`It's an opportunity to play the sport I love'
Despite limited game action, Canucks goalie prospect DiPietro has been working hard to get better
Mike DiPietro, professional goalie, has played in only five games in the last 400-plus days — but he's not worried.
Rather, the Vancouver Canucks' top goalie prospect says he's made big strides.
DiPietro was at the tail end of an outstanding rookie season for the American Hockey League's Utica Comets when the COVID-19 pandemic brought life to a halt in March 2020. When playoff hockey started up again in the summer, he served as the Canucks' No. 3 goalie but never suited up for a game.
And then again this season, DiPietro spent three months as a practice-only puck stopper, never seeing a shot fired in anger. Not until, finally, at the end of April, when he was sent back to Utica, N.Y. would he play some games again.
“The first two years have been crazy to say the least,” he said over the phone from Utica last week.
“Coming back here, my game is completely different. I made some really big strides in my game, even looking at video this year,” he said.
“It just shows, you know, the stuff that I've worked on with (Canucks goalie coach Ian Clark) and with (Utica coach Curtis Sanford) has really come to fruition and really taken hold. You can see it from a visual perspective, but also I can feel it in the net and how the game kind of slows right down and how you could be dictating the play, instead of vice versa.”
In four games with Utica this spring, the former Canada Under-20 star won three times and posted a solid .916 save percentage. He held the Rochester Americans to one goal (on 34 shots) on Wednesday, the last home game for the Comets this season, and the team's last home game as a Canucks affiliate.
DiPietro said it was an emotional night, given how important the city and the team was for him in finding his feet as a professional.
His first start in professional hockey came two years ago with the Canucks, when the injury riddled NHL squad found itself short-staffed in net and was forced to bring DiPietro up from junior to start against the San Jose Sharks.
The always upbeat DiPietro was shelled by the Sharks that night, surrendering three goals in his first five shots in a 7-2 San Jose victory.
But almost from the get-go in Utica, DiPietro found his feet.
“The people here in Utica, the fans, the coaching staff here, they made my transition as easy as they possibly could have, and way better than I thought it would be and never imagined, and it allowed me to kind of just get my feet and get settled, and then once the season got going last year, I felt like I immersed myself in the community,” he said.
Being in Vancouver for so long this season gave DiPietro a chance to work closely with Canucks goalie coach Clark, an experience he couldn't say enough about.
“He has the ability to recognize a goalie and knows goalies don't play the exact same way. Clarkie has allowed me to still be Michael DiPietro the goaltender who battles and competes, but also in more controlled ways, you know, having better footwork,” he said.
“A prime example is the way you track pucks. (Demko) and (Markstrom), they have the ability to do reverse tracking, where both legs can touch their (goal) posts, and they're able to look over their shoulders and behind the net. Because he knows just from a, physiological perspective — I can't do that — we looked at a lot of video of Jonathan Quick. Curtis Sanford and I, down here in Utica, have looked at a ton of video of Quick, and looking at the way he reverse tracks, he almost kind of brings himself inside the net to see on certain plays. He just finds solutions to problems on the horizon.”
Clark is without a contract beyond this season.
“If you like working with somebody, you would want to continue growing with them, but obviously it's out of my hands,” said DiPietro.
On Saturday, DiPietro travelled to New Jersey to meet up with the American-based players heading to Latvia for the IIHF World Championships. Canada's first game is against the host Latvians on May 21.
Today, they'll fly to Latvia. He'll be No. 3 goalie for Canada most likely, but however it plays out, he's excited.
“Every time I step on the ice, whether it's in Utica or Vancouver or in Europe, wherever I am is an opportunity to get better,” he said.
“It's an opportunity to play the sport I love and it's a story that will continue as I write the book of Michael DiPietro, professional hockey player. I just love the game.”