About
The site you wish existed when you were buying a new stick.
Best Hockey Gear is an editorial review and price-comparison site for hockey equipment. We test the gear the NHL is actually using, score it on the same rubric every time, and surface the lowest live price from the four biggest retailers — so you stop opening five tabs every time you replace a stick.
Mission
Hockey gear is expensive, the brand cycles are confusing (Vapor vs. Supreme? Hyperlite vs. Hyperlite 2?), and the people writing about it online are usually either the manufacturers themselves or random YouTube unboxings. We wanted one place that did three jobs well:
- Tell you what the top gear is — not the most-advertised, the genuinely top-rated.
- Tell you what NHL pros use — verified weekly, not vibes-based.
- Tell you the lowest price right now — across the four biggest hockey retailers, with the savings highlighted.
That’s the whole site.
How we test
Every review on Best Hockey Gear follows the same four-step process:
Step 1 — Source the gear
We buy gear at retail or borrow demo units from manufacturers. We disclose any borrowed units in the review. Reviews are written before the manufacturer sees a draft.
Step 2 — On-ice testing
Each piece of gear goes through a minimum of five ice sessions across stickhandling, shooting, skating, and game-pace situations. Sticks are tested by 2-3 reviewers of different shooting styles (snipers, two-way forwards, defenders). Skates require a proper bake-and-fit before testing begins.
Step 3 — Spec breakdown
Every advertised technology gets verified against manufacturer documentation. Where marketing claims and reality diverge (it happens), we say so.
Step 4 — Score and publish
We score on the rubric below, write the verdict, and publish with a price-comparison table that’s live-checked the day of publish and refreshed weekly.
How we score
Every product gets a score out of 10, made up of five equal-weight categories:
Performance
/10
Does it do what it says? Speed, power, feel, response.
Construction
/10
Materials, build quality, durability across the test window.
Fit / feel
/10
For skates, the bake and the in-game fit. For sticks, balance and grip.
Value
/10
How does the current best price compare to gear at the same performance tier?
Pro adoption
/10
How many NHL players actually use it? Sourced from GearGeek and HockeyStickMan.
Scores are averaged into the headline number on each review. A score below 7.0 means we won’t recommend it; below 6.0 means we actively recommend against it.
How we compare prices
Every product review surfaces live pricing from the four biggest hockey retailers in North America:
- Pure Hockey — largest US specialty retailer with the biggest brick-and-mortar footprint.
- Hockey Monkey — sister site to Inline Warehouse; one of the deepest online inventories.
- Amazon — highest conversion, fastest shipping for Prime members.
- The Hockey Shop / Ice Warehouse — Canadian-friendly with strong inventory on niche sizes.
The retailer with the lowest current in-stock price gets the “Best deal” tag and a neon orange highlight. We update prices on every review at least once a week, and every comparison table shows the date it was last verified. Tap any “View deal” button to confirm the current price at the retailer — their stock and pricing can move daily.
Where pro data comes from
Every “used by [NHL player]” claim on this site is cross-referenced against at least one of these authoritative sources before we publish:
- GearGeek (geargeek.com) — the comprehensive NHL gear database, updated continuously.
- HockeyStickMan spec checks — deep-dive articles on what individual pros use, including flex, curve, and lie.
- Pro Stock Hockey Sticks tracker — pro stock model directory by player.
- Official Bauer / CCM / True social channels — confirmed sponsorship posts.
NHL gear sponsorships shift constantly. We re-verify the pros named on every review at least weekly and date-stamp the verification on the page.
Editorial independence
Our scores and recommendations are not influenced by affiliate commission rates. We use the same five-category rubric whether a product pays Amazon’s 1% commission or a specialty retailer’s 8% — and our “Best deal” tag goes to the retailer with the lowest current price, period, not the one paying us the most.
Manufacturers never see drafts of reviews before they go live, and we never accept paid editorial placements. Sponsored content (if we ever publish any) will always be marked unmistakably as such.
How we make money
Best Hockey Gear earns a small commission when you click through to a retailer and buy something. The price you pay is exactly the same whether you click through us or go direct — the retailer pays us out of their existing marketing budget.
Contact & corrections
Spotted an error? Have a tip on new gear or a pro spec we missed? Want to send us something to test? We want to hear from you. Drop us a note and we’ll respond within 48 hours on business days. Corrections to live reviews are posted within 24 hours, with a dated changelog at the bottom of the affected page.