HOW TO SELECT A HOCKEY STICK

There are three categories of hockey sticks to choose from depending on your needs. These include wood hockey sticks, one-piece composite sticks, and two-piece shaft/blade combos.

WOOD HOCKEY STICKS

Wood hockey sticks are the most traditional and classic way to play the game of hockey. Wood hockey sticks provide a consistent feel for the puck. These are the least expensive and are an excellent first hockey stick for the new player. Traditional wood blades are an all-around, classic feel that can be used on indoor surfaces. Full ABS utilizes a unique design that allows them to be used on rough outdoor surfaces like asphalt. Crossover ABS blades are a hybrid of wood and ABS blades, providing the puck feel of a wood blade with the durability of a full ABS blade. Plastic blades are the most cost-effective and are perfect for fun street hockey and driveway games.

COMPOSITE HOCKEY STICKS

Composite hockey sticks are the most popular and most technologically advanced sticks on the market. In recent years, they have become much more affordable and the preferred choice for indoor hockey. Manufacturers do make a composite hockey stick with an ABS blade, bringing composite performance outdoor but more on that later. Since the composite sticks utilize much more advanced carbon and fiberglass materials, these are significantly lighter in weight and better performing. The carbon fiber allows players to see a much better return on power and accuracy compared to a wood stick.

TWO-PIECE SHAFT/BLADE COMBO

Once the most popular in the industry, these are unfortunately a dying breed since composite sticks have come down in affordability over the years. Two-piece combos utilize a removable blade in the event the blade or the shaft breaks. This offers great versatility for the player who plays indoors and outdoors since they can swap out an indoor blade for an outdoor one, or vice versa. The other advantage two-piece combos offer is the ability to experiment with different curve options since a blade costs significantly less than a new stick.

HOCKEY STICK FLEX PROFILES

There are three categories of hockey stick flex profiles to choose from depending on your shot preference. These include low-kick, mid-kick, and variable-kick points.

LOW-KICK HOCKEY STICKS

The game of hockey has evolved tremendously over the past five years, let alone decade. It is a much faster game and it has limited the amount of time a player has in order to take a quality shot. This has led the newest but likely one the most popular kick points, called the low-kick. The low-kick point is all about shooting the puck as quickly as possible. While the maximum shot speed may not be as high, low-kick sticks can capitalize on the small windows of time a shooter has to provide a quality shot before the opposition has time to stop it.

MID-KICK HOCKEY STICKS

Mid-kick hockey sticks have been the staple in hockey and provide the maximum velocity on every shot. This is a much different style than the low-kick player; this mid-kick player will take the extra second in a game to take a big shot that beats the opposition on pure speed alone. These players can be regularly seen setting up for big one-time shots or the big wind-up slap shot.

VARIABLE-KICK HOCKEY STICKS

Variable-kick hockey sticks bridge the gap between low-kick and mid-kick sticks. Manufacturers can achieve this through different specific styles of kick points but they all provide a balance of a quick shot release and hard shot power. Variable-kick hockey sticks have been growing in popularity much like the low-kick hockey sticks because of how the game of hockey is much faster paced today.

HOCKEY STICK LEVEL OF PLAY

Hockey sticks are then categorized into three levels of play: Recreational, Performance, and Elite.

RECREATIONAL HOCKEY STICKS

Recreational Hockey Sticks are ideal for the casual or new-to-hockey player who is looking for a cost-effective option. This is also where wood hockey sticks fall but all of the sticks in this category offer some of the best durability.

PERFORMANCE HOCKEY STICKS

Performance Hockey Sticks offer great value and durability for the price. These are more similar to elite sticks rather than recreational sticks but will substitute some percentage of carbon fiber for fiberglass, which improves strength and impact-resistance. The majority of players fall into this category because they can be used in recreational and elite-level hockey.

ELITE HOCKEY STICKS