Inside Flyers goalie prospect Carson Bjarnason’s meticulous approach to training both his body and mind

Roger McQueen let out an “Oh, gosh,” and such a massive sigh that you knew the soon-to-be Anaheim Ducks draft pick was grinning on the other end of the phone.

“It’s not everyone’s cup of tea,” McQueen told The Inquirer with a chuckle in early June.

So what is not everyone’s cup of tea? Well, it is the musical stylings of Flyers prospect Carson Bjarnason, McQueen’s goalie the past few years with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

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“It’s usually the exact same seven songs on repeat, but it’s songs from the ’40s that no one has ever heard of,” the No. 10 overall pick added with another laugh.

Is the music Bjarnason plays from the 1940s? Probably not. The 20-year-old listens to a lot of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Van Halen, and, of course, The Tragically Hip (who have a song titled “Wheat Kings”). So it came as no surprise that Bjarnason, who ran the aux cord at practice for his Western Hockey League squad, told Flyers social media that the topic he knows the most about — aside from hockey — is music.

But the goalie did confess that he tries to “put up a bit of a calmer front” when it’s his playlist echoing through the locker room. And it makes sense, because Bjarnason is just that between the pipes.

“I feel like I have good patience; I feel like that’s a skill that I’ve kind of always carried and prided myself on. ... So I think just overall, I have a good poise and calmness in the net,” Bjarnason said in April. “I think that’s something that, hopefully, helps my team out and kind of reassures them throughout the game.”

This past year in his final season of juniors, Bjarnason went 22-15-3 (the Wheat Kings won 38 games), and finished tied for second in the WHL among goalies with at least 30 starts in save percentage (.913) and ninth in goals-against average (2.93). He battled through a meniscus injury in the latter half of the season but still joined Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League after his junior season to learn and soak up the pro game before his first full season commences in October.

“Carson is a big body at 6-4, and I think he understands, technically, what it takes for him to have success,” Brandon head coach and former Flyer Marty Murray told The Inquirer in June. “I think he’s kind of calm in net. He gets this body, using his frame, to get in front of the puck, and he’s athletic, too.”

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Murray added: “He’s probably more technical than athletic, but he has the ability to make that backdoor, push off the post highlight-reel save. ... Carson, I think, being as technical as he is, he probably a lot of times makes saves look much easier than they actually are just because he is technically sound and in good position.”

Bjarnason’s technical skill is not something that happened overnight. The Carberry, Manitoba, native has meticulously worked on his game, especially since being drafted in the second round (No. 51 overall) by the Flyers in 2023.

In early July at development camp, he was spotted doing tracking and movement drills on the Flyers’ new ’67 Arena at the team’s training center in Voorhees, before going over his positioning with goaltending coach Kim Dillabaugh.

“[Dillabaugh] will send all the videos to me,” Bjarnason told The Inquirer about the Flyers staff using an iPad on the ice. “... It’s nice to kind of be able to look at and break down the things that I’m doing well and what I want to keep working on.”

“We dive into every little thing when it comes to knee flexion and ankles and hips, and we go pretty extensive into it,” he added. “But, to the eye, it’s just kind of where I sit in my stance, and how I want my feet and hands to be in placement. So, yeah, simply put, it’s just kind of a way to make sure I’m keeping all my tools in check.”

Last summer, Bjarnason watched videos of himself, too. Although he “thought I was pretty calm and moved pretty minimally,” the videos showed he needed to work on that.

This past season, he focused on his efficiency and movement between the pipes, which paid off as he improved his save rate with the Wheat Kings by 6 percentage points and was rewarded with a spot on Canada’s World Juniors squad.

Bjarnason is always working on the mental side of playing goalie, saying last year at rookie camp that the brain “is a muscle, too, and you have to train it.” That’s become a focus of his, and in that pursuit he works closely with the Flyers’ mental performance coach, Jeremy Rahn, and the coaching staff, including Dillabaugh and Brady Robinson, the latter of whom oversees goaltending development.

“I thought Brady and Kim, the goalie guys, did a lot of work with him, not just on the ice [last summer]. They actually pulled him back from the ice and did more classroom stuff with him,” Flyers director of player development Riley Armstrong said during the AHL playoffs. “And I felt that’s good for his mental approach to the game on how he handles situations.

“Maybe after he gets scored on, how do you handle that? Do you come back out? Where’s your attention focused? Things like that, and I think it helped him. And then once he got on the ice, he kind of had a different mindset on how he was challenging a shooter, how he tracked the puck, how he reacted to a save, and his rebound [control] and stuff like that.”

Armstrong is excited to see Bjarnason make his pro debut this season and understands that goalies have “their own set of hockey IQ.” Bjarnason also appreciates that he can reach out and ask questions to Flyers goalie Sam Ersson — who also is known for a strong mental game and could be his goalie partner in two years.

“[He’s] somebody who I can still kind of just treat as a mentor. ... He’s somebody I’ve watched for years now. Every game he played this year, I watched, [and] I was kind of instructed by the Flyers to make sure I’m learning and taking everything I can in,” Bjarnason said. “He’s somebody I will always look up to and always ask questions, see what he’s doing, see how he’s doing it.”

It’s no surprise the two connect. After all, “calm” often has been used to describe the Swede since he took over the lion’s share of games two seasons ago. The Canadian sees why.

“Overall, through the game, just kind of how he carries himself, which is very calm,” Bjarnason said. “He definitely doesn’t get too high or too low after a goal. He’s pretty simple, and after the Flyers score, it’s the same thing — you can’t really tell the difference. So something I definitely strive to kind of perfect it, and go toward, but he’s a big influence on everything I do.”