Have NHL players maxed out the slap shot? The science behind the speed

Thirty years in the past, the typical PGA golfer drove the ball 261.84 yards. Davis Love III was the longest hitter at 283.8 yards.

In 2024, the typical distance is 300.9 yards, with Cameron Champ main the way in which at a whopping 323.3 yards. Technological advances for each golf equipment and golf balls — mixed with a better concentrate on health — have turned 7,000-yard tracks into pitch-and-putts for the world’s finest golfers.

Thirty years in the past, Al Iafrate received the NHL’s hardest shot competitors on the All-Star expertise competitors with a 102.7 mph blast, down from his 105.2 a yr earlier than.

On the 2024 All-Star weekend, Cale Makar received with a slap shot of 102.5 mph. Utah’s Michael Kesselring and the Buffalo Sabres’ Tage Thompson just lately had blasts of 103.77 mph and 104.69 mph, respectively — the one two 100 mph clappers within the league this season. Final season, the ten greatest bombers mixed for 26 photographs at or above 100 mph, with the Winnipeg Jets’ Colin Miller topping out at 102.59.

What provides? Iafrate was utilizing an old-school wood stick. Makar, Kesselring, Thompson, Miller and everybody else within the league is utilizing a customized composite stick, designed to their actual physique and mechanical specs to generate most drive. But the numbers are comparable. There is perhaps extra massive shooters within the league — monitoring information within the NHL solely dates again to the 2021-22 season, so we’ll by no means know for positive — however they’re probably not elevating the bar by a lot. Actually to not the diploma that golfers are. Or tennis gamers are, for that matter.

Actually, it’s extra akin to baseball, through which pitchers appear to have reached the restrict of human functionality at about 105 mph. An increasing number of pitchers throw laborious yearly — 203 pitchers averaged a four-seam fastball of 95 mph or extra this season, up from 123 simply seven years in the past — however the ceiling isn’t budging. Since Aroldis Chapman hit a document 105.8 mph again in 2010, solely Ben Joyce and Jordan Hicks have touched 105, and solely as soon as every (Chapman did it 9 instances). After all, pitchers aren’t utilizing any tools. It’s simply muscle and mechanics. The human physique can solely achieve this a lot, regardless of how feverishly you train, regardless of how impeccable your dietary habits are.

Hockey’s completely different, proper? Shouldn’t there be 110 mph photographs by now? Or 120, for that matter? Shouldn’t we be speaking about scaling again the expertise to protect the integrity of the sport, the way in which the golf world all the time is? Like each different sport, hockey gamers maintain getting greater and stronger. However the low-100s stays the gold normal for shot velocity.

It begs two questions: Have we reached the ceiling of what a slap shot could be? And why?

“There’s all the time a restrict,” stated Detroit Pink Wings defenseman Moritz Seider, who has reached 95.54 mph this season, within the league’s 91st percentile. “The human issue solely permits you to take action a lot. And there does come a degree the place we’re not superhuman.”

Alain Haché is aware of a factor or two about high-speed projectiles. The experimental physicist and College of Moncton professor appeared to defy the very legal guidelines of physics in 2002 when he and certainly one of his college students despatched a pulse of radiation 120 meters at superluminal velocity — that’s quicker than the velocity of sunshine. However Haché is a hockey nerd, too, the creator of two books on the science behind the game. It makes him uniquely certified to handle such an esoteric subject.

He believes the plateauing speeds of NHL slap photographs signifies that we’d have reached our technological restrict in relation to hockey sticks. Iafrate and Al MacInnis and Bobby Hull have been bodily freaks within the wooden-stick days. All of the composites have completed is let the remainder of the league catch as much as them.

“What it means in all probability is the limitation is now not the stick itself,” Haché stated. “Hockey sticks are fairly environment friendly already.”

A slap shot is fairly easy from a physics standpoint. When a participant rears again and fires, he doesn’t intention for the puck, however somewhat a foot or so behind the puck. When the stick hits the ice, it flexes, or bends. By flexing the stick, a participant is storing potential power into the stick. When the stick unbends and whips again round, it’s turning that potential power into kinetic power, sending the puck on its approach.

Power is all the time misplaced within the bending and unbending of the stick, Haché stated. A superbly elastic stick would convert 100% of a participant’s potential power into kinetic power, however fashionable sticks are fairly shut. Haché estimated that fashionable composites convert “perhaps 90 %.”

“So should you enhance your stick (even additional), you’re not going to realize rather a lot,” he stated. “You’re not going to double the quantity of power you may switch. So the power turns into restricted by the participant.”

In Iafrate’s and MacInnis’ day, the wood sticks might flex solely a lot, and there wasn’t any important selection from twig to twig.

