Right, but why would the league institute this change? Because kids want to play in the NHL. Yes, kids aren’t going to care if the goalie pads are slightly different, but it’s the same enthusiasm for the NHL that puts pressure on the leagues to conform to the NHL. Have you ever seen a league play in a non NHL sized arena in North America? Sure is funny that huge infrastructure changes happened even though smaller cheaper rinks were viable for a long time.

Where I’m from in northern Ontario, a hockey centric place in the world, more kids played in recreational leagues than at the local barn rinks. Sure, playing shinny is really fun, but at the end of the day, kids want to play hockey as seen on TV. Whenever I went to the barn rink with my goalie equipment, people loved it because it was one of the few times they actually could shoot on a goalie. Playing posts or with a fake goalie is just as challenging (given I wasn’t very good) but it’s not the same as the real thing.