Drafting Right shot D and who are southpaws

[SAM STEVENS]

A hockey friend and I were talking about a couple players and the topic of teams drafting based off need came up, Anyways he said to me one of the kids in our conversation is a right shot but a southpaw, I said so? He then explained its rare because of the control hand is at the top, I never thought of that before.

So I did some searching and found a interesting topic about the percentage of left shots to right shots in the NHL, it said in 2016 there was 186 left-handed shooting defensemen and 120 righties, a 1.55-to-1 ratio.

Now its said 90% of the population is right hand dominant so I am curious how rare are southpaws that shoot right compared to right shots who are right handed? So being a southpaw would mean your control hand is at the top giving you the advantage over a right handed person were your control hand is on the bottom. Like my friend explained.

With analytics being a huge thing now and teams always looking for the edge to get ahead, do you think this is something NHL teams look at? I would also be curious on these stats for forwards also especially since right shot D and right shot centers are at a premium with less being available.

Do you guys know if this data is available or is it not something taken into consideration?

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[Otto]

It would be interesting to see the data that's for sure.

I had a friend in high school who was left handed, but hitting in baseball, and playing hockey he was right.

 

[AttackSound]

In reality handness is something that in OHL hockey is and will always be an interesting thing to track. Especially defenseman because of how teams utilize their handness in faceoffs for special teams.

I've seen all sorts of combinations with defensemen handness in powerplay and penalty kill where teams will have 2 left handed defenseman and 2 right handed defenseman out in key situations.

When it comes to drafting most defensemen are typically interchangeable on either point regardless of their handness listed, in the O it comes down to more coaches systems then whether you have a left shooting defenseman on the left side or a right shooting defenseman on the right hand side

 

[Advanced stats]

I'm a right shooting southpaw. Always thought it was normal.

 

[dirty12]

Maybe having the dominant hand at the top of the stick became the norm in hockey because it is so often held with one hand. But for accuracy and quick powerful release, the bottom hand should be the same as the throwing hand. Throwing sports, racquet sports, golf ... the dominant hand follows through to the target. Just toss crumpled paper from all angles into a trash can to know which way you should have chose as a kid.