Goaltending: stance, movement, angles and the butterfly.

The teaching points on this page come from Hockey Canada's "NCCP Instructional Stream, Goaltending 1: Reference Material" (Version 1.0, 2020, published with the Coaching Association of Canada), referred to here as Goaltending 1, unless another source is named. Its Level 1 technical curriculum runs in this order: skating; stance; moving (C-cut, T-push, shuffle and pivot); positioning (angle, square and depth); choosing the save; basic puck control (rebounds and recovery); and puckhandling.

The stance

Goaltending 1 says every goalie's stance is a little different but sets common points:

• Feet slightly wider than shoulder width, with weight on the balls of the feet and the inside edges.
• Knees, shoulders and toes lined up, with the knees and waist bent so the angle of the shins matches the angle of the spine.
• Chin down and eyes on the puck.
• Hands level, forward and relaxed where the goalie can see them at the edge of vision; the catching glove open and out front; the blocker turned slightly outward.
• The stick held at the top of the paddle with the index finger along the side and the thumb behind. The blade is angled with its toe ahead of the heel, to cover the five-hole and steer low shots to the corners.

Moving in the crease

The manual wants goalies to be good, efficient skaters who push hard and stop hard. It recommends they do the team's skating plus goalie drills built around inside-edge work. Its four movements:

The butterfly

Goaltending 1 sums the butterfly up as "knees in, toes out, butt up". Knees together close the five-hole and toes out add width; the seat stays up so the goalie is off the heels, with the chest extended for height; hands in front, stick on the ice at a slight angle, shoulders square and weight on the knees. The pads should be loose enough to rotate and seal flat to the ice.

How much to use it, the manual says, depends on the goalie's size and on the puck's distance and angle. For a shot from about 5 feet outside the crease, it advises goalies of any size to drop into the butterfly with elbows tight to the ribs. On long shots, such as from the blue line, they should stay on their feet longer, because there is more time and the puck may be tipped. For butterfly and power slides, it teaches sealing the ice with the leading leg, keeping the upper body quiet, leading with the gloves toward the puck, holding the stick about one to one and a half blade lengths in front of the pads, and recovering on the front third of the skate blade.

On where the style came from, Andy Eide (NHL.com, 8 January 2020) writes that Glenn Hall, with Detroit and Chicago, was the first to use the butterfly, in the 1950s, that goalies before him mostly played stand-up, and that most goalies today play a hybrid of the two that is most associated with Patrick Roy.

Angle, square and depth

Goaltending 1 lines up three points: the centre of the net, the centre of the goalie's body and the puck.

• Angle: being centred on the net from the puck's point of view.
• Square: shoulders and toes pointed at the puck.
• Depth: how far the stance is from the goal line. The manual suggests starting with the toes on the crease line, and encourages younger goalies to play at the top of the crease.

The manual sets out the trade-off: coming out leaves a goalie open to passes, while staying deep leaves them open to high shots, so depth should suit the goalie's size and the situation. Smaller goalies need to challenge more, and on a 5-on-3 the goalie should play deeper. It warns that young goalies often square up to the shooter's body rather than the puck, which it says can shift the alignment by as much as 5 feet from the puck's point of view; the puck should be centred on the chest.

With the puck behind the goal line, the manual has the goalie seal the post with skate and pad while the puck is outside the posts, and follow it by turning the head and looking through the net when it is between them.

Saves and rebounds

• Stick saves: stick about a glove's length in front of the skates and pads, a slight wrist action to steer the puck to the corner along the arc of the crease, and pads behind the stick for double coverage where possible.
• Glove saves: glove starting between 2 and 3 o'clock, out in front and relaxed; catch the puck in front rather than chasing it, watching it all the way into the pocket.
• Blocker saves: meet the puck on the middle to upper blocker and turn it to the corner.
• Body saves: elbows tight, shoulders rolled forward and chest angled down to absorb the puck and keep the rebound small.
• Covering a loose puck in the butterfly: keep the knees together and the belly off the ice where possible, which the manual says protects the neck and back.

After a save, the manual's recovery sequence is "locate, rotate, activate": find the puck with the eyes, turn the shoulders, then drive with the back leg to the new position.

Breakaways

Goaltending 1 notes that many scoring chances at Atom age and younger come from breakaways, so goalies need a routine: watch from deep and centred, touch the post, move out about 4 feet with C-cuts, then back up at the skater's speed while staying square to the puck. It keeps the heels at the top of the crease until the shooter reaches the nearer hash marks. The common mistakes it lists are playing too deep, backing up too slowly, moving first and staying on the feet in tight.

Playing the puck

For puckhandling, the manual moves the blocker hand to the butt end of the stick and turns the glove hand over into an inverted grip above the paddle, with the knees bent and the head up to read the options. Eide's 2020 NHL.com article credits Ron Hextall as a puckhandling pioneer who scored into an empty Boston net in 1987, and says the puckhandling of Marty Turco and Martin Brodeur led the NHL to bring in the trapezoid. Under the IIHF Official Rule Book 2026/27, a goalkeeper who plays the puck behind the goal line outside the trapezoid gets a minor penalty (Rule 27.7), as does one who takes part in play beyond the centre red line (Rule 27.6).

Post play: the VH and RVH

Kevin Woodley (NHL.com, 14 August 2020) describes the reverse VH (RVH) as dropping onto one knee with the short-side pad flat against the post and the other leg driving the goalie into the post and up toward the crossbar. It is designed for sharp-angle plays from behind the net and below the circles. Woodley says it was developed in Sweden and that Jonathan Quick popularised it in 2011-12.

Opinion on it is divided in the same article. Cory Schneider, quoted by Woodley, says goalies drop into it too early and too often, leaving space between shoulder and crossbar. Canucks goalie coach Ian Clark argues that abandoning it would mean giving up a position as important as the butterfly. Woodley's own view is that many failures are errors of execution rather than flaws in the technique.

Coaching goalies in a team practice

Goaltending 1 recommends setting aside about 10 minutes of each practice, one drill, for the goalies, having assistants run goalie skating at the start, and spacing shooters so the goalie can get set for each shot. It says goalies should know the day before who starts the next game, and that coaches should explain expectations such as when to play or freeze the puck. The goalie coach's role, in the manual, covers designing drills, working with the head coach, mental preparation and routines, assessing performance, video and helping goalies cope with pressure.

Goalies and the hips

Ross and colleagues (2014, Arthroscopy) compared 68 hips in 44 butterfly goalies with 34 hips in 26 skaters, all having surgery for symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). On CT scans the goalies had a larger maximum alpha angle, about 80.9 degrees against 68.6, located further to the side. The authors concluded that symptomatic butterfly goalies have a high prevalence of a larger, more lateral cam-type deformity. The study looked only at players already having surgery. Hip pain or a suspected injury is a matter for a doctor.

A goalie safety rule

Under Hockey Canada's 2026-28 Playing Rules (Rule 6.18), in U13 and below, if a goaltender is struck in the head by the puck the referee stops play as soon as it is safe, unless the puck deflects straight into the goal. Officials should allow team staff to check on the goaltender during that stoppage so concussion protocols can be applied. Those protocols are summarised on the concussion and injuries page.

Pads, gloves, masks and the rules on their size are on the goalie equipment page.