Our founder’s journey began in a Montreal basement growing up as a budding young hockey player in the early 90’s. The space was outfitted with a slick concrete floor and the surrounding cement walls and ceiling were unfinished- which made it the ideal skills range for many years to come. Over the years, the 320 sqft room became coated with rubber streaks, mangled studs and it bid farewell to a dozen plus crumpled street hockey nets! Certain light fixtures were rendered obsolete and the parents' ambitions to convert the basement into a live-able space were delayed with each passing year.

The days spent in this “OG” Hockey Gym will never be forgotten. The countless hours spent ripping missiles and perfecting cellys, became the cornerstone of a life-long passion to remain committed to the game both on and off the ice.

With his peak playing days over, which saw our President playing overseas in Europe, his last 15 years have seen him working with NHL teams and Minor Pro organizations to most recently, overseeing Special Projects with the industry’s leading hockey training tools company. Over the last half decade, he was responsible for the consultation, supply and to-market delivery of the core products for the build out of over 50+ commercial hockey gyms across the globe. “Starting from the (synthetic) Ice Up” was the motto he followed when working with the leading skills coaches, clubs and players from the international hockey community.

Analysis & Evolution

“What tools do you have to show the athletes are progressing”?

This was the most recurring question received during the last years. Additional training hours, even with the best skating or shooting coaches, are often limited to subjective analysis that may not fully convince an athlete (or parent) that they are developing on pace. In other words, there can be some blind spots in certain areas of progression.

Within a hockey gym- as opposed to in-arena- you have the luxury of outfitting spaces in a controlled environment with more technology (small area zones, building dimensions, climate controlled, etc). And, this is where off-ice training “in skates” can translate to further analysis otherwise not suited perfectly for on-ice situations.

Additionally, as it relates to a hockey gym owner- offering systems that compile hard training data with immediate feedback further streamlines personnel overhead and programming consistency. The ability to near-automate a player’s ability to train is a game-changer for development efficiency- and revenue.

Keep in mind- there is no unicorn template to bring a Hockey Gym to life. Every client has a vision and every space is different- however, offering measurement & analysis technology within a center will set you apart from traditional training curriculum and increase your draw factor significantly.

Partners in Expertise

As you browse through our website, you will notice the name Ozo appears frequently. Hockey Gyms has partnered with Ozo Hockey to be the Exclusive Distributor of their products for North America. This includes the Shooting & Stickhandling simulator (SnS) as well as the Power 2500 Skatemill. While both of these systems are state of the art training equipment in themselves, the sport specific software that accompanies them is the key differentiating factor when it comes to comparable products in the market. Ozo’s in-house team of professional developers and engineers have been providing advanced high-tech solutions for over 20 years and most recently their foray into the hockey world has been revolutionary in changing the way players & coaches train.

The Ice Situation

Training your skills off-ice should be as closely replicated to on-ice as possible. Like it or not- shooting, stickhandling and passing mechanics are affected when training in shoes. Yes, reps are reps- and if you’re putting time into your development, nobody can argue that it’s time wasted. But, if you can lace up your skates and mimic the same on-ice body posture and positioning as you would in a game- then you’ve got an ADVANTAGE. Nobody will argue with that either ;)

A training session with synthetic Ice is not meant to replace real ice (nor will it ever) but it will ENHANCE what you do when you get back on the real stuff.

Whether your synthetic ice is for a commercial or residential Hockey Gym- we are pleased to offer a new era of synthetic ice that was engineered specifically for the hockey training market- players and goalies. Glide, grip and confidence to skate & train like you play!

Building For Better Performance

We are a company that offers knowledge, access to information and products that will allow today’s athletes & coaches to outfit off-ice training spaces with the most optimized solutions to perfect development for all skill levels and ages.

Building a training space to perform at the highest level for all hockey players requires planning, configuration and budgeting! In our extensive experience, we have learned there are many ways to accomplish your goals and this is achieved through choosing the right hard goods suppliers. The hockey “hardware” market is a niche business but we can guide you through the different available companies in your region who can make your dream a reality. Take out the guesswork, let us share the industry landscape as we know it- it’ll be our pleasure.

Welcome to Hockey Gyms,

JD Ross

President Hockey Gyms Inc