from Michael Traikos at the Toronto Sun,

(Kay) Whitmore’s goal is to make the equipment more representative of a player’s individual body type. He wants chest protectors that cling to the arms and shoulder rather than hang like drapes and for the pants to be more like what Justin Bieber, not MC Hammer, would wear.

Ultimately, he wants goalies to look different from one another. And, for a change, goalies want the same thing.

“I think we should all be on the same playing field, doing the same thing, and let the talent win out,” Cory Schneider, who is on the NHL-NHLPA competition committee, said during All-Star Weekend in January. “If you're talented, can move around the net and stop pucks, those are the guys that should be in the league.”

At the all-star game in Nashville, Whitmore presented prototypes of the new equipment to Schneider, the New Jersey Devils backstopper, Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals, and Tampa Bay Lightning's Ben Bishop. They hated it. Not because it was too small, but because it wasn’t small enough.

“The PA and I weren’t super happy,” Whitmore said. “It wasn’t what we were looking for and the goalies agreed. Cory Schneider said it best: ‘It’s hard to explain what we’re asking them to do, but when we see it we’ll know.’”

The problem here is two-fold: in order to have equipment that is contoured to the natural shapes of the body, you have to physically measure every single goaltender to see what sizes they should be wearing. Then, you have to have to convince each equipment manufacturers — Bauer, CCM-Reebok, Brian’s and Vaughan — to design padding that simply protects the goalie rather than gives them an edge in eliminating the five-hole.

more