SEATTLE — Their masks are as flashy as the leather they flash as they deny puck after puck. The goaltenders of the NHL are artists in the crease and they wear their art proudly.
"It's one of the coolest parts about being goalie. Some people play goalie just because of that," Joey Daccord said. "We get to customize our own gear, like I get to fully customize my own pads, my own mask. We're pretty unique out there."
They're the most fashionable guys on the ice, but it takes a whole team to bring these goalie designs to life.
"My mask painter, his name is Shifty, that's his paint name. He's down in California and he does an awesome job for me," Daccord said. "Basically what happens is, I give him an idea and this year I said I want a dark mask and I want a white mask and you do whatever you want and have fun."
The dark mask pairs with his dark home uniform and the white mask pairs with his white road combo. Daccord said the road white mask is his favorite he's ever had, but both have the same must-have elements on the backplate.
"It's got my name here, my nickname (Dacs), my three nationalities, Switzerland, Canada, and then obviously the United States, where I went to college, this is the Sun Devil pitchfork. This is the House Stark logo from House of Thrones, that's kind of an inside thing. And then this is the sticker for the Gaudreau brothers, that's an addition this year that I'm honored to have on my mask as well," he said as he showed his way around the helmet.
And then every helmet has a hidden "Sparky," the mascot from Arizona State University. Even his Winter Classic mask, which had the most unique look of all three lids.
"This is the baseball mask from when we played at T-Mobile last year. It has all of the baseball cards, Ken Griffey Jr, Ichiro, Edgar Martinez, JP Crawford, Cal Raleigh, and I've got Julio here as well. It came out really cool. This is the only one that's a little different, we went with a baseball theme on the back, the Winter Classic logo, so that's pretty special as well."
While Daccord outsourced his designs to his go-to guy in Cali, Philipp Grubauer goes to his guy in his very own building, Kraken Art Director Drew Hamlet.
"We sat down and talked about a few things that he's passionate about, things like the outdoors, fishing, horses. So, after that, we sat down and sketched out a few ideas and we've kind of been doing that back and forth the past few seasons," Hamlet said.
Hamlet sketched his brand onto three of the last four of Grubi's lids, and he said they keep getting better each year. This year, Hamlet is proud of the striping below the "Kraken" words by the jawline, saying it resembles the team stripes and colors, but also is a callback to the old hockey lids of the 80s and 90s.
"Last season we had the Space Needle on the top, which was another thing that I thought would be cool on the crest," he said. "So, we try to bring in parts of the city, parts of the region, and then also make sure it still represents what he wants."
This collaboration is part of a dream realized.
"Growing up, I used to draw a lot of helmets and a lot of hockey things," he said. "So, it was a pretty cool experience getting to work and make something that actually exists and you get to see out on the ice."