About me…

THE SHORT VERSION

Well, goaltending has been a huge part of pretty much, my whole life. I left for my first year junior when I was 15. I played 2 years in the BCHL, then chose to go play major junior in the WHL for 4 years. From there I went on to play as a professional for 15 years, retiring after the 2005/06 season.

I’ve been lucky enough to have played all over the world. I’ve played in one Olympic Games (Nagano 1998), three World Championships, and have made some incredible friendships and memories. But through all of these years, this is the condensed happy version:) My career was a long rocky road for a number of years, and I made more than my share of mistakes along the way.

Somewhere along that path I started to figure out more and more about myself. But it wasn’t until I was finished playing the game, that I could look back at myself honestly, and take ownership of the choices that I made.

COACHING AND HELPING OTHERS

I started coaching around 2009 with a local junior team just to help out cause I was asked. After that I thought that I wanted to see if I really liked the job and if I was any good at it, so I got the position with the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL. After that first year, I knew that I wanted to do this full-time. I loved it.

One of the things I loved most about it, was seeing the goalies I coached succeed and achieve their dreams. The other rush was that I was having some success because of the way I was doing it. I was building a connection, friendship and earning their trust. I was also using a lot of my experiences in my hockey career to help guide how I coached. And I don’t mean I would brag about what I accomplished. I used my bad stories, the ones that I had wished I had done differently, to help teach and earn their trust.

When I became the Goaltending Development Coach for the Winnipeg Jets, I started to learn that my method was having a positive effect on the goaltenders. A couple of the goalies that I had the pleasure of working with in the Winnipeg organisation were Michael Hutchinson, Peter Budaj and Connor Hellebuyck.

By the time I became the Goaltending Development Coach for the LA Kings, I felt very confident that my approach to coaching was having a positive effect. I had some amazing people to work with while I was there, including Peter Budaj, Jack Campbell, and Cal Petersen.

After some incredible years in LA, I decided to leave the NHL and go to the KHL in Russia. There I worked with two awesome goalies Jeremy Smith and Simon Hrubek. I had an awesome time there, but for many reasons, did not go back the next season.

From there I headed into a bit of a hurricane, with the pandemic and a few other things;) But during this time I found more strength and focus, believing that all of this was actually a blessing. It gave me the nudge I needed to do what I love so much…on my own, and help as many people as I can.

And that is where we are now:)

- Dusty Imoo