Return of the import goalie: Tigers’ Søgaard arrives in the Hat

By Ryan McCracken on August 18, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers were the last Canadian Hockey League team to host an import goaltender, and now they’re among the first to bring one back.

Seventeen-year-old Danish netminder Mads Søgaard arrived in Medicine Hat earlier this week after being selected 32nd overall in last month’s CHL import draft, and says he’s thrilled to fill such an important role with an historic Western Hockey League franchise.

“It’s definitely a big honour,” said Søgaard. “I really wanted to go to the CHL, and then I felt really fortunate that I got drafted to a really good organization like Medicine Hat.

“I’m just really excited to get going and show people what I can do. I’m just going to do my very best to play as many games as possible.”

While camp is still on the horizon, Søgaard managed to squeeze in some training with Tigers goaltending coach JF Martel at the Family Leisure Centre for Friday’s World Pro Goaltending camp, and says he’s excited to work alongside him in the coming season.

“I think that’s going to be a good fit. He can help me a lot to get better as a goaltender,” said Søgaard, adding it was nice to get in some light work with Martel prior to Tigers camp. “We’ve just been doing some skating stuff, just getting back into the feel again. Nothing major, just getting in a little skating, doing some stick handling and that’s pretty much been it.”

Martel, who spent the week working with local goaltenders as well as Søgaard, says he expects big things from the 6-foot-6, 181-pound lefty.

“There’s a lot of potential there. He’s a big lengthy goalie that’s fluid, flexible. He seems to have a great body for the position and he’s got a great track record so far,” said Martel, who also coached former Tigers import goaltender Marek Langhamer, who departed the team after his overage season in 2014-15. “We’re definitely excited about (Søgaard) coming into the program and just adding more depth at the position. It’s such a crucial position.”

While he hails from Denmark, Søgaard is coming off a strong season with the North American Hockey League’s Austin Bruins — which allowed him to familiarize himself with the Western world’s smaller playing surface while logging an 11-6-2 record, a 2.64 goals against average and a .909 save percentage.

“I really enjoyed my time in Austin. I had a really good goalie coach there, so I really enjoyed it. It was a bit of a transition going onto the smaller ice surface and stuff like that, but after a couple games you’re into it and it’s just regular now,” he said. “You’ve just got to be awake and be ready to play all the time. No situation is the same, so you’ve just got to read it as good as you can and try to put yourself in the best position as possible.”

The World Pro Goaltending camp also featured plenty of up-and-coming local talent in the crease. Roughly 30 goaltenders attended the camp over the week and Martel says he was most impressed by the group’s overall work ethic.

“A lot of kids come back here after a year and there’s that same drive, the same work ethic, the same attention to detail. We’ve got some minor midget goalies, and bantam AAA goalies and it’s the same thing from them — they’re coming in and they want to get better, they want to keep adding to their toolbox and that’s always exciting,” said Martel, adding it was nice to be able to work with goaltenders away from their skating teammates. “Just working on technique is great. Having the goalies together, there’s no players, no shooters to distract, you can just work on your technique and work on your basics and just hammer that down in preparation for training camp.”

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