Unmasked: Goalies getting winning edge from personalized skate blades

Goalies are always looking for an edge.

Sometimes it’s edges, as in the custom skate profiles and sharpening of their skate blades.

Some goalies are so meticulous, they will change the profile of their skate edges depending on the ice conditions in an arena.

There is a lot of variation and personal preference in how goalies connect to the ice. The front-to-back shape and pitch of a goalie’s skate blades can affect stance mechanics and balance. The depth of the edges cut into the blades can influence how deep and powerful they dig into the ice. The staggering of the height of their blade edges can also impact the process favorably for some.

“I think everybody has custom now,” Seattle Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer said at the Kraken Community Iceplex.

“Here (at the practice facility), it's colder, the ice is harder, so you might need a little bit more bite,” he said. “Down at Climate Pledge Arena, it's a little bit warmer, the ice is a little softer and you don't need as much bite. So, it depends on the rinks we go to, but I couldn't tell you what my sharpening number is. They have everything stored in the back machine, the computer does it, so it's a clean, fresh, consistent blade every time.”

Grubauer isn’t alone when it comes to not knowing the exact specifications to which his blades are altered. Even in the NHL, many goalies are not intimately familiar with the numbers associated with their sharpening, or which of the most common custom options they might have.

But, they can feel when it is not right.

For goalies, the variation typically comes in two areas.

First, there is the profile, or contouring, of the blade from front to back, which can be thought of as the shape you see when looking at the blade from the side. Second is the hollow, which is the depth of the curvature when looking at the bottom of the blade from the front or back.

That hollow is measured in fractions of inches, with lower numbers like 1/4 and 3/8 indicative of a deeper cut into the steel, 1/2 a common middle ground, and higher numbers, up to and even beyond 1 inch, indicative of a flatter curve between the inside and outside edge of the blade.

The lower numbers and deeper cuts tend to generate more digging into the ice.

Of course, not every goalie likes that outcome.

“I don't like feeling like I'm stuck. I've tried to go duller because I feel like it's better on my hips,” Chicago Blackhawks goalie Spencer Knight said. “I forget what I started at the beginning of the [last] year, but it was sharper. Now, I'm at 7/8 but I've gone to rinks where the ice is softer and I went all the way to 1-1/4 and it still felt sharp. I feel like I can get the control for myself and I don't need the skates to do as much of the work and that's something I found that, if you can get used to it, I feel like it's just much better for you.”

Knight isn’t alone in going away from a deeper hollow.

“I'm terrible at fractions but I think I used to be at 3/8 -- super sharp,” Colorado Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “Now I don't even think my skates are sharp and I'm just floating.”

The most unique hollow is “inside-edge high,” a staggered sharpening process that leaves the inside edge raised -- and therefore always engaged in the ice -- compared to the outside edge.

It was used by Ed Belfour, Dominik Hasek and Henrik Lundqvist, each in the Hockey Hall of Fame. It seems harder to find goalies using it in the NHL these days, but there are a few.

Cam Talbot is one, having picked it up from Lundqvist in New York when they were the tandem for the Rangers. It took a while before he adopted it, breaking it out while with the Edmonton Oilers.

“The benefits are a sharp inside edge so when you're down in your butterfly, catching your edge is a little bit easier and having that ability to push side-to-side without having to lift your pad so high off the ice,” Talbot said. “And then with a less sharp outside edge, I feel like it allows me to shuffle a little easier, like there's no resistance. When you're shuffling and you're higher in your stance, you never have to worry about catching that outside edge.”

Lukas Dostal of the Anaheim Ducks began using the sharpening style as a teen in his native Czechia, where he says the practice is more common. Dostal points to the ability to shuffle smoothly as the primary benefit.

Shuffling has become an increasingly effective and popular movement for goalies to counter lateral attacks. It allows a goalie to stay square while moving side-to-side, rather than the open-and-close of a T-push.

“It allows me to stay in my narrow stance all the time and whenever I want to push, I have so much glide there, so I can shuffle so much and whenever I want to stop, I just turn my ankle slightly inwards, and I have so much bite right away,” Dostal said.

Dostal also has a custom contour from front to back. It is commonly referred to as radius because that curve is based on the radius of a circle, with a bigger radius leading to a flatter edge, and a smaller radius producing a more curved edge when viewed from the side of the skate.

Goalies have always had a flatter radius than skaters, with the most common goalie radius being 28 feet. Some have added more curve to the toe or heel of their blades, sometimes depending on what part of the blade used to push side to side in the butterfly.

Dostal has a 19-foot radius (more curved) on the toe and heel, with a standard, flatter 28-foot radius in the middle of the blade. He also has a taller heel on his blade, which he said helps prevent his upper body from rocking back after a hard push.

“I keep my body in front of my toes, so I don't roll back, don't move back on my heels, because the blade is basically pushing me down on my upper body,” Dostal said.

For Dostal, those are the edges he seeks to make a difference in his game. Like most goalies today, it starts with the manner in which skate edges are shaped and sharpened to suit the playing style of each individual.