Load management can help younger players get stronger

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2024-25 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Craig Johnson, a former assistant with the Anaheim Ducks and Ontario of the American Hockey League and development coach with Los Angeles Kings, writes how load management can help young players at the start of their NHL careers.

Load management, or resting players for certain games, has become a topic of much discussion in the NBA. It’s not as common in the NHL, but in recent seasons it’s become a tool for helping young players at the start of their careers.

I was an assistant with the Anaheim Ducks last season when they utilized load management with rookie forward Leo Carlsson, the No. 2 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. The San Jose Sharks have taken a similar approach with rookie forward Will Smith, the No. 4 pick in the 2023 draft, this season.

Carlsson came into the NHL as an 18-year-old after playing in the Swedish Hockey League the previous season. They don’t play as many games in that league as in the NHL, playing more on the weekends and not as much during the week, so young players have time off between games to rest and develop. Going from that to a much-busier, 82-game schedule in the NHL can be a significant jump.

As coaches, you never want to see a player like Carlsson sit out. That’s the No. 1 thing. It’s a tough message to sell with a player that you’re trying to win when you’re sitting one of your best players out.

But for the benefit of the young player in the long run, sitting out certain games gives him time to go into the gym, so he’s able to work out and get stronger. He’s able to manage his rest too, so he can come into games a little bit fresher and stronger.

The Ducks sports performance department put together a load management plan for Carlsson where they determined the number of games that would be best for him while also looking at the schedule and seeing where he could get in two or three good lifts in the weight room.

When the players come into training camp, they are tested in specific areas such as flexibility, strength, power and other areas where they may have weaknesses. Carlsson is such a talented hockey player. He has skill, he has vision, he has size, all those things, but he didn’t have the biggest legs when he came in. So, putting a little bit more muscle on those legs through work in the weight room was important.

A lot of young players don’t have that motor that can continue throughout a long NHL season. It’s something that doesn’t always come at the 18-year-old level.

I look at a player such as Seattle Kraken forward Matty Beniers. He has quite a motor, but he also was able to play two seasons at the University of Michigan before breaking into the NHL as a 19-year-old in 2022, so he was a little more developed at that point.

Some players will play at the college level for a couple years and when they come out, they’re just a little bit more mature physically than a player coming into the NHL at 18 years old. I’m talking in general terms. There are exceptions, such as Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, who was incredible and had that motor right away.

It also takes some time for some players to adjust to the NHL. Carlsson came from Sweden to playing in Anaheim, which isn’t the easiest as far as travel. So that also plays a factor, and it’s just making sure you give the player the best chance to succeed.

It’s the same with Smith. The Sharks are trying to give him the best chance to succeed in the long term, not just the short term, so they held him out of playing in back-to-back games until recently.

San Jose hasn’t done that with rookie Macklin Celebrini, who had his own load management plan, but also missed 12 games with a hip injury. The interesting thing with Celebrini is his father, Rick, is the Director of Sports Medicine and Performance for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.

So Celebrini probably worked with his father over the years and is maybe further along in that he has fewer weakness. So Celebrini can come in and he can win those loose puck battles and play more with the puck, have confidence with it and create time and space and have the power to break away.

But, in general, I find that when players have a little bit more time before they play in the NHL, they’re a little more developed and more ready. When that isn’t the case with a young player, load management can be helpful.

Most of the work is done off the ice, but there is some on-ice work you can do on those off days. You don’t want to skate the player on those days because if you skate him, it would the impact the energy he has for lifting in the gym.

So, anything you do on the ice is with puck touches, shooting, handling pucks, doing it more cleanly. Maybe you would work on little plays on the wall where you’re picking up the puck off rims. Then, the player would head to the weight room to get in his workout.

With Carlsson last season, unfortunately, he sprained the MCL in his left knee in a game and that kept him out for a while. That threw everything off with his training plan, but when he became healthier, he was able to lift a little bit more.

The sports performance department had certain goals for him. They wanted him to put on weight and get stronger. By the second half of the season, he had met those goals, so we tried to play him every game when he was healthy.

The advancements in sports performance science have been incredible. When I was in player development with the Los Angeles Kings, it was really eye-opening working with them to see what was best for the athlete, when you can push them a little bit and when you can hold back. It was similar with Anaheim.

You want to see the young players go through the ups and downs of the League and there’s a lot to be learned from playing as many games as you can and playing in back-to-back games, learning how to get through them and how to preserve some of your strength.

Finding ways to get through games where you’re not at your best physically or mentally, there’s a lot to said about that, too.

It’s always tough when you have these top young players and you’re sitting them, whether you’re at home or on the road, because people want to watch them play. There’s a lot of people who will buy tickets just to watch these players, so to have them out of the lineup isn’t always the best thing for the NHL.

But as the far as the players, if they do have certain weaknesses, why subject them to playing an 82-game schedule where they might get hurt, or you risk stunting their development?