Nowadays, gamers have all kinds of choices with composite sticks. A stick’s flex — or “whippiness,” within the gamers’ parlance — is assigned a quantity. A quantity above 100 is stiffer, a quantity beneath 100 is “whippier.”

Zdeno Chara, an almost 7-foot-tall large who holds the document for hardest shot in an NHL expertise competitors at 108.8 mph, used a famously stiff stick. Alex Ovechkin, on the verge of turning into the league’s all-time main purpose scorer largely on the power of his cannonading one-timer slap shot, makes use of an additional whippy stick, within the mid-to-upper-70s. Connor Bedard, who doesn’t have the bodily stature of both of these gamers, makes use of a super-whippy stick within the low-70s. No matter fits the participant’s mechanics finest.

Chicago’s Connor Bedard makes use of a very “whippy” stick, with a flex within the low-70s. (Chris Tanouye / Freestyle Pictures / Getty Photographs)

Naturally, there’s extra to it than that, relying on how deep into the scientific weeds you wish to get. There’s the “bounce impact,” which suggests a shot may have extra velocity if the puck is shifting towards the participant at velocity when he hits it — consider massive Aaron Decide squaring up a 100 mph fastball and picture the exit velocity. Decide wouldn’t have the ability to hit a ball off a tee practically as far, or as quick. It’s not a one-for-one issue as a result of it’s not a superbly elastic collision; if a 60 mph cross from behind the online is one-timed again towards the online, the shooter received’t get an extra 60 mph on his shot. However he’ll get a bump.

Now if the participant is carrying the puck up the ice at velocity and manages to get off a slapper on the frenzy, he’ll get all that further velocity. Let’s say Connor McDavid is carrying the puck up ice at 23 mph, his prime velocity to this point this season. If he one way or the other managed to tear a full slap shot at 83 mph, his prime shot velocity this season, whereas the puck was nonetheless shifting at 23 mph, his shot would go 106 mph. Simpler stated than completed, however perhaps Corridor of Famer Marián Hossa was onto one thing when he would blast these slap photographs whereas racing into the low slot throughout shootout makes an attempt.

The stick — wooden, fiberglass, carbon fiber, aluminum, no matter — is only a instrument, although. Method issues greater than anything. However just a little muscle mass doesn’t harm.

“The facility comes fully from the participant,” Haché stated. “He’ll rotate his physique. He’ll time the slap shot in order that he can put as a lot flex as he can within the stick.”

That’s why San Jose defenseman Jake Walman says his photographs are tougher and heavier earlier within the season, whereas he nonetheless has all of the muscle he added over the summer season. Gamers usually lose a lot of their bulk over the course of the grueling season, as weight-lifting takes a again seat to the limitless cardio they’re doing evening after evening. Their photographs can fade together with their weight.

However whereas behemoths similar to Chara and Shea Weber (who practically caught Chara with a 108.5 on the 2015 All-Star weekend) and the 6-6 Thompson have an inherent benefit, dimension isn’t all the things. Timing is essential. Choose the puck clear as a substitute of hitting the ice first and the stick received’t flex and the puck will flutter weakly. Hit too far behind the puck and many of the kinetic power shall be spent earlier than the blade even will get to the puck.

“Everybody shoots completely different, however there are particular issues you need to do with a view to have a tough shot,” stated Chicago’s Seth Jones, who topped out at 97.97 mph final season. “You see small guys have laborious photographs on a regular basis. You don’t have to be 220 kilos and 6-3 to have a tough shot. And the flex is no matter you’re comfy with. Some guys shoot tougher with (a) 100 flex, some guys shoot even tougher with a 75. There’s nobody option to do it.”

Zdeno Chara unleashes a 108.8 mph slap shot on the NHL’s 2012 hardest shot competitors in Ottawa. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Photographs)

Energy in a single sport doesn’t essentially imply energy within the different. Walman’s finest golf drives go a comparatively modest 270 yards down the center.

However oh, man, can Walman spin the ball.

“I’m hitting down on it fairly laborious,” he stated.

The Sharks defenseman blasted a slapper 101.6 mph final yr in Vancouver when he was with the Detroit Pink Wings. This yr, he’s topped out at 94.93 mph. And it’s the identical physique mechanics that enable him to place a lot backspin right into a 9-iron that enable him to so persistently hit a hockey puck actually laborious — the way in which he rears again and opens up his higher physique, the way in which he transfers practically all the burden into his entrance foot with vicious physique torque, the way in which he leans into the follow create all that flex as he hits the ice six to 12 inches behind the puck, the way in which he follows by means of with all of his weight shifting ahead.

