Hockey sticks: the size limits, the curve, and how to choose one.

A team can ask the referee to measure an opponent's stick during a game, so its limits matter wherever officials enforce them. This page gives the limits from the three rulebooks whose text we read, then what retailers and researchers say about choosing one.

The limits, rulebook by rulebook

The IIHF and NHL rulebooks require the blade's edges to be bevelled. Under the IIHF's Rule 9.8 and the NHL's Rule 9.9, a stick with modified, unbevelled edges is removed until it is bevelled, and a penalty applies only if the player comes back with it unchanged. Hockey Canada's Rule 3.7 bans sticks likely to cause injury and any equipment altered to gain an advantage or compromise safety.

The NHL curve: three-quarters of an inch

Our research found two figures for the NHL's curve limit. A fan-site reading of the 2013-14 rulebook gave 3/4 inch, while an older ESPN rules summary listed one-half inch, which matches pre-2000s rulebooks. The NHL Official Rules 2026-2027 settle it for the current season: Rule 10.1 says the perpendicular distance from a straight line drawn from the heel to the end of the blade, to the point of greatest curve, may not exceed three-quarters of an inch. The IIHF's limit, measured the same way, is 1.9 cm.

Hockey Canada's 2026-28 Rule 3.3 sets length and width limits but no curve limit. Its interpretation says sticks are presumed legal unless there is reason to believe a modification gives an unfair advantage, and that the intent is to allow only conventional sticks, with any innovation needing Hockey Canada's approval. It gives a slotted blade as an example of a design that stays within the conventional range.

Measuring a stick in a game

• IIHF 2026/27, Rule 10.5: a team may request any number of measurements in a game, but only one per team per stoppage, through its captain or an alternate. The referee measures the curve in the penalty box with an IIHF gauge set at the heel. An illegal stick earns a minor; a request that is not sustained earns the complaining team a bench minor. A measurement cannot disallow a goal and is not allowed after an overtime goal. Breaking your own stick or refusing to hand it over brings a minor plus a 10-minute misconduct.
• NHL 2026-27, Rule 10.5: one request per team per stoppage, by the captain or an alternate, against a player on the ice. The referee measures at the penalty bench, locating the heel by drawing an imaginary line along the outside of the shaft and the bottom of the blade, and uses a League-approved gauge for the curve and a tape for other dimensions. An illegal stick stays at the penalty bench for the rest of the game and brings a minor, with longer sanctions for repeat offences in a season; an unsustained complaint brings a bench minor. Goaltender sticks are not measured during games; Hockey Operations checks them instead.
• Hockey Canada 2026-28, Rule 3.1: measurements happen at the referee's crease on a request by the captain or an alternate at a stoppage, only one of any kind per stoppage, and the captain must name the part of the stick to be measured. No goal is disallowed by a measurement. An unsustained request is penalized as delay of game.

Before a penalty shot or a shootout attempt, both the IIHF (Rules 10.6 and 10.7) and the NHL have special rules: a legal stick costs the complaining team a bench minor before a penalty shot, or its next attempt in a shootout.

Broken sticks

Under the IIHF's 2026/27 Rule 10.3, a player with a broken stick may keep playing only after dropping it, and may get a replacement from the bench or hand to hand from a teammate; throwing or sliding a stick to a teammate is a minor penalty. Hockey Canada's 2026-28 Rule 3.2 is similar: drop all the pieces at once, and take a new stick only at your own bench or from a teammate on the ice, never thrown on or handed from the penalty bench. A goaltender may use a player's stick until the next stoppage.

Goaltender sticks

A goalie stick without the required knob is unfit for play under the IIHF and NHL rules and is swapped without a minor penalty. The NHL's exemption for tall goaltenders dates from a 2018-19 rule change.

Materials

Wikipedia says wooden sticks were first mass-made in the late 1800s, all-aluminium one-piece sticks appeared in the early 1980s, and aluminium shafts with replaceable wooden blades were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sources disagree on when one-piece composites arrived: Wikipedia credits a Swiss firm with the first successful one-piece carbon-fibre stick in 1992, while a retailer blog places one-piece composites in the early 2000s. We could not confirm either.

Flex, length, lie and curve

Flex

Russell and Hunt (Kettering University, in a 2009 draft for The Physics Teacher) say a stick can bend by up to about 30 degrees in slap and wrist shots, storing and releasing energy. They describe the flex rating as roughly the force in pounds needed to bend the shaft one inch in a three-point test, with typical ratings of Youth 40, Junior 50, Intermediate 60 to 75, Regular 85, Stiff 100 and Extra Stiff 110. They note that some studies suggest more flexible sticks give faster pucks, while others suggest player skill matters more than stiffness.

Retailer Ice Warehouse suggests starting from a flex of about half your body weight in pounds, then often going 10 to 15 points softer, and warns that a stick too stiff to load reduces shot power. It says cutting a stick shorter makes it stiffer and adding an end plug makes it softer, and that many composite sticks print the new flex after cutting (claims).

Length

Sources disagree slightly. The Pashby fitting guide (Hockey Development Centre for Ontario with the Dr. Tom Pashby Sports Safety Fund) says that in street shoes the stick should reach between the chin and mouth, and just below the chin on skates, and that younger players should use junior sticks. Ice Warehouse says between chin and nose in shoes, and about the chin on skates, and adds that defenders often prefer longer sticks and forwards shorter ones (claim).

Lie and curve

Retailer HockeyMonkey defines lie as the angle between blade and shaft with the blade flat on the ice. It says common lies are 4, 5 and 6, a lower lie suiting players who skate low with the puck farther out and a higher lie suiting upright skaters who keep it close. It describes heel curves as often chosen for slap shots, mid curves for all-round handling, and toe curves for quick lift in tight spaces, and says closed faces favour low shots and open faces quicker lift. It notes the same curve name can carry different lie numbers from brand to brand (all claims). Whatever the pattern, it still has to measure within the curve limit wherever stick measurement applies.

For sizing the stick alongside the rest of your kit, see fitting and sizing.