Joshua Ravensbergen has been in the proper place on the proper time a few crucial occasions in his life.
He and 4 of his associates have been in the proper place on the Grouse Mountain slopes in North Vancouver in February 2019 to spring into motion after they noticed a younger child dangling from the chairlift.
“He’s not going to have the ability to maintain on for for much longer,” they mentioned as a close-by grownup, Peter Pian, grabbed a few of the out-of-bounds netting. The boys grabbed some close by padding defending the chairlift posts and the group labored collectively to stretch them out. The boys instructed the 8-year-old skier to kick his skis off in order that he didn’t fall with them they usually cushioned his touchdown after they caught him.
Within the days after their act of heroism, the video was considered thousands and thousands of occasions. Then-Governor Basic of Canada, Julie Payette, visited them. Ravensbergen instructed The Athletic that they have been even invited to look on “Ellen,” and attend “some press convention” with Barack Obama.
The second time Ravensbergen was in the proper place on the proper time was within the fall of 2023 at coaching camp with the Prince George Cougars. Ravensbergen was by no means going to be an expert snowboarder. “I used to snowboard on a regular basis however my size doesn’t assist,” he mentioned. “All the professional guys are sort of quick as a result of you possibly can spin faster.”
However he at all times felt he might be an expert goalie. And the proper individual believed in him. That individual was his late goalie coach Sean Murray, who died in November 2023, the founding father of Professional-Formance Goalie Faculty in Vancouver’s Decrease Mainland.
He and Murray had labored collectively for years however Ravensbergen had gone undrafted within the WHL Bantam Draft. Murray, who labored with the Cougars, vouched for him, serving to to get him an invitation to their camp.
Getting into camp, Cougars head coach and common supervisor Mark Lamb acknowledged on a latest cellphone name that he had two different goalies penciled in for his group, led by returning Canucks draft choose Ty Younger.
However then Ravensbergen “simply outplayed all people in camp.”
“We introduced him to camp and all he’s completed in my eyes since I’ve seen him is play good,” Lamb mentioned. “He bought everybody’s consideration, he got here to coaching camp, we listed him, we adopted him after which we didn’t have any actual expectations or something like that in any respect, which is actually cool in junior particularly when you have got somebody are available in and simply make the group and outplay different folks from sincere work and sincere effort. And we simply thought ‘How good is that going to be for Rav to be taught off of Ty Younger, an NHL signed and drafted goalie with a fantastic work ethic?’
Initially, he began as Younger’s backup. Then it grew to become an increasing number of of a tandem. By 12 months’s finish, they cut up the begins evenly, with Ravensbergen, an undrafted rookie who’d begun the season as a 16-year-old and completed it as a 17-year-old, enjoying 38 video games to the 19-year-old Younger’s 37, and to a 26-4-1 file and .907 save proportion to Younger’s 23-11-0 file and .903 save proportion.
When it got here time to choose a starter for the playoffs, Lamb picked Ravensbergen.
Ravensbergen ran with it, going 9-2-1 with a .931 save proportion within the playoffs to steer Prince George previous Spokane and Kelowna earlier than shedding in six video games to Portland within the third spherical. His six shutouts that season have been a WHL rookie file.
By 12 months’s finish, he’d gone from an undrafted unknown to considered as a first-round expertise and the highest goalie prospect within the 2025 NHL Draft class.
Ravensbergen grew to become the Cougars’ No. 1 goalie within the playoffs final season. (James Doyle / Prince George Cougars)
Earlier than his draft 12 months had even began, he was additionally the youngest goalie invited by Hockey Canada to the World Junior Summer time Showcase.
A 12 months later, as his second WHL season now wraps up, there was no tandem this time round, with Ravensbergen enjoying greater than 50 video games in his draft 12 months for the Cougars. He additionally stopped 15 of 16 pictures (.938) in his begin within the CHL USA Prospects Problem in November.
At the moment, when Lamb seems again on nearly not having Ravensbergen on his group, he laughs. Ravensbergen, nicknamed Rav or Burger, by no means did look again, although.
“You at all times keep loyal however issues change fast. And Youthful is (a) actual good goaltender however whenever you break it proper down, even once we have been going backwards and forwards (Ravensbergen) was enjoying higher,” Lamb mentioned. “We even went ‘Is he simply getting fortunate? It’ll work itself out.’ And it did. He simply changed into the No. 1 and he hasn’t regarded again.”
As a younger child, Ravensbergen didn’t even play hockey, he performed road hockey. On the streets of North Vancouver, he gravitated to the web. However the one gloves that they had have been a right-handed catcher.
