Patience has paid off for Seattle Kraken goaltender Joey Daccord

The Winter Classic wasn’t the launching point for Joey Daccord’s rise this season. He had already been on a heater for a full month when he arrived at T-Mobile Park in Seattle for the NHL’s marquee regular-season game.

But the size of the stage, the game’s associated events, and Daccord’s performance that day helped amplify his profile.

Daccord’s parents, his brother, his girlfriend and her parents all took part in the family skate on the day before the game. More friends flew in from his home state of Massachusetts later that day and everybody got to watch the former Sun Devil pitch a 35-save shutout against the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights in a 3-0 Kraken win on New Year’s Day.

“It was a really magical weekend,” said Joey’s dad, Brian Daccord, who used to be the Coyotes director of goaltending. “We got there in time to see them play Philly on Friday and they beat Philly 2-1 in OT and he started the game. After the first period of that game, we went to the pro shop and for the first time you could buy a Daccord jersey that was hanging in the shop instead of having to get it custom made. We spent the first intermission watching people buy Joey’s jersey.

“But the whole environment at the Winter Classic was incredible; it was different. When fans started doing the ‘Joey, Joey, Joey’ chant, it was surreal. It was such a special moment that no matter what happens in life, we’re always gonna think back about that and have just awesome memories about that day.”

Surreal would accurately describe Daccord’s rapid ascension this season with the Kraken. No goaltender is perfect and Daccord has had some uneven performance recently, but entering a game against the Coyotes at Mullett Arena on Friday, he was tied for second in the NHL in save percentage (.917), tied for sixth in goals against average (2.52) and 13th in goals saved above expected (15.83) per evolving-hockey.com.

“I think patience has paid off for me,” he said. “I was definitely a late bloomer and then I spent pretty much four full years in the American League before finally getting a chance. All of that experience and all of those reps that you get over the years definitely help you take advantage when you do get an opportunity to be a full-timer.”

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Daccord took an unconventional path to the pros by committing to Arizona State while they were still playing out of decrepit Oceanside Ice Arena as a fledgling Division I independent.

It was a risk, given his pro aspirations, but it was a risk he admits he had to take.

“Truthfully, I didn’t have much else in terms of options,” he said. “I didn’t have any other full scholarship offers. I had some teams that said, ‘Hey, maybe if push came to shove, we could offer you 50 percent,’ but there was nothing concrete.

“My meeting with [ASU] Coach [Greg] Powers and my official visit really helped, but honestly, the number one thing that sold me was walking through the Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame in the football stadium. Even though they had no hockey history at the Division I level, there was so much athletic history and so many amazing athletes of all different sports that had succeeded and gone on to do incredible things in their respective sport. It gave me the belief that we could do the same thing with hockey.”

The Ottawa Senators selected Daccord in the seventh round of the 2015 NHL Draft after a standout season at Cushing Academy outside Boston. By the time he arrived in Belleville (AHL) after one season in the USHL (Muskegon) and three seasons at ASU, he was 23. After two seasons in Ottawa’s system, the Senators opted to expose Daccord in the expansion draft and Seattle made him one of three goaltender claims along with Chris Driedger and Vitek Vanecek.

Because Seattle did not have an AHL team its first season of existence, it signed an agreement with Charlotte to share the affiliate with the Florida Panthers and that’s where Daccord played. He had an excellent first season, posting a 2.28 goals against average and a .928 save percentage, but it was his first season in Coachella Valley (Seattle’s new AHL affiliate) last season that really caught the Kraken’s eye. Daccord posted a 2.22 GAA and a .926 save percentage in 26 playoff games to lead the Firebirds to within a Game 7, OT loss to Hershey of winning the Calder Cup.

“I’ve personally never experienced anything like that; to play for that long and just keep winning and keep advancing,” he said. “It was just so much hockey. We were the last league in the world still playing that year.

“Obviously, it was such a disappointing way to finish it, but we went right down to the wire and I think it was definitely a springboard that just helped me launch right into the season and hit the ground running.”

After the Firebirds’ season ended, Seattle signed Daccord to a two-year contract with an AAV of $1.2 million, making it clear he would be part of the Kraken’s tandem alongside Philipp Grubauer.

When Grubauer suffered a lower-body injury on Dec. 9, Daccord started 22 straight games, going 12-7-3 with a 2.00 goals against average.

“He’s had success at the collegiate level and at the AHL level, and he went on a great run for us last year [in the AHL], taking our team to Game 7,” said Kraken assistant GM Rick Olczyk who was a guest on the PHNX Coyotes podcast this week. “He can handle the pressure. He can handle the intensity.

“It’s a learning process and he knows it’s going to take time. As I mentioned with Matty Beniers about teams watching video and looking for tendencies and weaknesses in a player’s game, certainly that’s what the opposition’s doing with Joey, but Joey’s had some really good games this year for us. We just know he’s going to continue to work hard and get better and improve and hopefully have a long career with the Seattle Kraken.”

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Daccord will turn 28 this summer. He is not young for an NHL player, but goaltenders often take longer to find their games, and they often play a little later into their 30s than forwards or defensemen.

It happened with Darcy Kuemper in Arizona, and it’s happened with countless other goalies.

“The important thing in net acquisition is the ability to play games because goaltending is about pattern recognition — the ability to anticipate what’s going to happen based on recognizing the patterns,” said Brian Daccord, who runs Stop It Goaltending school outside Boston.

“There’s two particular patterns that you’re looking for. There’s the pattern of play — what’s happening in the play — and then the release. So you’re reading the play and you’re reading the release. The more opportunities you have to see plays develop, and releases and shots being taken, the better you are going to be able to anticipate and figure out how to make the save.”

Brian Daccord believes his son’s lengthy AHL experience helped hone those senses.

“There’s a big difference between getting reps in practice and getting reps when there’s a consequence,” he said. “That’s why that playoff run in Coachella was so important. You’re getting a chance to see all these patterns and situations and gain experience while under a maximum amount of consequence. That’s how you build as a goalie, and it takes time.

“Some goalies take the elevator instead of the stairs. They are talented and they get moved up quickly, but they don’t get the reps that they’re really going to have to rely on as they get older. But with Joey spending all that time in college and all that time in the AHL, he took the stairs. He got those reps to prepare him for this step.”

Joey Daccord will be in goal when the Kraken play the Coyotes on Friday. It’s not his first game at Mullett Arena, but it’s still a special moment for him to play in the arena he helped build, but never got to enjoy as a Sun Devil.

“It’s the coolest thing ever,” he said. “When I committed to ASU, they had zero Division I games played. To see where it is today is just so amazing. I’m just super grateful to have been a part of it, and it’s really special to feel like I played a hand in building it.

“Personally, I hope they stay there forever (laughs) so every time I come back to Arizona I get to go to ASU and go to campus and catch up with coach Powers. A lot of my old teammates still live down there so it’s really cool to see what it’s become. It’s just such a unique situation, but I personally love every second of it.”

Top photo of the Daccord family via Brian Daccord. From left, Joey’s mom, Daniela; Joey; his brother, Alex; and his dad, Brian.

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