page_title: Ice hockey stick
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Ice hockey stick / History
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of Mi'kmaq making hockey sticks from hornbeam trees (Carpinus caroliniana) in Nova Scotia.
context_page_description: An ice hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in ice hockey to shoot, pass, and carry the puck across the ice. Ice hockey sticks are approximately 150–200 cm long, composed of a long, slender shaft with a flat extension at one end called the blade. National Hockey League sticks are up to 63 inches long. The blade is the part of the stick used to contact the puck, and is typically 25 to 40 cm long. Stick dimensions can vary widely, as they are usually built to suit a particular player's size and preference. The blade is positioned at roughly a 135° angle from the axis of the shaft, giving the stick a partly 'L-shaped' appearance. The shaft of the stick is fairly rigid, but is slightly elastic to improve shot performance.
  The blade is slightly curved to aid control of the puck, especially in shooting. The direction of the curve depends on the side of the body the player wields the stick on.
  The goaltender has a slightly modified stick. The lower part of the stick is wider, the angle is smaller, and the blade is slightly curved towards the direction of the play. New goaltender sticks also are made of the same composite technology as used in regular sticks.
context_section_description: The oldest known hockey stick dates to the mid-1830s; it was made by William "Dilly" Moffatt (born 1829) from sugar maple wood and is now owned by the Canadian Museum of History. In 2006, a stick made in the 1850s, at the time the oldest known, was sold at auction for $2.2 million; it had been appraised at US$4.25 million.
  The Moffatt stick may have been made by Mi'kmaqs. Starting in the 18th century, there are numerous references to the Mi'kmaq people of Nova Scotia playing ice hockey, and starting in the 19th century, there are claims that they invented the ice hockey stick. In the mid-19th century, the Starr Manufacturing Company began to sell Mic-Mac hockey sticks nationally and internationally.  Through the first decade of the 20th century, it was the best-selling hockey stick in Canada. By 1903, apart from farming, producing them was the primary occupation of the Mi'kmaq on reserves throughout Nova Scotia, particularly Shubenacadie, Indian Brook and Millbrook. In 1927 the department of Indian Affairs for Nova Scotia identified that the Mi'kmaq remained the "experts" at making hockey sticks. Mi'kmaq continued to make hockey sticks until the 1930s.
  Hockey sticks were mostly made from the maple or willow trees, which was also a common choice for golf club shafts and wooden tools. However, as hornbeam supplies diminished, it became more cost effective to use other hardwoods, such as yellow birch and ash. Ash gradually became the preferred medium, and by the 1920s an ash hockey stick crafted from a single piece of wood was the type most commonly used.  These early sticks were extremely heavy and not very forgiving, although they were extremely durable (Hall of Famer Moose Johnson famously used the same extra-long stick, which gave him a 99-inch (2,500 mm) reach, his entire career).
  There were only a handful of major developments in hockey stick technology between the 1920s and the 2000s.  Foremost among these was creation of the laminated stick in the 1940s, where layers of wood were glued together and sandwiched to create a more flexible and durable design.  In the 1960s, companies began adding another lamination of fiberglass or other such synthetic compound as a coating, which further added to the durability and usability of the stick.  Also in the 1960s, players began curving the blade of the stick, which dramatically changed the physics affecting players' shots.
  In the 1970s, cricket and baseball bat manufacturers began experimenting with lightweight steel alloys as a replacement for the traditional willow or ash bat.  Hockey stick designers followed suit in the early 1980s, introducing first a single piece all-aluminum stick.  This design was not popular, as the stiff aluminum did not have the proper "feel", and so a design featuring an aluminum shaft and a removable, replaceable wooden blade was tried.  This became very popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, challenging the prevalence of the traditional wooden stick for the first time.
  In recent years, the aluminum stick, as well as its wooden counterpart, have largely been replaced by more advanced composite designs.  Common building materials include fiberglass and carbon fiber.  Composite sticks generally weigh less than their aluminum forebears, and they can be manufactured with more consistent (and varied) physical properties than their wooden counterparts.  They are, however, considerably more expensive than wooden sticks, and are not as durable as the older aluminum sticks.
caption: Mi'kmaq making Mic-Mac hockey sticks from hornbeam trees (Carpinus caroliniana) in Nova Scotia about 1890.
exif: {}