Darryl Belfry is working with some of hockey's premier players.

Patrick Kane. John Tavares. Shawn Horcoff. Hayley Wickenheiser.

To name a few.

The Ridgeway, Ont., native currently works in skill development for the Los Angeles Kings.

Working with NHLers and amateur players poses the same challenges, he says.

"A lot of the things that plague those players are similar to what (plagues) these guys, because you got to remember, when a lot of these (NHL) players grew up, there wasn't a lot of structured skill development like there is now. A lot of these guys, especially the older NHL players, seek me out to learn more about the new game.”

Belfry is in Whitehorse from Dec. 20-22 working with the hockey community, from atom to junior players.

On Monday afternoon, he worked with the Canada Winter Games (CWG) boys team heading to Halifax, N.S., in February.

His focus during the session: to get the players to separate their lower body from their upper body while shooting, something of a magic trick.

"Often times, kids move their upper body and lower body in sync; and to be at an elite-level skill, you have to be able to work the two independently,” Belfry said.

"The other focus is to do a lot of skills while their feet are moving, so to do hand and puck skills, shooting while their feet are moving.”

Generally, young hockey players nationwide have trouble controlling the puck at

top speed, he said.

"So my job is to build them up to their top speed and show them how they can then keep their feet moving and still make plays.”

Speed and learning capacity separate the top players from the rest, he noted.

Being able to express athletically what they're told or shown.

"If the teacher is speaking a skill or trying to describe it, the player has to now express it, based on feel. And those players that can take that verbal or visual cue and convert that into an athletic expression, those are the players that have the most amount of success,” he said.

And he would know.

Belfry didn't start playing hockey until he was 12 years old, but his passion continued well beyond the end of his playing days.

"I felt that, when I finished playing, there was still more that I wanted to do with the game.”

Belfry has developed his philosophy over the past 15 years, a philosophy cultivated through extensive use of video analysis, among other research methods.

Jake Jirousek's All Out Hockey program has helped Whitehorse athletes train for the next level. Two of those premier players, CWG hockey team players Trevor

Whynot and Jared Steinbach, were invited to the Western Elite Hockey camp in Edmonton over the summer.

That's when Jirousek met Belfry.

Jirousek was immediately impressed with Belfry's innovation.

"How he worked with players to make them very uncomfortable, to do things that they weren't used to and then cause them to be confused, and at that point is when you teach the best,” Jirousek said.

"If you want to reach another level, you have to be able to do things that are special, and to do things that make you special, you have to be uncomfortable, because if being comfortable made you special, everybody would be.”

Jirousek is always looking to bring top quality coaches to the Yukon to impart their wisdom on the local system.

He could bring up a coach every month, he said, but someone at Belfry's level is special.

"My expertise and what I can teach these guys tops out at some point,” Jirousek said. "This is where you bring in somebody else who's going to teach them the stuff that the NHL guys are doing.”

He noted players like Moncton Wildcats Ted Stephens and Edmonton Oil Kings David Stephens, among other local players, who are Outside playing with high-level clubs.

"I'm really trying to allow the Whitehorse player to experience things that guys all over the world experience, hoping that these kids get an opportunity to go beyond,” Jirousek said.

"I just want these kids recognized and have opportunities so that we have more of them.”

Canada Games forward Tyson Glass is one such player.

"He's really focusing on shooting and the technical stuff, which is always good to work on; and he was tough, so I think it helped everyone,” Glass said.

He added that the notion of separating your upper and lower body was strange – and tough.

"It was tricky with the mind, because you had to think of two things at once, and it was pretty difficult.”

The CWG boys will head to B.C. for the Richmond International Midget Hockey Tournament on Dec. 26.