The NHL is a league brimming with tales. It’s always challenging to separate the gold from the waste since it evolves as stories are told.
In hockey history, puck shots were not exactly measured the right way. Yet again, they were considered correct.
Today, we have much better tools and software that can even convert old “fake” measurements into more “real “data.
An ice hockey player can hit a puck at speeds up to about 45 m/s (100 mph) utilizing a technique known as the slap shot. There is nothing special about the speed since golf balls, tennis balls, and baseballs can also be launched at that speed or even higher.
In this article, read all about hockey puck velocity, what’s the fastest recorded shot, and how it developed through history.
Slap Shot – the Fastest, Hardest Shot in Hockey
Slap shots require a significant wind-up and practically all of the body’s energy to be transferred into the shot.
The analogs for the slap shot in hockey include:
- The long bomb in football.
- The home run swing in baseball.
- The Big Dog sell-out drive in golf.
In current hockey, everyone employs the slap shot. However, there was a time before the shot was even conceived. Even harder to imagine is a time when using a slap shot in a game was regarded as a high-risk move.
The players developed the ability to execute the shot. It became a horror weapon among league scorers during the no-mask goaltender era.
Possessing the quickest slap shot, which is the toughest shot in the game, has historically conferred prominence. The athletes that made that shot are praised for it.
The NHL All-Star Game’s introduction of the hardest shot competition has given researchers a chance to precisely gauge the speed of a slap shot because competitors participate simultaneously in the same arena while being measured with the same radar device.
Fastest Puck Shots Ever
110.3 miles per hour was the highest puck speed ever measured in ice hockey. Denis Kulyash of Russia made the slap shot on February 5, 2011, during the CHL All-Star Skills Competition.
Al Iafrate used a wooden (shagbark hickory) hockey stick to shoot a puck at a speed of over 105 mph. For 16 years, that record was held. We don’t know what is more stunning, the shot and record or that skullet.
Since, only a few players have managed to defeat it even though stick technology has made extremely profitable breakthroughs.
Zdeno Chara has barely surpassed that speed by 3.8 mph despite having a 6′′ height advantage over Iafrate and an extremely strong, league-exempt length stick!
Why? Today’s league makes it extremely difficult for players to wind up completely and shoot anything faster than 100 mph. For a large backswing like in golf, the game is too dynamic.
Usually, snapshots and wrist shots score goals. Then there are one-timers, redirections, and rebounds. Carbon sticks can provide more flex on snapshot/wrist shots, which improves the speed of those shots extensively.
In comparison to the wrist, backhand, and other shot types, the slap shot produces a noticeably faster puck speed.
Numerous past and past NHL players have had shots recorded at or above 100 mph, including Al Iafrate, Sheldon Souray, Steven Stamkos, Shea Weber, and Zdeno Chara.
Bobby Hull, a member of the Hall of Fame, reportedly hit the wrist and slap shots at 118.3 and 105 miles per hour in the 1960s, albeit the equipment at the time was not as reliable as it is now.
The King of Slap Shot
One of the best defensive players to ever play hockey was Al Iafrate. He was a large defenseman who was born in Dearborn, Michigan. At 6’3″ and 240 pounds, he was a powerful skater.
He had a famous slapshot and hit like a tank.
At the 1990 NHL All-Star Game, Al won the first hardest slapshot skills competition.
Together with Al MacInnis, the world’s best slapshot player, he competed in the first five events and took home three victories.
He defeated MacInnis when using a wooden stick, which, in my opinion, puts him slightly ahead of Zdeno Chara, whose statistics came from utilizing a carbon fiber stick.
When Iafrate won, his shot was consistently faster than the fastest MacInnis had ever been able to make in one of these competitions.
Until Chara introduced new composite sticks, his 105.2 MPH shot was the competition’s record.
His career was hampered by injuries and a lack of what some have referred to as true hockey sense, which prevented him from being one of the greatest players in NHL history.
However, very few athletes ever possessed the combination of talents that Al Iafrate did.
Al has a little resemblance to a bulkier defensive Bobby Hull.
The Problem with Calculating the Speed of Hockey Puck
Accurately calculating how quickly a specific shot might be and why is still a challenge.
Comparing players who have been timed with various guns at various timings will cause even more issues.
If players from the wooden stick era had played in the composite stick age, their slap shots might have been executed considerably more quickly.
There is no way to objectively compare players from a time when puck shots weren’t measured to those from a time when they were.
It implicates a lot of speculation and not a little imagination to attempt to make it work.
Chad Kilger filmed a slap shot during a skills competition with the Leafs that would eventually set an NHL record at 106.6 miles per hour.
I lean toward thinking that the number was the product of a radar gun that was not properly calibrated. What sort of speed records did the other Leafs set at that specific skills competition would be intriguing.
I also have to question defenseman Denis Kulyash’s alleged 110.3 MPH slap shot that was clocked at a KHL skills competition. I’m ready to trust the results if he and Chara are in the same rink with the same radar gun; otherwise, you’re comparing apples and oranges.
Outdated Methods
As we said, one of the earliest tales of a lightning-quick slap shot involves NHL icon Bobby Hull. In February 1968, Popular Mechanics published an article on sports science.
According to the article, Bobby Hull’s slap shot was timed at 118.3 mph. That was regarded as a scientific fact for many years.
Sadly, I haven’t been able to locate the original article to learn more about their technique, what they were really measuring, and how they went about doing it.
In my opinion, they were measuring something very different from what is currently being measured in the battle for the hardest shot.
My answer to this issue is that when Popular Mechanics measured the shots, they were doing it as soon as the shot left the stick and at its top speed.
The puck is measured after it has decelerated for 15 feet in the current fastest shot competition. Or perhaps they simply conducted a measurement that was incredibly incorrect.
Does the NHL Use New Hockey Pucks for Every Game?
They not only utilize fresh pucks each game but also many new pucks each period. Each game uses, on average, roughly twelve pucks.
Sometimes more if numerous pucks miss the goal and land in the stands, or if players hit milestones that motivate them to want to preserve the pucks (e.g., their first goal, 100th goal, etc.).
The goal of keeping pucks frozen is to have them slide faster, more smoothly, and as flatly as possible on the ice. All of the pucks for the game are kept in a freezer in the opponent’s penalty area.
The lettering on modern hockey pucks really changes color when the puck warms up, letting referees know when it’s time to switch pucks. It is game-ready when the writing is purple. Change it out when it goes white.
When a puck is out of play or when the lettering becomes white, and it’s time to replace it with a newly frozen one, you might watch the linesman skate over to the penalty area and collect a new puck.
