How Do Goalies Tape Their Sticks?

A goalie stick has a wide paddle that skaters’ sticks do not, and your blocker hand holds it in two places: at the top of the paddle most of the time, and up near the knob when you slide your hand up to reach. That is why goalies tape it in more spots. This article explains the zones and the reasoning. For the hands-on steps, follow the goalie taping tutorial.

The four zones

Zone	Where	What the tape does
Blade	Heel to toe	Protects the blade and gives the puck a surface to settle on
Lower paddle	Up from the heel	Protects the area that takes low shots and ice contact
Blocker grip	Where the paddle narrows into the shaft	Gives your blocker hand something to hold
Knob	Top of the shaft	Lets you grab and recover the stick; required to be white in the NHL

The blade

A goalie blade is bigger than a skater’s. NHL Rule 10.2 allows up to 15.5 in long and 3.5 in tall, or 4.5 in at the heel. Wide tape covers it in fewer passes.

GoalieMonkey’s guide suggests overlapping each wrap, smoothing the tape flat with a squeegee or credit card, and adding an extra layer along the bottom edge to absorb impacts and reduce wear.

Some NHL goalies customize their blade tape for visibility. NHL.com reported in 2024 that Carter Hart rubs black marks onto his white blade tape with a puck, and Linus Ullmark adds black marks to his blade so it is easier to see against white ice.

The paddle

The paddle is the widened part of the shaft above the blade. NHL Rule 10.2 lets it run up to 26 in from the heel, no more than 3.5 in wide. Taping the lower part protects it where it meets the ice and the puck. The hockeytape.ca tutorial tapes about 20 cm up from the heel.

The blocker grip

Your blocker hand holds the stick at the top of the paddle, where it narrows into the shaft. Many of the pro customizations NHL.com has described here are to the shape of the stick itself, not the tape. See paddle and blocker grip.

Tape still matters. NHL.com reported that Martin Jones adds layers of stick and grip tape to thicken his handle for his large hands, as Carey Price used to.

The knob

NHL Rule 10.2 requires a knob of white tape, or other approved material, at least 1/2 inch thick. Daily Faceoff’s Mike McKenna explains that the rule dates from when goal judges could mistake a black knob for a puck.

The rule sets a minimum, and some goalies go much bigger. InGoal reported in 2020 that Braden Holtby builds very large knobs because they make a lost stick easier to recover. See goalie stick knob rules.

What goalies change most

NHL.com’s 2024 look at goalie sticks spent most of its time on shoulder shape, flex and handles rather than blade tape. Jones’s thick handle, the short shafts Price helped popularize around 2017, and the custom shoulders of Henrik Lundqvist, Sergei Bobrovsky and Marc-André Fleury all came up.

Getting started

1. Strip the old tape and clean the stick. See removing tape residue.
2. Tape the blade and lower paddle, then wax them. See stick wax.
3. Build the blocker grip and a finger stop at the top.
4. Finish with a big white knob, then test it with your gear on.

Every step is shown in 3D in the goalie tutorial, and you can compare goalie setups on the styles page.

Safety note

A goalie stick with a cracked paddle or blade can break on a hard shot. Replace it rather than taping over the crack.