"He has a winning pedigree. He's a competitive guy with good athleticism and quickness."

That's what Minnesota scouts said about my boy, Filip Lindberg, when the Wild picked him in the 2019 NHL Draft this summer.

This makes it the fourth year in a row when one or more of my players have been drafted to the NHL.

Coincidence or not, "Fille" has been training with me for the past four, very successful years.

He won the Best Goalie Award in the U18 Finnish Elite League a couple of years back, took home gold at the 2019 World Junior Championship and backstopped UMass Amherst to the NCAA Final as a freshman for the first time in school history.

And now he's one more step closer to his NHL dream as part of the Wild prospect pool.

One look at his body tells you why he's so successful as a hockey player.

Chiseled abs, veiny arms, shredded like Wolverine… No wonder Fille is known for his athleticism and quickness on the ice.

Not many people know this but immediately after the 2019 NHL Draft, he headed over to Minnesota for the Wild prospect development camp...

Fille posted TOP 5 results in all fitness tests and ranked #2 overall at camp.

Right after development camp he got back into the grind and pulled a big PR on trap bar deadlifts...

With six weeks left in the off-season, it's safe to say he'll enter his sophomore year at UMass Amherst stronger and more jacked than ever.

And how did he get in such excellent physical shape, you ask?

By following the off-ice programs inside my Next Level Hockey Training System.

It's available to you behind this shiny little link:

https://NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

A few days ago, my good buddy and long-time athlete Kasper Björkqvist signed his first pro contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Kasper is now in his 5th summer training with me, so if you have watched any of our training videos before you probably have seen him lift some pretty impressive weights.

I feel proud for Kasper signing with one of the best organizations in the NHL - yet, our work is still far from over.

He's physically ready to play in the league (and has been for a couple of years now). Now comes the part where he has to prove he belongs there.

That means we have another hard summer busting ass in the weight room ahead of us to prepare him for the NHL.

P.S. To discover how Kasper built NHL-level strength, size and power during his junior and college years, click here.

Team Finland beat the USA last night to capture gold medals at the 2019 World Junior Championship in Vancouver.

So join me in congratulating Head Coach Jussi Ahokas and the entire Finnish U20 National Team on their success. 

Well done, boys. 3 golds in 6 years at the WJC is a helluva feat!

Special props to team Captain Aarne Talvitie (Penn State), Filip Lindberg (UMass), Urho Vaakanainen (Boston Bruins) and Jesse Ylönen (Pelicans Lahti). I had the chance to work with these fine players in the juniors before they went on to play college/pro hockey.

Running the numbers in my head, that makes 10 gold medal winners at 4 different U18 & U20 World Championships since 2016 who have trained in my weight room.

I'm especially proud of my boy Fille Lindberg who was playing for our second team at the U18 level when we started working together three years ago. 

You know, Fille and I often visit this neat restaurant in downtown Helsinki called Tokyo 55 in the off-season. It's a great place to sit down, have a tasty meal and talk about hockey and life.

Last summer, over several post-workout, all-you-can-eat sushi buffets, we discussed how he'd have to approach his off-season training and freshman season at UMass so he'd make the U20 team.

Now he's a World Champion.

He does everything I tell him in the gym without questioning or second-guessing. He doesn't drink alcohol, doesn't eat pizza or candy, and gets his 9-10 hours of sleep every night. That's why he's successful and will go far as an athlete.

There's a shirtless picture on my Instagram where you can see how this approach is working for him. He's ripped out of his mind.

To honor my buddy Fille and the entire Finland U20 National Team, I'm heading over to a sushi buffet tonight. I'm gonna celebrate by eating and drinking myself into a food coma. 

I'm not much of a drinker but this is one of those rare moments where I plan to chug down a vodka shot or two to go with the makis, nigiris and sashimis. 

In the words of the late NCAA Champion and Stanley Champion, Coach "Badger Bob" Johnson:

"It's a great day for hockey!"

P.S. For a training program that produces champions, go to:

https://NextLevelHockeyTraining.com

There's a disgusting myth being parroted all around the hockey world.

I'm sick and tired of hearing it. So I'm here to set the record straight.

What is this myth I'm talking about?

That you can't get stronger during hockey season. And therefore, you should just focus on maintaining whatever gains you made in the off-season.

Pfui.

This is all laughable to me because my athletes have proven this "rule" wrong many times over.

Every year, they were hitting personal bests on our heavy main lifts like trap bar deadlifts and power cleans late into the regular season, sometimes just a couple of weeks before the playoffs.

Adductor strains (often also called "groin strains") are one of the most common injuries in ice hockey.

In a physically violent sport like hockey, you'd think injuries would result from heavy collisions with other players.

When it comes to adductor strains, that's not the case.

The vast majority of these injuries take place in non-contact situations.

What many hockey players don't realize is that your off-ice training plays a huge role in the prevention of groin pulls.

Before we discuss how exactly you do that with specific exercises, let's look at the research behind adductor strains.

(If you’d rather watch than read about ​how to prevent adductor strains… Check out the video below.)

Adductor strains plague hockey players at all levels of play.

Here's some quick fun facts for you:

1. 43% of ALL muscle strains occur in the groin region.

2. Adductor strains account for around 10% of all injuries on the ice. [2]

3. According to a conservative estimate, each NHL team lose 25 man-games every season to groin and lower abdominal injuries. [3]

On September 26, 2018, Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin passed away.

For those not familiar with him, Charles Poliquin was one of the most successful and influential strength coaches of our time.

He trained Olympic medalists in multiple sports.

He also coached Hart Trophy winner Chris Pronger, Keith Tkachuk, Al MacInnis, Gary Roberts, and many other elite hockey players.