What gear do you need to be a hockey goalie?
Goalies wear a helmet, throat protector, neck guard, chest protector, special padded goalie pants (that look like padded shorts), a glove, a blocker, a jock or jill, pads on their legs, skates, and use a thick goalie stick designed to protect the “5 Hole”.
Step 1: put on your undergarments. Step 2: pull on your hockey or goalie pants and make sure they're snug. Some goalies wear suspenders to help with keeping the bulky pants up. Step 3: if you're wearing knee pads, put them on after the pants.
An ideal fit is 2-3 inches above the middle of the thigh. Any higher and the pad will come up into the bend of the leg/bottom of crotch and will restrict skating movement. If the pad comes below the middle of the thigh, the five-hole may not be covered and the knees could be exposed to sticks and pucks.
Frederik Andersen doesn't go to that extreme, but the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie does drink between 6-8 liters of water on a game day to help avoid dehydration. No wonder a lot of NHL goalies reach for the water bottle on the back of their net after every whistle.
Skating ability.
Ability to move on your feet efficiently and with as little effort as possible means that more energy can be spent tracking pucks and making decisions. Build your foot game. Be smooth. Be fast.
The +1 sizing system is standard for leg pads, meaning that “+1” is an extra inch added to the top of the leg pad. This addition helps goalies with their butterfly position as well as with their five-hole coverage. Some goal pads come with a +2” sizing system, which is more common with high level, experienced goalies.
- Goalie at Defensive depth.
- Goalie at Conservative depth.
- Goalie at Base Depth.
- Goalie at Aggressive depth.
> Goalies do not typically have to wear hockey socks. Often track pants are more comfortable and less likely to bunch up under their pads. > Goalies sweat a lot so a good dry-wick t-shirt is recommended.
The double-cup Elliott referenced has become a minimum standard for most NHL goalies. They are typically made up of what most people think of as a standard jock protector in any sport: a protective cup built into a holder and attached to a waistband.
What goalie pants do NHL goalies wear? According to NHL.com, the CCM Axis Pro and CCM Premier Pro pants are some of the most popular goalie pants worn at the NHL level. The CCM Axis pants are a similar set of pants to their original Premier lineup, but in this case they added new and better technology to them.
Do NHL goalies wear hockey socks?
> Goalies do not typically have to wear hockey socks. Often track pants are more comfortable and less likely to bunch up under their pads. > Goalies sweat a lot so a good dry-wick t-shirt is recommended.
Goalie Pads: $800-$2,000
On the high end, a brand new, custom set of goalie pads can cost as much as $2,000. Keep in mind, that each manufacturer makes reduced-price versions of each model of gear they release. A beginner goalie doesn't necessarily need all the features of a brand new set of pads.
