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Report: NHL to propose significant goalie pad downsizing

Kari Lehtonen, Dale Weise

Vancouver Canucks goalie Cory Schneider makes a save against the Dallas Stars during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Darryl Dyck)

AP

The NHL will propose new goalie pad regulations when it meets with the NHLPA’s competition committee on Tuesday, according to a report from In Goal Magazine.

The proposal will introduce what would be major changes for netminders.

In Goal reports the NHL will table a pad height amendment that could decrease pad height by three inches (essentially creating a six-inch opening in the five-hole) or a fixed height for all goalies, abandoning the “individual sizing chart” which allowed pad size to be dictated by the goalie’s dimensions.

Here’s more on the two proposed options, from In Goal:

1. Continued use of the individual sizing chart, but with a reduction in the thigh rise from 55 per cent of each goalie’s measurement from the knee to hip, down to 40 per cent. The NHL targeted a 50 per cent maximum eight years ago, but it was negotiated up to 55 per cent by the NHLPA.

Given the average total measurement in the League is around 20 inches, a 15 per cent reduction would equate to three lost inches in pad height. Of course that is three inches per pad, and given most goalies use the top of these pads to close the 5-hole when they are down on the ice, that could mean an additional six-inch opening.

2. A fixed maximum for every goalie above the knee, likely between seven and eight inches. This would eliminate the sizing chart for thigh rise, and instead fix a maximum height for every goalie’s pad above the knee. Using the average 20-inch knee-to-hip measurement, an eight-inch maximum would be the same as a 40 per cent maximum.

In Goal also reports the NHL will discuss how goalies are wearing their equipment, and how to enforce it during the season.

In an interesting twist, Anaheim goalie Viktor Fasth confirmed to the magazine the NHL “cut the shoulder pads on his chest-and-arm unit” during the 2013 campaign -- but that didn’t happen until he was already off to an 8-0-0 start.

Fasth proceeded to go 7-6-2 for the remainder of the season, though it must be said he wasn’t cheating with his pads.

The NHL originally approved his equipment, only to later make alterations when his shoulder pads looked bigger than expected.

The NHL may also look at how goalies wear boot straps (read here for how former Calgary goalie Danny Taylor used this to his advantage) and other equipment modifications.

“We want everyone with the same stuff,” Canucks goalie Cory Schneider, who serves on the NHLPA Competition Committee, told In Goal.

“We understand it’s a tough position and everyone does different things to be successful, but at the end of the day we all want to be on the same playing field.”