How Hayley Wickenheiser and Danielle Goyette plan to revamp the Maple Leafs’ player development

Hayley Wickenheiser knows about success.

Widely regarded as the best women’s hockey player of all time, she has won four gold medals with the Canadian national team. After a decorated playing career, she completed medical school while holding down a role as assistant director of player development with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On the ice, she’s not afraid to call it like she sees it.

“I don’t sugarcoat things. If something needs to be said to a player, I’m not afraid to say it, which I think benefits the player down the road,” said Wickenheiser.

Her voice within the Leafs organization is about to become even louder. She was promoted to senior director of player development on Monday after Scott Pellerin’s contract was not renewed. The department she’ll oversee has arguably never been more important. The Leafs’ core is set until 2024, but developing young players to complement that core will be crucial — especially if the salary cap remains flat as predicted in a post-pandemic world.

The team hopes Wickenheiser’s attitude, keen eye for detail and championship pedigree will help turn those in the team’s s prospect pool into NHL-ready talent sooner rather than later. That pool includes elite talents, but those who have also been accused of wilting at times on the ice, such as 2020 first-round pick Rodion Amirov.

In her new role, Wickenheiser will be tasked with overseeing each prospect’s development plan to ensure their readiness for the Leafs’ style of play. She’ll also work with those on the NHL squad when necessary. The mission is to continue the department’s recent success, having graduated more than 20 players from the AHL and junior ranks to the Leafs, including late-round picks such as Pierre Engvall.

“(Wickenheiser) played the game at a high, high level, obviously, and talent that has that unique combination of elite intelligence and elite work ethic, and all those things shine through in her role any time she’s been around myself and our coaching staff or our players,” said Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. “So to have her take a significant step into a leadership position here now within the player development program is a huge win for our organization.”

Wickenheiser’s first order of business was adding Danielle Goyette as director of player development. Goyette is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame who previously worked as the head coach of the University of Calgary women’s hockey team since 2007. She has been an assistant coach of the Canadian national women’s hockey team and is a two-time Olympic gold medalist as a player.

In addition, Will Sibley was promoted to director of development operations and analysis. Player development consultant Darryl Belfry will oversee the technical development of the team.

Having a player development department headed by two women is an NHL first. Wickenheiser was asked about the importance of women taking on prominent management roles in one of the NHL’s biggest organizations. She views her promotion to Maple Leafs (which she called an “incredibly progressive organization”) and her subsequent hire of Goyette as simply finding the best people to do the jobs.

“(Hockey is) probably the last pro sport that’s really making these changes and progressions, but you’re seeing another pro sport, the NBA, that this is kind of becoming old news and it’s just about going after the best-qualified person for the job,” said Wickenheiser.

For her, the opportunity to be open-minded and consider different perspectives in player development is an important one.

“We have to change as the world changes,” she said.

But what will some of the changes that Wickenheiser and Goyette could make to the Leafs player development department look like? The Athletic breaks down the potential future of the department.

Personal attention and psychological development

With Dubas at the helm, personal attention for players has been prioritized. Keefe and Marlies head coach Greg Moore often prioritize one-on-one post-practice conversations on the ice. Players have access to Dr. Meg Popovic, the team’s director of athlete wellbeing and performance, who provides a trusted sounding board.

Wickenheiser and Goyette both spoke about the need to maintain those personal connections with young players and provide them with specific feedback for their game, but with perhaps more of a different tone.

“That’s what I think we need to work with right now with the players is: you have to be tough,” said Goyette. “This is a tough league to play in. Any player in the world wants to have your spot on the team. You have to be able to be mentally strong and forget about what’s going on around and focus on what you have to bring to the team and sometimes even to change position.”

“I’m straight to the point,” Goyette added.

Adding a sense of resiliency to young players could help better prepare them for the eventual rigours of playing in Toronto. One example to consider is forward Adam Brooks. Throughout the early season, Brooks cut a sometimes lackadaisical figure in Marlies practices and games.

Then, in March, after going pointless in four games, Brooks called himself out on his poor play.

“You have to look yourself in the mirror and come to that realization,” said Brooks. “For me, I know there’s more to give. I need to be more engaged in battles. This is a league where everyone’s fighting to get to the next level. If you’re not engaged every game, you’re going to stand out like a sore thumb.”

When Brooks eventually returned to the Leafs, he impressed by playing a composed and even physical game in limited minutes. He is starting to look like a safe bet to get more NHL minutes next season.

