Strelow's impact on goaltending to be honored with Lester Patrick Trophy

The 2022 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame induction is Nov. 30 in St. Paul, Minnesota. This year's class is made of up Steve Cash, Jim Johannson, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Monique Lamoureux-Morando and Ryan Miller. Here, NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers profiles Warren Strelow, who will be posthumously honored with the Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.

Warren Strelow recognized talent when he saw it.
Strelow, who died in 2007 at age 73, was goaltending coach for the New Jersey Devils when he was scouting two potential goalie picks for the 1990 NHL Draft: Martin Brodeur and Trevor Kidd. The Devils made a draft-day trade with the Calgary Flames that had the teams swapping five picks, including their first-round selections. Calgary moved up to No. 11 and selected Kidd, while the Devils used the No. 20 selection on Brodeur.
"I wasn't ranked as good as Trevor, so they took a chance on moving up and I got drafted," said Brodeur, who went on to become the all-time winningest goalie in NHL history (691), a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Devils and a 2018 inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
"He's the first who really put his foot down and said, 'Marty's the guy,' and they were able to make it happen. Warren, for me, was one of the first guys who believed in me."
Strelow, who became the first full-time NHL goaltending coach in 1983, has been posthumously named recipient of the 2022 Lester Patrick Trophy for outstanding service to hockey in the United States. He will be honored as part of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame ceremony, which will be Nov. 30 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Strelow's hometown.
He was goaltending coach for the Washington Capitals (1983-89), Devils (1990-93) and San Jose Sharks (1997-2007).
"Warren was special, and I think a lot of people talk about him at certain times," said Buffalo Sabres goalie development coach Seamus Kotyk, who worked with Strelow when he was in San Jose's system from 2001-04. "Sadly I feel what happens is after you do your work and time moves on, you recognize the value of what was being done and that's applicable here with Warren.
"He worked with so many goalies and people that, over time, those goalies and people had careers that went in a lot of different directions. It's my opinion when people, myself included, reflect on the time they spent with him, they realized what they were getting, what he gave and what it was about."

Strelow was one of the first to work with goalies on their positioning, reading angles and various drills. He'd add other elements, from ropes to puck-shooting machines, but mostly it was making sure his goalies had the key elements down.
"A lot of stuff back then was footwork, edgework, movement. You have to be good on your skates," said former NHL goalie Bob Mason, who played 145 games with the Capitals, Chicago Blackhawks, Quebec Nordiques and Vancouver Canucks from 1983-91 and was Minnesota Wild goaltending coach from 2005-20.
"He was really good at the simple things like balance, your stance, glove position, stick position, all that little teeny stuff that adds up to be a solid foundation for what you were going to do. We didn't have a full-time guy. I started with Washington's farm team and he'd come down five, six, seven days a month. You're like a sponge, soaking up what he was telling you. He'd stick around for a couple of games and you couldn't wait to get that game in because you couldn't wait to show him."
Strelow was goaltending coach for the University of Minnesota (1974-83) when Herb Brooks, who was hired from Minnesota to coach the 1980 United States Olympic team. Goalie Jim Craig, who helped lead the U.S. to the gold medal at Lake Placid, said Strelow "was a teacher by trade."
"If you think about that, teachers want to develop students, not tell them what to do," Craig said. "It's not like he was extremely successful at the position in the National Hockey League and had the cache of, 'You have to listen to me.' Here was this guy who was a good athlete, very heavy-set, big man, but he watched you, saw what you did well, saw trends that were good, prevented habits that were bad."
Strelow usually formed close relationships with his goaltenders. That was true of former Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov, who played for San Jose from 1999-2010. Nabokov said he knew "pretty much zero English" when he arrived in the United States in 1997.
"He became basically a guy who took his time and helped me with absolutely everything," Nabokov said. "Either on or off hockey, he would try to communicate with me as much as possible the first couple of years. In the end we had full conversations about pretty much everything. He would always explain how things worked in the States, hockey or not hockey. He became a figure to me. If I needed anything, I was always comfortable going to him."
Strelow was in poor health through his final years and had a kidney transplant in 2003. Wayne Thomas, assistant general manager for the Sharks from 1995-2015, said Strelow found a way to keep going.
"He went from being diabetic to needing dialysis and having a transplant and still working through it all," he said. "You'd look at him and people think he's a grinder. He used to have to get up early, sometimes had to go to dialysis on the road. He'd do it, make sure he'd be there for practice, the game, travel. He was quite the guy; he loved it so much. It's no secret why he had success. He really had a passion for teaching and coaching."
Strelow's impact is being felt to this day. In 2008, the Warren Strelow National Goaltending Mentor Program was created by USA Hockey and Joe Exter, who was goaltending coach of the USA Hockey National Team Development Program from 2007-11. NHL goaltending coaches use a lot of what Strelow did during his career. One way or another, Strelow's legacy lives on.
"It's indicative of the impression he made on a lot of people during those days and his tactics, if you want to use that word, or his discipline in the fundamentals have carried on," New York Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello said. Lamoriello was GM of the Devils during Strelow's time there.
"Like life, things have a way of coming back. There were cuffs on pants, they take the cuffs off, they go back to the cuffs. So it seems to go back to what the fundamentals were and always will be. It's still skating, passing and shooting, no matter how much we develop players. It's still the fundamentals and stopping the puck. Styles have changed over the years, but it still comes down to the fundamentals."
Photo with New Jersey Devils courtesy of USA Hockey