Now in his third training camp, goaltending prospect Ty Young finds himself at a crossroads in his hockey career. After a rollercoaster 2023-24 season with the Prince George Cougars, where he unexpectedly lost his starting role, Young now sits on the brink of transitioning to the professional ranks.

As a 19-year-old, Young entered last season with high expectations, expecting to be the full-time starter for the Cougars. However, the emergence of 16-year-old (at the time) Joshua Ravensbergen, who took over the starting role by Christmas, altered the course of Young’s season. Despite the setback, Young remains confident in his abilities. “It wasn’t the season I wanted,” Young admits. “But looking at my numbers, it was still my best numbers in the dub [WHL].”

With 37 regular season starts, the Alberta native posted a career-high 23-11-0 record to match his career-high of 2.79 goals against and a .903 save percentage.

Now determined, Young spent a month of his summer training in Kelowna, joining professional goaltenders like Devon Levi, Stuart Skinner, and James Reimer. Here, the regiment focused on strengthening his core and improving his rotational stability, similar to the exercises Thatcher Demko has been seen doing in Penticton this week. “It kind of pulls on your core and makes more stable oxygen, which helps with rotations being stronger,” Young shares.

With Ravensbergen now firmly in control of the crease in Prince George, Young is focused on the future and eager to show the Canucks’ coaching staff what he’s got.

“I feel really good,” Young says. “My body feels great, I feel a lot stronger, and conditioning-wise, I feel great. So yeah, never really been more confident.”

Although his next starting job is uncertain, with possibilities ranging from the ECHL to a return to the WHL, Young is determined to make the most of any opportunity. “Whatever it is, I’m going out there to get whatever opportunity I can get and do my best,” he says.

Young’s hard work has not gone unnoticed. On Saturday, he was promoted from Group C, which primarily featured AHL hopefuls, to Group A – where he skated alongside NHL regulars.

“It felt awesome.” Young described his experience after the training camp promotion. “[I] Grew up watching a lot of the guys because they were my favourite team growing up. They were all my favourite players. So it’s pretty cool being the goalie out there. So it’s a little bit of just kind of in awe, but also just showing what I can do.”

Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet also took notice of Young’s performance. “Marco [Torenius] actually really likes Ty Young,” Tocchet said after Saturday’s on-ice session. “I actually thought he did a nice job of getting bumped up to this group.”

Young has developed a strong relationship with now-promoted goaltending coach Marco Torenius, who had been checking in on him periodically throughout the season. “I worked with him last year [at training camp], and then he also came up to Prince George a couple of times, too. He always sends me clips and stuff, so I worked with him quite a bit,” Young explained.

He appreciates Torenius’s coaching style: “He makes everything kind of make sense. He is a really good, reliable source if you ever want to just bounce ideas off of him, ask questions, or even if you’re ever in a slump, he’ll just talk you through and help you out and send you some clips and put to work on and kind of calms your mind a little bit, and just focuses on one thing instead of being overwhelmed with everything.”

Shortly after Young left the ice, the Canucks added more veteran goaltending depth by signing Kevin Lankinen to a one-year deal, further complicating the competition within the depth chart. Despite this, Young remains focused on taking things one day at a time and absorbing as much as he can during his third NHL training camp, which he admits is much easier this time around.

“It’s night and day,” Young compares his confidence from past camps. “Each year, they put a couple of focal points on you, and you really focus on that. And then the following year, once you kind of get that down, they give you more and more, so you’re always working on something.

I’m the most confident I’ve ever been and feel the best I’ve ever been, but I’m still in the same mindset as my first camp: coming in and being a sponge, learning as much as I can in the short time that we have.”

With his childhood dream of playing for the Canucks still alive, Young is fully embracing the opportunity to learn from the pros and make the most of this experience. Where his next step will be remains to be seen.