Now, this isn’t to say that every young player needs to treat every day with a hyper-intense approach. But “clear communication” was a term referenced multiple times in Wickenheiser and Goyette’s introductory press conference. They believe that if the Leafs development staff do not shy away from more difficult conversations with players about necessary improvements, the result will be more well-rounded players.

Goyette referenced how AHL players might be loaded with skill, but “to play NHL sometimes, skill is not going to be good enough to get you there or to keep you there.”

Goyette believes it’s important for young players to make adjustments from the player they were in junior hockey to eventually fitting a different type of role in the NHL. A continued focus on this belief could help the Leafs when drafting to better project where a possible draft pick could fit in the Leafs’ system.

To do that, Goyette believes young players will have to master the “mental aspect of the game.”

“Trust me, you have learn that the hard way sometimes,” said Goyette. “I know the Maple Leafs are going to have sports psychologists. They’re going to have so many people around them but sometimes it’s at that moment, at the right time on the ice, during a practice or during a situation, after a play they did, how to help them to overcome and win their way back back to that situation. That’s going to make them better.”

Ben Matchett, the University of Calgary’s interim athletic director, has seen Goyette go the extra mile when developing relationships with players.

“Danielle really showed a knack for looking at the player as a whole, not just for what they were doing on the ice,” said Matchett. “She’s the hardest worker I’ve ever seen.”

Danielle Goyette. (Tom Szczerbowski / USA TODAY Sports)

More video tracking

In March, Dubas highlighted how in a season that has seen in-person prospect viewing dramatically decrease, the Leafs developed better relationships with teams that control their prospects including access to players and video of players.

“It has given us a chance to be able to adapt and not be too complacent in what we do with development,” said Dubas.

Under Wickenheiser and Goyette, and with the newly-promoted Sibley, the next step in that adaptation could see the Leafs taking even more control of prospect development.

“We’re developing a much more robust system of tracking and video work for each player with quite in-depth detail for their development plan,” said Wickenheiser.

Consider that three of the team’s top prospects, Amirov, Roni Hirvonen and Topi Niemelä, will all spend the 2021-22 season in Europe. All three have the upside to make them NHL players one day. The Leafs will want to ensure that while they’re developing in their own right in the KHL and Liiga, they’re also adding tools to their game to help them assimilate to the Leafs’ possession-driven style of play far quicker.

It’s a delicate balance to strike. While the frequency in which prospects communicated with Pellerin varied this season, the average was once a month. Wickenheiser noted the importance of “constantly” keeping in touch with prospects, and so it seems possible that frequency will increase.

Being able to provide players with more detailed video breakdowns could also see the Leafs development staff rely less on informal conversations, and instead showcase specific situations in games that they will need to improve upon. Comprehensive video breakdowns could also allow prospects to study their games on their own time as well.

“From where player development started in the NHL 10 years ago to where it’s going, I’m pretty proud to be a part of a group like this that’s hopefully going to continue to evolve the well-set plans and blueprints that were put into place by Scott Pellerin and Stéphane Robidas,” said Wickenheiser.

Belfry’s influence could grow

While Wickenheiser and Goyette will oversee the department, Belfry’s influence within the department looks likely to grow. Amidst the changes and promotions announced on Monday, Belfry remained a constant.

“Player development is more than two people,” said Goyette, referencing the many resources Leafs prospects have at their disposal. “Our job is to work well together to make sure we help the players as much as we can.”

Dubas and the Leafs clearly feel a sense of trust in Belfry, having hired him as a consultant in 2015. He’s helped some of the more notable Leafs add dimensions to their game, including Auston Matthews, as James Mirtle detailed in his recent look at the Leafs’ prolific goal scorer.

Under Pellerin, Robidas, who accepted a position as head coach of the Magog Cannonniers of QMAAA but will stay with Toronto through June, worked primarily with the team’s defence prospects while Pellerin often focused on the team’s forward prospects. With Belfry overseeing all aspects of technical development, forwards and defenceman could possibly master skills and on-ice approaches they might not have otherwise in their position.

One of Belfry’s focuses remains developing players in the offseason. The Leafs did not hold a development camp in 2020, but a 2021 camp seems more likely. This will be a critical point for the organization’s top prospects to learn Belfry’s methods and begin the process of working with him in earnest.

(Top photo of Hayley Wickenheiser: Mark Blinch / NHLI via Getty Images)