Puckmasters Hockey Training Centers

November 1, 1993 Puckmasters Founder Pete Fry signs the the first ever lease for a Puckmasters Hockey Training Center. December 1, 1993 the first Puckmasters Hockey Training Center officially opens in Victoria BC. It was small but it didn't matter. Pete's enthusiasm and motivational personality attracted hockey players from all over. One week later, an undrafted 20 year old struggling Robbie Tallas while playing for the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL has his first hockey training session at Puckmasters the night before his team is to play the Victoria Cougars. Robbie has a great session and goes on to win the game the next night. Robbie turns his season around, continues to train at Puckmasters and 3 years later suits up for the Boston Bruins of the NHL.

Dear Pete Fry and Puckmasters,

I want to thank you for providing me with a new outlook on hockey. Because of my Puckmasters training, for the first time in my life I didn't just play hockey. Instead, I believed in the game and myself as a goalie.

I still remember back in 1994 training throughout the summer at Puckmasters, working hard to get every detail of my game right. That training gave me the confidence to go to Boston's training camp with the attitude I wasn't coming back; I WAS GOING TO PLAY IN THE NHL!

When I got to Boston's camp there were 65 other players there. I was the only one without my name on the back of my jersey, and six NHL goalies were present, four of whom had million dollar contracts. For me though it was living off of steak & cheese subs because I barely had enough money to eat. Long story short, me, the guy with no name on his jersey and not enough money to eat, earned a contract with the Boston Bruins! I WAS GOING TO PLAY IN THE NHL!!!

It was Pete Fry and Puckmasters that taught me to believe I was great. From the moment I first walked in the door, I was "The Great" Robb Tallas, and it was clear everyone involved in Puckmasters really cared about giving me the tools I needed to succeed. The unique Puckmasters training methods along with the attitudes and dedication of the Personal Coaches is how Puckmasters goes beyond any other hockey school or training in the world! Everyone who's involved in Puckmasters knows this and believes in it, and you can't imagine as a goalie how it feels to know you have The Great Puckmasters team helping you. I know it carried me a long way!

I'm now 30 years old. I've played ten years professionally in North America, five of those years in the NHL. I'm currently playing in Finland in the top-rated professional division in all of Europe. If I hadn't spent that summer at Puckmasters, and subsequently continued training at Puckmasters, I know for a fact I would never have made it as a hockey player with the career I now have.

All the best,
"The Great" Robbie Tallas,
NHL Boston Bruins

The First Press

The very first Puckmasters opened up in the Province of British Columbia on December 1, 1993. The first Puckmasters rink was only nine feet wide by thirty five feet long. It was an immediate success with the phone ringing non stop with hockey players wanting to catch the Puckmasters Hockey Training Fever. Here is an excerpt from the first press Puckmasters received:

The First Logo

The very first Puckmasters logo was hand-painted onto the sign at the first Puckmasters facilty in Victoria, British Columbia. The idea was simply to "get something up there," so it was essentially the words "Puck Masters" (Puckmasters was a two-word entity back then) with a puck thrown in. Puckmasters has undergone a couple of logo shifts throughout its 15 year history, with the latest and current logo seen at the top of this page.

The First New Year's

On New Year's Eve, 1993, Puckmasters founder Pete Fry was working late at the original Puckmasters location in Victoria, BC, trying to get the systems in place for what would become the Puckmasters Hockey Training System. Pete was typing into the computer like mad, and lost complete track of time. In the middle of typing, he heard a loud revelry coming from outside. Pete glanced up at the clock. Midnight. A brand new year and people could be heard celebrating. And then he turned his head down towards the computer screen, and kept right on typing. So much for "Auld Lang Syne."

The First Program

A couple of months after founder Pete Fry began Puckmasters, he took one of his customers to lunch (as he would regularly do) to talk about the progress of their young hockey player. During this meeting, the parent (Bruce Holmes) mentioned how his son Nick had improved a lot since beginning with Puckmasters. He said that Nick told him that he wanted to keep coming to Puckmasters forever. Bruce, however, said that he wanted to see a solid development program in place for his son. This meeting was the stage for the development of the Puckmasters programs, which began as a set of 48 skills for players, and 48 skills for goalies. Since that time, the initial skills development program has developed into a Skills Plus Program, Competitive Rep (Travel) Program, Power Skating Program, SCATS Program, Defensemen Program and a full Goalie's Program. These programs have been developed utilizing Accelerated Learning Techniques and tapping into the skills and brains of many successful NHL Players and Coaches.

Puckmasters Biggest Contributor To Canada's Historic Open Ice Summit

The year was 1998. Canada gets stonewalled by Dominic Hasek and loses to Czeckloslovakia in the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

After the loss, similar to any other time Canada loses at hockey, the whole country went into a state of panic.

A national hockey summit was called. It was named the Open Ice Summit and was Chaired by Wayne Gretzky. The goal of the Open Ice Summit was to capture the greatest hockey minds in Canada and put together a strategy to help Canada stay on top as the leader in hockey in the world.

The hockey minds that were there included Legendary Stanley Cup winning coach Scotty Bowman, Stanley Cup winning coach Ken Hitchcock, Montreal Canadians GM Bob Gainey, Vezina winning goaltender and Toronto Maple Leafs Vice President Ken Dryden. The biggest contributor of hockey minds to the Open Ice Summit with 9 representatives was Puckmasters Hockey Training Centers.

