Ray Ferraro: How to Build Up Young Hockey Players

He’s back!

Ray Ferraro is a local legend here in Vancouver, though I’m not sure it’s because of his ridiculous junior hockey prowess or 400+ goals scored for six National Hockey League teams. Those items are part of it, sure, but I think one of the reasons Ray has endeared himself to the locasl market is because he tells it like it is. He’s passionate and opinionated, and in a sport where boring stock answers are the norm, Ray Ferraro is a breath of fresh air.

Plus, it seems like every sentence he says is quote-worthy, so he’s really making our jobs easier.

“Your goal is always to make your kids or your players as good as they can be.”

For Ray Ferraro, the true benefit of hockey is not the rewards on the ice, but off the ice. A coach’s primary function is not to make better hockey players, it’s much bigger than that, “bigger than the game,” as Ray says.

It’s something that’s easy to lose sight of. And sure, you might think it’s easy for Ferraro to say since he did have so much success in hockey, but in the snippet below it’s easy to see how important the path to building a young person through hockey really is.

And the game has changed. Nobody wants to be yelled at. When Ray played, that was the norm because we didn’t know any better.

Nowadays? “The coach has to treat a player like he would want to be treated.”

But don’t take my word for it.

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