USA Hockey Magazine

PHOTOS BY Molly Scarborough/Brooke Olson JUNE 2026 // THE GOALIE ISSUE // 33 Team, noted how Aerin Frankel went through this camp a number of times as a leader. Now, goalies like Ava McNaughton (Wisconsin) and Annelies Bergmann (Cornell) are a couple of veteran leaders among the current campers. Though versions of this camp have changed over the years, USA Hockey has held it annu- ally since 2019, often at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan. The move to the Super Rink in Blaine this year, due to maintenance at the Plymouth rink, was a good experience, Thompson said. The coaches focus on skills the athletes will need for success at the collegiate, pro or international level. Those include skating, technical edge work, play-reading and deci- sion-making. "We've had a lot of videos that we're show- ing them on different NHL and PWHL deci- sion-making that the world's best are doing, and trying to recreate those environments at practice," Thompson said. "Give them some new skills to work on throughout the summer." Altmann told goaltender Quinn Kelly, a 16-year-old who was one of the younger ath- letes at the camp, that the experience isn't about changing one's game completely, "but if you can leave with one thing that stuck out to you, that you can continue to work on … that's all that matters." Altmann sees this camp from the coaching perspective as a chance to gain "a really good grasp" of the American player pool and keep tabs on the development of the athletes. Her goal is to never get into a hole figuring out the best goaltenders at each birth year in the U.S. when it comes to making rosters. "On the flip side … we want to still give all that information that we can and the details and helping these kids develop their games," she said. "Because it's trying to figure out who has the potential and then how do we help accelerate them to actually reach their potential or expand their potential." The athletes are being evaluated at the camp by coaches, but also by themselves to see where their game is with respect to their peers, figuring out what others do better than them or things to improve on, Lassonde said. " We w a n t t h e m t o g r o w t h e i r g a m e ," Lassonde said. "We want them to get better. We want them to be exposed to the coaches that we bring here. "There's a lot of resources here that these kids can take advantage of and figure out the types of things that they're being asked to do, they're seeing, goalie tools that they can put in their goalie toolbox and use to help them develop and get better." Those resources are all put to use with the goal of having the best American goalies be the best goalies in the world, Thompson said. The camp was combined with defenders and goaltenders so they could work on defen- sive-zone concepts on the women's side. Communication and making sure defenders and goaltenders are on the same page is so important, Thompson said. Ideally, the defenders and goalies will be very much in sync at the next Olympic Games because they've been coming to this camp for years together, Thompson added. One objective of the camp is to recreate pressure situations at the end of each skate. So, coaches keep score and leaderboards to do everything they can to get goalies used to the fear and pressure that comes with playing in a gold-medal game, Thompson said. At the camp's conclusion, the coaches hand out awards for the top goalie on the men's and women's side. They also have an award for the best teammate. "The rationale is, there are going to be t i m e s w h e n y o u'r e g o i n g t o w i n a g o l d medal, and you're not going to be on the ice," Thompson said. "We make sure that you're still providing for your team and helping your team win, whether it's on the bench cheering them on, or it's in the stands and making sure that everybody's pulling on the rope, and they know that you're a good soldier." P The National Goaltending and Women's Defense Development Camp occurred May 18-21 in Blaine, Minnesota. "IDEALLY, THE DEFENDERS AND GOALIES WILL BE VERY MUCH IN SYNC AT THE NEXT OLYMPIC GAMES BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN COMING TO THIS CAMP FOR YEARS TOGETHER." –STEVE THOMPSON

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