Driedger: On Mend, In Fold

When Kraken goalie Chris Driedger was placed on waivers Feb. 23, social media channels pulsed with Seattle fans worrying another NHL team might make a claim. Plus, the followers of opposing teams urging general managers to add the Kraken's 2022 expansion draft choice from the Florida Panthers.
Twenty-four hours later, whew, Driedger was still a member of the Kraken organization and on his way to get some starts with American Hockey League affiliate Coachella Valley to take another step in recovering from major knee surgery last June.
"It's never fun to go on waivers, never an enjoyable experience," said Driedger in an exclusive interview earlier this week on an off day for the Firebirds. "The plan was always to go down here and play some games, get back into shape, and get back to winning games in the NHL."

Driedger is 2-1 with a .907 save percentage in three starts with Coachella Valley, which continues to lead the entire 32-team AHL in winning percentage during its inaugural season. Coach Dan Bylsma has praised Driedger's work to date, especially making big saves in the third periods of close games.
"I feel pretty good. It's funny how you can have all this time off and you get nervous for your first game," said Driedger, who suffered his injury while just a period away from potentially leading Team Canada to a gold medal in the IIHF World Championship last spring. "Then you go in there and that's where I feel most comfortable - in the net. As far as the knee goes in the games, I don't feel it at all. Maybe after [games] there's a little bit of soreness that we just manage it. That's to be expected."
Driedger is both thoughtful and approachable as an athlete. It's no surprise during a pre-season media day interview the Kraken goalie was discussing the recovery process and explaining, in medical terms, how he might be able to skate by six months after surgery but would require two to three additional months of rehabbing the microstructure of the knee, critical to the lateral movements and flexion/extension actions required of the joint while playing the goaltender position at the professional level.
"He had an awful lot of time to look at that," said Kelly Driedger, Chris' dad, leaning in to make his point during the recent Fathers/Mentors trip when it was mentioned his son could probably teach a course about the kinesiology of the knee joint.
To get to know Kelly Driedger, during a stop at the flagship Filson story and a subsequent bus ride to the San Jose airport a couple of days later is to understand why Chris Driedger the professional goaltender is beloved by fans and teammates alike despite being off the active roster all season.
"My dad is just super supportive, whatever the opposite of an overbearing hockey parent is, that's my dad," said Driedger, also agreeing his father strikes one as "a gentle soul."
Kelly was Chris's first-ever goalie coach for three years while the son was growing up in Winnipeg. Kelly didn't know much about the position but assigned himself the task to learn and work on the project much like his professional career as a software developer.
"I think there's no chance of me being an NHL goalie if it wasn't for my dad, just paying attention to me and coaching me on the ice," said Chris. "He played hockey until he was about 10 or 11, quit early. But we watched hockey on TV together. All of sudden, he's becoming a student of the position, going to goalie camps, taking notes, noticing how goalies are sliding around and using their posts when we watch 'Hockey Night in Canada' [broadcasts]. The thing I know, we are on the ice and he's saying 'let's try those things.'
"Having someone purely focused on my success and progress, you can't put enough emphasis on how important that was. It got to a point where I got old enough and my dad realized he wasn't capable of coaching me any further. Then he just went full-support mode with my next coach."

Fast forward to Driedger's current goalie coach, Steve Briere. When the former Toronto Maple Leafs goalie coach was hired by the Kraken in early July, Briere made a point to connect with Driedger to get started on working together.
"As soon as I was able, Steve and I had been skating [and working on drills] together pretty religiously," said Driedger. "He's been unreal. He even took the time, before the season, during training camp to go over a bunch of video and he gave me his thoughts. We looked at my game in Florida [14-6-3 record and .927 save percentage in 2020-21], and looked at my game at different points of last season."
"He pointed out some differences, different things like my depth [playing angles], just staying calm [in movements], things like that. We used the video work to focus on those things to get back into good habits."
Driedger is especially grateful for Briere's extra attention while still covering all needs and demands that come with coaching Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones all preseason and regular season long.
"He's a very high-energy guy," said Driedger. "He always brings a great attitude and he works like crazy. As a goalie coach when you have three goalies, it's sometimes double the work of having two goalies. Usually, we go out, there are two goalies playing, maybe you do some video with them and you're on the ice early [before practice or before/after morning skates] working on a couple of things and that's that. But if you got a guy who's injured or recovering, we're out there an hour and a half before practices. He's shooting and coaching, it's a lot. He's been incredible. I owe a ton of my successful rehab to him."
Driedger once starred in the AHL, playing 141 games in the league and another 73 in the ECHL since getting drafted by the Ottawa Senators in the third round of the 2012 NHL Draft. He's impressed with the Firebirds on lots of levels and was even willing to offer one brief scouting report.
"The first thing you notice is how much fun they have," said Driedger. "It's an older group as far as the AHL goes [necessitated by most 2021 and 2022 Kraken draft choices not being old enough to play in the league as of yet]. Everyone gets along and they are well-coached ... And Ryker Evans (2022 second-round draft choice and AHL all-star defenseman] is gonna be a heck of a player."
As for the next steps in Driedger's comeback, he is dialed into to "aligning all aspects of my game to have success at the NHL level." One example is the right mentality during key parts of a game, such as not thinking too much about the goal just scored and being prepared to make the next save. Driedger says attaining that mentality is natural when playing regularly but with "nine months off, it takes a bit more thought to get back where I need to be."
What Driedger is not doing is thinking too much about the Kraken 23-man roster of which he has not been on all season due to the injury.
"As far as like the business side goes, I kind of just let [management and the coaching staff] worry about that end," said Driedger. "My job is to focus on my game and keep the puck out of the net, then good things will happen."