Who would you rank Top 5 in the NHL for Puck Handling Skills?

[NoMessi]

A good stat for this is the total time with the puck on said players stick per game. Usually the best skaters + stick-handlers are leading this category.

I'd say overall Crosby is better than Kane in terms of puck-handling. Its close, but Sid handles the puck better than anyone else in the league. I feel he is one of the few that can really do whatever he wants to with the puck and can put it in any area he wants to. Similar to how elite golfers can hit a green 150 yards away with every one of their clubs.



1. Crosby
2. McDavid (fastest hands of all time?)
2. Kane
3. Malkin
4. Eichel/Matthews
5. Mackinnon/Tavares

Crosby is one of the best because he has a short stick. That is the reason why often smaller players have better control than bigger guys. Things is, that as a defenseman its still harder to defend against a bigger guys because of his reach. Like how effective Lemieux was, but hes not as fast with his dangles as like a Schremp, Kane, Crosby etc.

Many of the things Crosby does in that video isn't more than very good (although, a couple of things in the seconds half of the video is) but his balance, body movement and edge work are all-world. That can be noticed even at the slow pace in the video.

In my top 5 I would want guys that are big men who has the stickhandling of a smaller man, but its hard because that is very rare. My favorite player Malkin comes to mind, even though he doesn't use his reach as much as he probably could have. So instead I go for Mcdavid, Malkin, Kane, Crosby and Ryan. Ryan is controversial because he doesn't have the balance to be truly effective and is somewhat of a weak pick but wanted to include him anyway.

To clarify, balance and reach are far more useful at the higher levels than just stickhandling.

Edit: saw a lot of mentions about Matthews, and that might be true as well - haven't seen him enough to include him.

 

[Laineux]

Ovi handles it like a hot potato.

Srs though I wouldn't rank him top-5 in that category. He does have some pretty quick hands and can dangle anyone, but you'd be hard pressed to find lots of folks who'd consider him to be that high when it comes to puck handling.

Kane (obviously)
Karlsson (dat finesse)

Crosby, Malkin, Gaudreau of course. And then McDavid just doing it incredibly fast at supersonic skating speed isn't fair.

Datsyuk might be the best ever at it.

Yeah, Ovechkin lacks any finesse. He can beat guys going full speed, but I can't ever imagine Ovechkin dangling through someone while standing still like Datsyuk or Kane do.

 

[stavs*]

Matthews won't dazzle in open ice like many players mentioned in this thread, but that's not his game anyways, so you have idiots that automatically write him off as not possessing slick hands. But, he's absolutely lethal in close quarters and during the cycle. He's been double teamed plenty of times this year and more often than not, would come out with the puck. I've even see him dangle players by stepping on the puck and doing some pele type footwork to evade incoming sticks or use it for puck protection. Never seen it used before in hockey the way he has mastered it. There's probably very few players in the league that I would take over Matthews down low.

 

[Kamiccolo]

Matthews won't dazzle in open ice like many players mentioned in this thread, but that's not his game anyways, so you have idiots that automatically write him off as not possessing slick hands. But, he's absolutely lethal in close quarters and during the cycle. He's been double teamed plenty of times this year and more often than not, would come out with the puck. I've even see him dangle players by stepping on the puck and doing some pele type footwork to evade incoming sticks or use it for puck protection. Never seen it used before in hockey the way he has mastered it. There's probably very few players in the league that I would take over Matthews down low.

To me, if you say he doesn't have top hands in the league you simply didn't watch him at all. Now, I am not even saying this like with the HF cliche, I really mean it.

He scored almost all of his goals the same way. Got into the slot, got a loose puck, ripped the puck on goal. If you watch him, and you see his goals and his failed goals, you see plays every game where he is able to literally 'thread the needle' in traffic like he did at the worlds to get set up in the right angle and position to shoot.

Or watch him along the boards, everyone here has seen that goal against Ottawa with Karlsson, he does that all year long just not as flashy and not all resulting in a goal. It's why he is among the league leader in take aways, his hands are just filthy and it's such a huge part of his game that I don't see how anyone could argue other wise.

 

[Strait2thecup]

See some people saying JT. As an isles fan I can say ho sang has way better moves