving requires time, sacrifice, and commitment — but those investments should be built gradually and appropriately.

At BGG, we focus on progressive development:

• New to goaltending? One week of camp is a great starting point. Let your child explore the position and fall in love with it.

• Grade 5 goalie with goals of making a high school team? Two weeks of camp plus weekly clinics can be very beneficial.

• AAA-level aspirations? That’s a much more demanding path — and it involves far more than just on-ice training.

Because ice time is only one piece of the puzzle. Athletic development, strength, mobility, mental skills, rest, and maintaining a love for the game all matter just as much.

Our goal is not to create the busiest goalie — it’s to help develop confident, resilient athletes who can grow year after year and still love putting on the pads.