While every season it’s the goal of each Ontario Hockey League franchise to win a championship, the OHL is first and foremost a developmental league.
Whether that’s academically, as people, and of course on the ice.
Outside of the 20 players who suit up in the Barber Pole jersey on a given night, the Ottawa 67’s have an immense support staff in both front-facing and behind-the-scenes roles to get them ready every single day.
One of those people is Damien Sutherland, Lead Performance Coach with the Canadian Strength Institute, which has been partnered with the Ottawa 67’s since 2017.
While working in strength and conditioning naturally means plenty of resistance training, on game days Sutherland is also one of the team’s heartbeats—and as a strength coach, he knows the heart is a muscle, too.
It’s just one of the many unofficial responsibilities he’s taken on around the team.
“During those game days, I’m in the circle with them, getting them hyped up, getting ‘em going.”
One of his other responsibilities is making the team’s ‘Liquid Legs’ ready, CSI’s electrolyte drink formula.
“Making sure their hydration is good, their spirits high, that way, regardless of their headspace, I always try to uplift them and make sure we’re in a mindset where we’re ready to go in and win that game.”
Sutherland took on the role this past season after joining the CSI and working around the team in a limited capacity three seasons ago.
“I got into training pretty young; I always played sports growing up, and training was the part that I gravitated towards even at an early age,” said Sutherland. “Coming out of high school, it wasn’t necessarily the path I thought I was going to take, but a little bit later in life, I decided to go back to school and started to study in the field and got lucky enough to land an internship here.”
During that internship, he met Sean Young, the founder of Canadian Strength Institute, who had worked with the Redblacks and the Ottawa 67’s through CSI as the former Head of Athlete Performance.
Despite having several cousins who played in junior and professional hockey, including Bryan Young and Michael Swift, both of whom represented Team Korea at the 2018 Olympics, Sean comes from a track-and-field background. However, he too had his own Olympic journey, trialling for the 800m in 2008 and 2012, serving as a guide runner for Paralympian Jason Dunkerley.
Young has since trained Team Canada at the World Championships and the 2026 Olympics and joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as a member of their strength and conditioning staff.
In that respect, both Young and Sutherland share a similar background.
“It’s pretty funny, actually; hockey was never my main sport; I’d actually say I’m a pretty poor hockey player, myself,” Sutherland jests. “Hockey has always been a part of my family.”
“My father and my grandfather worked in hockey equipment sales for the better part of their lives,” he said. “It’s always been something that’s been close to my family, but not my personal sport of preference.”
In some respects, both Young and Sutherland share a parallel background, with hockey being present in the background before ultimately coming around to it through their work in strength and conditioning.
“So getting into this industry, it was a little bit of re-learning the culture, getting accustomed to the way that guys talk and act with each other,” he said. “At the end of the day, training is training; it was easy to integrate into.”
“The biggest thing I had to wrap my head around was that at the end of the day, the OHL is a developmental league,” he said. “So you have a lot of guys coming in with not a huge base and not a lot of athletic experience when it comes to lifting weights.”For CSI, they’ve found success with a “rip-the-bandage-off” approach to helping young athletes take that next step.
“Sean and I’s approach is very much: go hard in the beginning, give them a rough time starting off,” he said. “If you show a young athlete what training like a pro should be like, they’re going to get a lot more accustomed to it.”
“Especially having a mentor like Sean to teach me how he’s worked with some of the great hockey players who have come through this facility,” he said. “I was able to learn ways to not only maintain a player throughout a season but actually grow them going into their next years, so that they’ll be better and stronger.”
Part of that training involves adapting lifting routines to the player’s seasons, a practice known as periodization.
“There’s gonna be periods where you are going to be able to up the volume and push the guys a little harder, schedule dependent,” he said.
“The off-season, funnily enough, feels like the on-season for a strength coach,” he said. “We have all of our off-season training, some local guys that come in for that programming, but also checking in with guys to make sure they are on the right path to succeed when they get to training camp.”
“Almost every week we’re doing a Zoom call with our team; all the coaches get together, and we talk about mental performance,” he said. “It’s really good to get everyone together and still feel like a team, even if everyone is in different parts of Ontario or even further out.”
“In the preseason, the guys are coming fresh; they’ve done a full offseason; they are ready to go and continue to build.”
“As you go through the season, you’re looking at injury management: how do I make sure this player who is getting 25-minutes a night is able to play a three-game weekend and continue on?”
Load management becomes even more important as the season wears on and the games get even more important.
“Coming into the playoffs, how do I make sure my team is still strong but has the energy to go through rounds and rounds and make that push?”
For Sutherland, getting to work with younger athletes and getting them closer to reaching their athletic potential has been the most fulfilling aspect of his time with CSI and around the 67’s.
“Working with younger athletes is super gratifying,” he said. “You can see the work that’s being put in, and as they begin to age into the league and new opportunities arrive, whether being drafted or moving onto a pro career, you can take a lot of pride in that you were a part of that stepping stone.”
“Personally, I’m just happy to be working with the 67’s,” he said. “I’ve been an Ottawa native my entire life.”
“As a kid, I remember going to some of those school games growing up,” he said. “You’re there, and it looks so grandiose; you can’t even fathom the idea of being in their position.”
“To be around them every day of the week is something that is super fulfilling,” he said. “It’s always nice to feel like I am giving back to the city and contributing to something that means so much to so many people around here.”