How come right handed glove goalies are nearly nonexistent in the NHL?

[Bourdon]

Tuukka Rask is also left handed. I'm guess Rask catches left for similar reasons as Vasilevskiy.

Here he is signing autographs
He also kicks a football left footed, which visually looks funny to me

 

[The Macho King]

Vasi is left handed, but growing up he couldn't get the gear, so he learned to play like a righty.

 

[Doctor No]

Really interesting and wonder if it at all correlates with the cost of equipment? Like, total assumption on my part, but adjusted for inflation, is goalie gear more expensive now than ever (particularly when someone full right may have to custom order)?

Plausible (although my theory is that it's just random - if you simulate this using RNG, the graph would likely look bouncy like this).

Most youth organizations have "use me" goalie pads for whichever kids get chosen, but I can't imagine that many have plenty of sets of full right equipment unless a donor (or donor's kid) happened to need them.

 

[ANDI P IS CUTE]

because most people are right handed.

 

[hangman005]

As stated by the poster before me... there is a lot more variance in shooters because shooters aren't strictly based by their handedness... but by what the player feels most natural with when holding their stick.

Now a lot of right handed players shoot left because they are taught that their dominant hand needs to be on top of the stick, leaving their less dominant left hand in the middle, but some players just don't feel right holding a stick in that manner and thus are right handed shooting right which increases the percentage for right shooters.

There is no such variance with goaltenders. You will always put a catching glove on your less dominant hand.

I’m nowhere near a ice hockey goalie, though I have played goal in a similar fashion to ice hockey and I must buck the trend, though in the versions of hockey I played I had no need to handle well the ball in this case. I played glove right and stick left. Because I can’t catch anything left handed to save my life, and my stick was more a blocker, poker, sweeperawayerer lol

But nhl goalies have more co-ordination in their finger nails than I do my entire body.

 

[Rubi]

I can understand why most goalies have the mit on the left hand. If you grow up playing baseball and you're a RH you catch with your left and throw with your right.

However, I never could understand why there are so many LH shots in hockey. I'm right handed and use a RH hockey stick. It just feels more natural to have my left hand on the butt end and my right on the shaft. My right hand/arm is stronger than my left. I want my right hand lower on the shaft for the power.

I bat right handed, I swing a golf club right handed, hell I even hold a shovel with my right hand lower down on the shaft and with my left on the top. Why would I do the opposite with a hockey stick?

 

[TaLoN]

I can understand why most goalies have the mit on the left hand. If you grow up playing baseball and you're a RH you catch with your left and throw with your right.

However, I never could understand why there are so many LH shots in hockey. I'm right handed and use a RH hockey stick. It just feels more natural to have my left hand on the butt end and my right on the shaft. My right hand/arm is stronger than my left. I want my right hand lower on the shaft for the power.

I bat right handed, I swing a golf club right handed, hell I even hold a shovel with my right hand lower down on the shaft and with my left on the top. Why would I do the opposite with a hockey stick?

If coached at a young age, it's generally encouraged to have the dominant hand at the top, the other in the middle of the stick, because often times players need to use one hand on the stick only, and in such situations the player will have more control if that one hand is their dominant hand.

I'm with you though, I'm right handed and shoot right in hockey.

 

[Panthers Propaganda]

That's what most people do, they catch with their non dominant hand.

I catch with my right in hockey but my right hand is also my throwing hand for baseball so have to catch left. Write left handed, eat left handed, shoot right. Golf left. Its weird.

 

[Kevs Security]

Fun fact:
In Finland they have gear for right handed goalies, only.
That's the main reason Patrik Laine became a skater.

My Finnish friend Juha from Tampare told me this interesting fact a while ago. He said that Finnish skaters like Laine tend to shoot the puck in the "ulaa mumo", meaning they're trying to go top cheese with the shot. It'd be a lot more difficult to prevent these scoring chances if you're a left-hand goalie, IMO.

 

[Albatros]

There is no such variance with goaltenders. You will always put a catching glove on your less dominant hand.

False. It might be much more common, sure, but I'm right-handed and catch right so there is some variance.

 

[Rubi]

Now I'm not a goalie but it would seem logical that since goalies only hold the stick with one hand you would want your strongest hand holding the stick for better stick control, as Talon previously said, and since most people are right handed that means the right hand... Which leaves the left for the glove.

 

[Doctor No]

because most people are right handed.

You might enjoy reading the thread.