“You’re leaning over far more in hockey than in golf,” he stated. “I’m bent over, all my energy is producing into that one spot in entrance. … I’m leaning to this point over the puck that every one my weight goes down into the puck.”

Walman’s all the time had a giant shot, even when he didn’t have the appropriate instruments. He stated he was just about the final child in youth hockey to play with a wood stick. His teammates chirped him for it, and his coaches “gave my mother and pa heck” for not shopping for him a composite stick. However even at a younger age, Walman was capable of carry out the flex within the wooden and launch missiles all day. To at the present time, he nonetheless wonders which type of stick is basically extra highly effective when leveraged completely.

“I’d say the primary 50 % is all the things that you just do — the ability you’re producing, leaning into it,” Walman stated. “After which the stick takes over after that. The second half is the expertise.”

So whereas Haché thinks sticks is perhaps approaching the purpose of perfection, gamers aren’t so positive. Jones, for one, was skeptical when requested if the NHL had hit the ceiling.

“It will depend on the place the expertise can go,” Jones stated. “Athletes are creating yearly, we’re getting quicker and stronger and greater, but it surely’s not simply the human physique. It’s just a little completely different than pitching, the place it’s simply you and your arm and the ball. Right here, we’re utilizing tools. Proper now, it looks as if it maxed out with how mild and robust sticks are with the carbon fiber. However who is aware of in 10 years the place the hell expertise could be?”

There’s one other query that must be addressed right here: Does any of this even matter?

Whereas MLB groups have high-tech “pitch labs” and big staffs dedicated to squeezing each final little bit of velocity and spin out of their pitchers — if a pitcher’s velocity drops a single mile per hour from one begin to the subsequent, group medical staffs kick into gear and fan bases go right into a panic — NHL gamers appear rather a lot much less involved with the science behind the shot.

See puck, hit puck. Puck go quick.

“I truthfully do not know” how the science works, stated Edmonton’s Evan Bouchard, who hit 103 in an AHL expertise competitors.

Many of the greatest photographs within the recreation come from defensemen, and also you’ll see them firing off blasts from the purpose at that evening’s beginning goalie on the tail finish of each morning skate. It’s extra of a ritual than a rigorous scientific course of, although.

“I simply determine the extra you do it, the higher you get at it,” Bouchard stated. “It’s simply observe, repetition.”

When advised he was within the prime 10 % within the league when it got here to shot velocity, Seider stated: “That’s clearly cool. However that’s not a stat I’ve ever checked.”

See, a 100 mph shot is a good weapon in hockey. However there are a number of the reason why it’s not the be-all, end-all the way in which a 100 mph four-seam fastball is.

For one, full-bore slap photographs are very troublesome to get off in recreation conditions. There’s a cause many of the greatest blasts come from expertise competitions with pristine circumstances — a free run-up, a stationary puck (the timing is just too difficult to threat enjoying for the aforementioned bounce impact) and no defender. In a recreation, time and area are sometimes nonexistent.

“The sport is simply approach too quick for taking the time, going all the way in which to the highest and letting one rip,” Seider stated. “Persons are simply in your far more. There’s higher protection, opponents have higher sticks on you. You hardly get off your finest slap shot in an precise recreation.”

One more reason it’s not as crucial: Tougher isn’t all the time higher. Again when the Blackhawks have been successful championships, they’d massive Brent Seabrook blasting photographs from the purpose on the ability play. However light-hitting Michal Rozsíval would get his share of power-play time, too. And his wimpy little photographs simply appeared to have a knack for getting by means of visitors, hitting the online and creating rebounds.

“It’s laborious to get off a giant shot these days,” Bouchard stated. “Generally it’s higher to throw a fast wrist shot on internet and see what occurs. It doesn’t all the time need to be as laborious as you may hit it. That’s not all the time the very best shot.”

A giant windup additionally provides a defender an additional break up second to throw himself in entrance of the puck. That stated, Jones posited that one massive shot that will get very painfully blocked may result in an open lane later within the recreation, as a defender thinks twice about stepping in entrance of the subsequent one.

However even he acknowledged that not often occurs.

“It’s a aggressive sport,” Jones stated. “You’re nonetheless going to see guys laying out in entrance of photographs to win the Stanley Cup, whether or not it’s 80 miles per hour or 120.”

In any case, physics may have the ability to clarify how flex and torque and weight switch and potential power all add as much as a basic clapper. However there’s no explaining what drives somebody to step in entrance of 1.

“Nobody stated we’re good,” Jones stated with a chuckle. “We’re athletes.”

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Photographs: Bruce Bennett, Patrick Smith, Steph Chambers / Getty Photographs)