Left vs. Right in the NHL

[Whiplash27]

So I decided to see how the split is setup between the NHL for lefties and righties. The old stereotype is that the US favors right handed shooters and Canada favors left handed shooters. So anyway, I went to NHL.com, went to individual stats, then bios and copied and pasted the data into a spreadsheet.

Here's what I was able to find:

FORWARDS | L/R | NBR | PCT
NHL | L | 131 | 62%
NHL | R | 79 | 38%
USA | L | 20 | 54%
USA | R | 17 | 46%
CAN | L | 66 | 57%
CAN | R | 49 | 43%
OTH | L | 45 | 78%
OTH | R | 13 | 22%

DEFENSE | L/R | NBR | PCT
NHL | L | 68 | 66%
NHL | R | 35 | 34%
USA | L | 19 | 51%
USA | R | 11 | 29%
CAN | L | 20 | 50%
CAN | R | 20 | 50%
OTH | L | 29 | 88%
OTH | R | 4 | 12%

OVERALL | L/R | NBR | PCT
NHL | L | 199 | 64%
NHL | R | 114 | 36%
USA | L | 39 | 58%
USA | R | 28 | 42%
CAN | L | 86 | 55%
CAN | R | 69 | 45%
OTH | L | 74 | 81%
OTH | R | 17 | 19%

Interestingly enough, the USA has a higher percentage of left handed shooters than Canada (skewed by defensemen). Other (which I believe is all Europeans) is highly skewed toward the left. Overall, every country is skewed to the left.

Click to read more...

 

[Darrelle Lundqvist]

Interesting, it always seemed like there is more lefties in the NHL.

 

[ponder]

Interesting, it always seemed like there is more lefties in the NHL.

More guys who shoot left, not more actual lefties. In general right handed kids are taught to shoot left (the top hand is the fine control hand for stick handling, so shooting left means having your dominant right hand on top), while left handed kids are taught to shoot right. Really you just get used to whatever though, I'm right handed but my parents got me a righty stick, I just got used to it, no way I could switch now.

 

[Whiplash27]

BTW, I screwed up, that's only for players in the playoffs (so 16 teams)

 

[PerpetualTankYear]

Whats "NBR" ?

 

[CrAzYNiNe]

Whats "NBR" ?

number

 

[1dude]

nice info....thanks dude

 

[tawheed]

More guys who shoot left, not more actual lefties. In general right handed kids are taught to shoot left (the top hand is the fine control hand for stick handling, so shooting left means having your dominant right hand on top), while left handed kids are taught to shoot right. Really you just get used to whatever though, I'm right handed but my parents got me a righty stick, I just got used to it, no way I could switch now.

Yep, I'm right handed and shoot right as well. Whereas, most of my right handed friends shoot left, but it's just the way I started and would be impossible to change now.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

More guys who shoot left, not more actual lefties. In general right handed kids are taught to shoot left (the top hand is the fine control hand for stick handling, so shooting left means having your dominant right hand on top), while left handed kids are taught to shoot right. Really you just get used to whatever though, I'm right handed but my parents got me a righty stick, I just got used to it, no way I could switch now.

That's not always the case. My parents got my a righty stick but after a few practices my coach told them I should be using a lefty stick.

 

[10coach*]

That's not always the case. My parents got my a righty stick but after a few practices my coach told them I should be using a lefty stick.

Do you do most activities with your right hand? writing, ****, etc?

 

[jorbjorb]

in beer league everyone that's "good" is a lefty haha

 

[CapsCast]

I'm a lefty and I shoot left. I played baseball first and I think the way I was taught to hold the bat transitioned into how I hold the stick.

 

[542365]

I'm a lefty and I shoot left. I played baseball first and I think the way I was taught to hold the bat transitioned into how I hold the stick.

Same here, but backwards. I'm right handed and shoot right because I learned to swing a baseball bat and a tennis racket right handed before I started playing hockey. My first coach said I should try a lefty stick, and I tried for about a week(even played two games) and it never felt comfortable. Right handed just feels natural'

 

[Tacks92]

Cool post. I wonder if there's a Gladwell Outliers thing happening in the US. More righties than lefties in youth hockey in US, so maybe a lefty kid gets put on a first or second line while a righty with same skills is on the third line. Or maybe the travel team needs some more left handed shots, so he gets picked before the righty with equal skill. Left develops more, and more of them end up in the NHL on playoff teams?

 

[Outl4w]

Teams always want that top 4 RHD. If you have a kid teach him to shoot right. That right handed shot coming from the point is coveted.

 

[nycpunk1]

Cool post. I wonder if there's a Gladwell Outliers thing happening in the US. More righties than lefties in youth hockey in US, so maybe a lefty kid gets put on a first or second line while a righty with same skills is on the third line. Or maybe the travel team needs some more left handed shots, so he gets picked before the righty with equal skill. Left develops more, and more of them end up in the NHL on playoff teams?

If that were the case, why would the effect continue past 40-50% LH? Once you have enough left shots to roll 3-4 lines and 2-3 LD, why keep preferring them?

NHL players are much more likely to have started hockey very young, which means US players are much more likely to have picked up a hockey stick before years of baseball ingrained the "wrong hand on top" into their muscle memory.

As you go up in levels, the kids who took up hockey as a second sport drop off far quicker than the hockey-first crowd. By the time you get to the NHL, it's pretty much down to the left-shooting righties and the right-shooting lefties, with the numbers pretty accurately mirroring the population.

 

[nuckss]

Russians are massively skewed towards left shooters. The 72 series team had 0 right hand shots and most russian teams are similar. I can think of a few occasions in the 72 series where a right shooter would have had easy goals for the russians in that series but because they shot left their angle was no good.