 

[Nathaniel Skywalker]

Because majority of the world is right handed

 

[beakerboy]

Willing to bet that the majority of kids play goalie regular because that is the gear that the clubs have. When kids are first starting, there is no way that their parents are going to drop a couple hundred bucks on full right gear before their kid even decides if he likes the position, though i guess it is a bit less than that since it'd just be blocker/glove, but still. I'm actually surprised at how many people play full right.

 

[Tutu to]

I’m right handed in everything but if I was a goalie I would catch right.

 

[ilyazhito]

You want your dominant arm as the control hand. Meaning if you're right handed, it's preferable to have your right hand at the top controlling your stick (left hand shot). This is much more common among the Canadien population vs America, likely due to Americans growing up batting in baseball. Similarly as baseball pitcher, you want to throw with your dominant hand and catch with your other hand.

I think it's safe to assume that all goalies will start out playing as a skater. I don't think any 5-10 year olds just automatically put on goalie gear without being a skater first or at least practicing as one

Adult beginner here. I never was a skater in ice hockey. I started ball hockey as a goalie and played briefly as a defenceman before becoming a full-time goalie. I started as a regular goalie, because that was normal as far as I know for a righty playing goal. However, I am now looking to try out full right, because I tend to make more reflex saves with the right hand than the left, and because it might be easier to shoot with a full right stick (right handed curve). If it works, I'll be full right permanently.

 

[The Macho King]

I wonder how much the fact hockey gear is already so expensive, and left-handed goalie gloves are probably marked up even more - factors into it.

 

[Dust]

I'm kind of messed up relative to most of the posts here. I write with my left, I play soccer with my left foot dominant, throw right, bat right, play golf and soccer right, and on the off time I play goalie, catch with my right.

 

[Ratsreign]

The left-handed population is still less than ten percent according to some studies.

A two-handed activity like shooting with a hockey stick can really depend which is why we see more variance there.

Goaltending is one-handed, in the sense that you're holding the stick with one hand the majority of the time, and you're going to hold it with your dominant hand.

As opposed to shooters, if you catch with your right hand, you're almost definitely left-handed. Just aren't that many people who are dominantly left-handed.

As a left handed person who played goalie as a kid, this is exactly it.

Also, although left handed, I for some reason swing bats, clubs and shoot pucks from the right side. So that made handling/passing the puck with blocker and glove on much easier for me. Left hand at top of either goalie stick or regular. I wonder if most goalies who are the better puck handlers might share this trait.
I imagine most left shooting hockey players could be right handed people. Shooting left puts their dominant hand on top of stick, the control hand.

 

[YippieKaey]

I have no hands so i invented a helmet with both a stick and a catching glove on it.

Also i have no legs so no five-hole.









I am actually a very large piece of wood someone found floating on a remote beach.

But pretty sure i'd be ambidextrous if i was a human.

P.S Before you ask: Yes i am writing this message by tele(phone)kinesis D.S

 

[Eisen]

I'm right handed and I shoot right. Yes, it does take away from puck skills when trying to do things one handed, but I find most times I keep both hands on the stick anyway when handling a puck, and with the right hand in the middle, I actually seem to have better close quarters control... add in the better control on the shot and that's just my preference.

It always felt completely backwards to me trying to use a left handed stick.

Same here. Dominant hand on the bottom.

My Finnish friend Juha from Tampare told me this interesting fact a while ago. He said that Finnish skaters like Laine tend to shoot the puck in the "ulaa mumo", meaning they're trying to go top cheese with the shot. It'd be a lot more difficult to prevent these scoring chances if you're a left-hand goalie, IMO.

What's top cheese?

 

[Dr Beinfest]

I grew up switch with handedness in hockey and opted for right handedness. I cannot imagine ever having played in net bearing the weight of a goalie stick in my left hand and being able to do anything meaningful with it.

 

[Perennial]

I've never understood how someone who's right-handed could prefer shooting as a lefty in hockey...

IMO, those people should be rounded up and sterilized.

 

[McGarnagle]

What about Dan Blackburn, the no glove-hand goalie?

 

[ilyazhito]

Adult beginner here. I never was a skater in ice hockey. I started ball hockey as a goalie and played briefly as a defenceman before becoming a full-time goalie. I started as a regular goalie, because that was normal as far as I know for a righty playing goal. However, I am now looking to try out full right, because I tend to make more reflex saves with the right hand than the left, and because it might be easier to shoot with a full right stick (right handed curve). If it works, I'll be full right permanently.

Update: I switched to full right. It still is difficult to shoot with goalie gloves, but it is easier than it was shooting regular with the left-handed stick. There also is not that much difference between holding the stick in the left hand compared to the right hand.