After finally asking his mother and father, Ken (who works for a bus firm referred to as Epic Rides) and Charlene, if he might play ice hockey, they mentioned “Certain.” Solely the goalie glove the native minor hockey program offered caught left.
After catching as a lefty early on in his minor hockey profession, he by no means felt totally snug that means and finally switched again to his highway hockey origins. At the moment, he’s fairly distinctive as a southpaw — a right-catching goalie (of the 95 goalies who’ve performed an NHL recreation up to now this season, solely 5 have caught proper).
He’s additionally fairly distinctive in his dimension.
When he handed by the WHL draft, he was 6 ft however knew he would develop (Ken is 6-foot-4, Charlene is 5-foot-10, and one in all his uncles is “like 6-foot-6 or 6-foot-7,” he mentioned.
It wasn’t till he returned to minor hockey with the Vancouver North West Hawks that he grew a few inches, after which an inch in every of the 2 summers after that, sprouting as much as his present itemizing of 6-foot-5.25 and 190 kilos.
Ravensbergen is now the top-ranked goalie within the 2025 class. (Eric Younger / CHL)
He stays fairly uncooked, too. Till final summer season as he ready for his NHL Draft 12 months, he’d by no means really spent a full summer season skating and coaching. Final summer season, he then joined Kaivo Hockey, an area improvement skate run by Seattle Kraken improvement marketing consultant Justin Rai, taking pictures all summer season from gamers resembling Connor Bedard, Kent Johnson and Andrew Cristall.
“I by no means did something like that earlier than,” he mentioned.
He’s nonetheless by no means had a devoted summer season within the gymnasium as a result of he spent most of final summer season working along with his physio to take care of what he referred to as “hip issues” that cropped up throughout his heavier-than-expected workload as a rookie with the Cougars.
Lamb mentioned the hip issues are “not an issue” and that that they had extra to do with upkeep and a child who was nonetheless “studying to do stuff earlier than you get within the purpose and studying find out how to stretch.”
“All the stuff was so new to him with the gymnasium and all that and now he’s like a professional. He’s within the gymnasium, he’s a sponge, and he needs to get higher,” Lamb mentioned. “I don’t wish to use the phrase immature as a result of they’re all simply so younger however he was perhaps slightly naive. When he first got here right here he didn’t even understand that we provided stuff for him like socks and so he was actually naive to a variety of the issues that he has completed as a result of he’d simply by no means seen them earlier than. Greater than another child that I’ve skilled.”
Lamb additionally believes that timing performed a task in Ravensbergen flying below the radar earlier in his profession, although, too.
“It was the COVID 12 months in order that’s perhaps sort of why he went by the cracks slightly bit and he wasn’t drafted,” Lamb mentioned. “After which it was simply all development and it was all on him and it simply grew to become an actual good story for the Prince George Cougars.”
Ravensbergen was glorious in internet in November’s CHL USA Prime Prospect Recreation. (Eric Younger / CHL)
When Ravensbergen seems again, he shakes his head slightly at how far he’s are available in such a short while.
“I signed however I believe they sort of lied to me too as a result of the scouting director was like ‘In case you signal you’re on the group’ after which I confirmed as much as camp and I nearly didn’t make preseason, which is wild to consider,” Ravensbergen mentioned.
He’s no secret anymore, although, and the expertise is simple.
“He has an enormous professional presence and performs massive even when down within the butterfly with glorious low internet protection,” reads NHL Central Scouting’s scouting report (they’ve ranked him No. 1 amongst North American goalies). “He performs with a variety of confidence and strikes extraordinarily properly all through the crease with superb construction in his recreation. Makes use of fast reactions and restoration abilities and has a wonderful glove hand. He tracks the puck properly by site visitors — sturdy in tight and on the submit, fast to eradicate any holes. A mixture of dimension and skill, he has probability to change into an NHL starter. A top-end goalie expertise for the 2025 NHL Draft.”
Lamb goes so far as to name him “Carey Worth-like” as a result of “all the things within the crease simply appears so pure” to him.
“He’s simply so clean. He has quickness for an enormous man. He actually reads the performs. How he strikes in there for his dimension is unimaginable,” Lamb completed. “He’s a thin, lean child however his work ethic is actually high-end. And he’s not cocky however he’s very aggressive.
“He’ll be an actual good goalie for any person.”
— With reporting in Plymouth, Mich., and London and Oshawa, Ont.
(Prime photograph: Eric Younger / CHL)
