from Jesse Granger of The Athletic,

Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy sat on a metal folding chair outside of the locker room in December 2021, ahead of a practice in Ottawa, trying on a prototype pair of Bauer’s newest skates.

He strapped on the futuristic footwear, which looks more like a ski boot than a hockey skate, clipping buckles rather than tying laces, as his teammates came strolling off the team bus. They stared at Vasilevskiy’s feet as they passed him on the long, brick hallway inside Canadian Tire Centre.

“What are those?!”

“Are those ski boots?”

“Are you kidding me, Vasi?”

Vasilevskiy smiled through the taunts, excited to test out his new gear on the ice. When practice began, the differences were immediately apparent. He felt more athletic when pushing side to side in the butterfly, able to load more weight onto his skate blade when digging in for each push.

The new-look skate, the Bauer Konekt, has won over a lot of NHL goalies in the past year and a half, with 14 goalies currently wearing them in games.

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