Puckmasters Founder Pete Fry says "The one thing that stands out in my mind the most from the event is, I was doing a brainstorm with Bob Gainey and Ken Hitchcock on how to improve the overall skill systemwide in Canada. Bob Gainey brought up a good point saying that he sees a lot of players at a young age get categorized as a winger or a center or a defensemen. In Bob's opinion this takes away from the creativity of the player and limits their overall development."

The Puckmasters Mission Statement

The Puckmasters Mission Statement was developed early in 1994. It is "To inspire and motivate every hockey player in the world to strive for their unlimited potential through excellence in hockey." One of the big contributors to coming up with the mission statement was one of the first Puckmasters Personal Coaches: former NHL Player Brad Palmer. Brad was a first round draft pick of the Minnesota North Stars and played 145 games in the NHL before having a career ending abdominal injury. "Brad had one of the hardest shots I've ever seen." said Puckmasters Founder Pete Fry. "I remember his rookie year in Minnesota Brad scored on the Calgary Flames and shot the puck through the net".

The Origin of "The Pump Up Call"

Puckmasters founder Pete Fry did not like going to the dentist as a child. In fact he specifically dreaded the reminder call from the dentist the night before his appointments. To him it indicated pain the next day. Although he did pull a positive out of it in that, by getting the call, he would start to prepare for the appointment and he would also remember about it.

From that memory, Pete invented the "Pump up Call" for Puckmasters. The purpose of the "Pump up Call" is to get the students "fired up" for their session the next day. In fact, while interviewing a couple of Puckmasters Wall of Famer's recently, Pete asked Kyle Lamb (now playing with the Vancouver Giants of the Western Hockey League) what he remembered most about his training at Puckmasters. Kyle said "I remember my coach calling me each night before my session asking, 'Are you fired up for your session tomorrow?' It got me so pumped and I would start to visualize what I would be doing in my session the next day.

The Pump up Calls are such an important part of the Puckmasters Training System today. Parents have said that their children get so excited fom the "pump up calls" that sometimes they can not get them to sleep after!

Remember... THIS IS YOUR PUMP UP CALL FOR YOUR NEXT SESSION! GET FIRED UP!

The History of The Wall of Fame

The Puckmasters Wall of Fame was first developed in 1996, three years after the beginning of Puckmasters. The criteria developed to be on the Wall of Fame is a hockey player must have trained at Puckmasters, then move on to play at a junior level of hockey or greater. Since the beginning of the Wall of Fame, Puckmasters has produced over 300 players that have moved on to play at the junior level of hockey or higher. These include such greats as Robbie Tallas (Boston Bruins), Brett Mclean (Colorado Avalanche), David Morissett (St. Louis Blues), Kyle Bruce (Florida Panthers), Paul Elliot (Edmonton Oilers), Mike Valley (Vancouver Canucks), Gilbert Brule (NHL ranked 1st round draft pick) and many more players that have received college scholarships and played major junior hockey. The Puckmasters Wall of Fame is something for you to strive to be on. We look forward to honoring you in the future as you make your way into history by being on the Puckmasters "Wall of Fame."

The Birth of SCATS

One of the most popular Puckmasters Programs is the SCATS program. SCATS stands for Skating, Conditioning, Agility, Tenacity and Shooting. This program was developed in 1998 by Puckmasters Prince George. Prince George, a city in Northern British Columbia, Canada is the city that hosts the Major Junior Team that Puckmasters Founder Pete Fry played on. The team is the Prince George Cougars (formerly the Victoria Cougars), the team for which Pete Fry was the MVP in 1987 and 1988. This week Robbie Tallas, Puckmasters first student to play in the NHL is hosting a Puckmasters Goalie Camp in Prince George. The ironic part about Robbie hosting the camp in the home town of the Cougars is that when Robbie first trained at Puckmasters it was to get him ready for a game against the Cougars, when Robbie was playing for the WHL Seattle Thunderbirds at the time.

The Evolution of the Puckmasters Rink

In December of 1993 the first Puckmasters Hockey Training Center opened. It was 1300 square feet and had one rink that was 9' x 35'. This is the rink that legend Robbie Tallas trained on. The next step in the evolution of the Puckmasters Rink was to add on another rink. A couple years later the rinks were expanded to be 15' wide. In 1998 the first 70' x 25' Puckmasters rink was built in Prince George, B.C. Today some Puckmasters have even bigger rinks and some have more than two rinks.

On December 1, 1993, the first Puckmasters Hockey Training Center officially opened its doors. The first facility was about 1500 square feet with a rink that was only 9' wide by 35' long. It was quoted in the local newspaper as being a "Rocky Balboa" type of training enviroment for hockey players. Puckmasters founder Pete Fry's mom and dad, being the true hockey parents they were, would greet the hockey players when they arrived at Puckmasters. Pete Fry would then coach the hockey players during the day and early evening, then develop the programs late into the night, often sleeping the night at Puckmasters.

In the summer of 1993 Puckmasters Founder Pete Fry was sitting in his Mom and Dad's living room with two of his parents friends that were visiting from Ontario. Pete asked them what he should name the year-round hockey training concept he was developing. Fred Sooley, a friend of Pete's dad, suggested the name Puckmasters because Puckmaster was the name of a stickhandling board that Pete was working on for hockey players. the point was by naming the concept Puckmasters they would be able to sell more stickhandling boards. Pete liked the name and decided to stick with it. They never pursued the stickhandling board concept and a few years later Pete bought 5000 stickhandling boards from someone who started the boards and gave up on them. They were sold in Puckmasters Training Centers and also used as prizes. The Puckmasters name stuck.