Balancing ice time, accountability key in helping young players succeed

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2026-27 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Craig Johnson, a former assistant with the Anaheim Ducks and Ontario of the American Hockey League, and development coach with the Los Angeles Kings, writes about giving ice time to young players, specifically three teenagers selected in the 2026 NHL Draft, the challenges associated with it and why it all relates to the development path of the player.

Accountability is a big thing in the NHL and it must be maintained. But teenagers like Gavin McKenna with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Alberts Smits with the New York Rangers and Ivar Stenberg with the San Jose Sharks are your future, and that's where handing out minutes becomes a balancing act for a coach.

You're feeling the pressure to win now, especially in big markets like Toronto and New York. But you're working with players who are vitally important to the future of the team, both later this season and long beyond it, and who are probably making mistakes in the details of the game.

You see it all the time. You think these players are finely tuned when they get to the NHL because of how they performed to become top prospects in their draft year. But they have habits they developed in junior or college that have to be broken, because they're not going to be successful in the NHL if they keep them.

There are different ways to break them. It's the coach's job to find the right ways.

I'm not sure of the whole situation in Toronto, but McKenna played just 6:36 against the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. Coach Jim Hiller explained that penalties in the second period cost the 18-year-old forward shifts, and later said he probably should have gotten McKenna back out there.

Whatever the reason, McKenna sat for a long time. And then as a coach you have to make a choice: do you put him back in the game after he's been sitting that long? They decided not to. It became a story, but internally the bigger part of that decision is the conversation that comes after. To McKenna's credit, he played a season-high 17:56 in the next game, two days later against the New York Islanders.

The biggest thing is to be really honest with the player. You have to point out the benefits of what you're asking him to do and show him the long-term goals so he can see where this is going.

Young players at this level are really smart. If you try to dress it up, they know you're not being genuine. But if you tell them the truth and give them a path, most of them will take it.

Messages can be delivered in different ways. You can sit a player. That's the loudest way, and probably the easiest to misread.

The other avenue is video and practice reps: going through it with them, going through shifts, going through where mistakes are being made and finding out why they're being made.

Then you go on the ice with them and work on different skills, like their shot and puck protection. Each player has different tools, and it's about finding ways to add more tools so they can use them in their game.

Those little details earn a player's trust, and they earn a coach's trust because the coach sees the player is serious about working on them.

We have to remember that the game is happening so much quicker for all these players now. It's about processing and staying calm.

Every player has a comfort level, and right now teenagers like McKenna, Stenberg and Smits are outside of theirs. They're getting used to the speed and the pace. That's why there has to be a plan for each of them that can be carried out even when in-game decisions limit their ice time.

I think back to when I was coaching Leo Carlsson in Anaheim when he debuted as an 18-year-old in 2023-24.

His workload was monitored really closely, and there were certain games we would sit him on purpose. It wasn't a punishment. In fact, it hurt our team because he was one of our best players as a rookie. It was frustrating for the coaches, but there was a long-term plan for him.

He was coming from Sweden, where they didn't play as many games, so there was an adjustment to being strong enough and capable enough to play 82 games. Now it's 84.

We could have looked at it and said, "This isn't good that we have to sit this kid." But by doing it, he could work on skills and get healthy, because he was dealing with some minor injuries. It was a plan, and it wasn't a reaction.

We were in a rebuild in Anaheim, and that's where Stenberg is in San Jose. In a rebuild you can live with more mistakes, because the reps are part of the investment. The 19-year-old forward has seen his ice time grow as he's earned it, and that's how it should work. In Toronto and New York, the margin for error is smaller.

At 18 years old, Smits isn't playing on the power play or the penalty kill. The Rangers have defensemen Adam Fox and Sean Durzi on the points. But you need a plan for Smits, and I'm sure coach Mike Sullivan and his staff have one.

They have to find ways for Smits to learn special teams, because he is going to be their future. That means giving him chances to do it in practice. It means having him watch video of Fox and Durzi on the power play, or Marcus Pettersson and Vladislav Gavrikov on the penalty kill.

Watching helps him learn, so when his time comes he'll be better prepared. But you're not going to make that adjustment in a game without the practice reps, which is why his ice time now isn't close to what it will likely be in the future. He's averaging 15:04 in 11 games, but he's played more than 17:00 twice in the past five games.

Things happen fast during games and winning is paramount. You can live with some mistakes, but not too many, and certainly not the same mistakes over and over.

There has to be accountability. Coaches have to hold young players accountable and find ways for them to get better. Sometimes that means taking away ice time.

Reps in the NHL are important. But sometimes the reps you don't get, or the reps that get taken away from you, can be better for a player's development.