The Crease: Goalie Equipment Buying Guides

With 2020 behind us, it’s time to see what exciting new gear companies have been cooking up for 2021.  All these models are available at GoalieMonkey.com and to see even more options, check out our full selection of goalie leg pads.

Undoubtedly, the goalie mask is the most recognizable piece of equipment for the position. It keeps the goalie safe, yet also provides a canvas of expression like you see on nearly every professional goalie. The mask is designed to protect both the head and much of the neck of the goalie, allowing them to feel confident and safe in facing even the most difficult of shots.

The goalie’s glove is an integral part of the position, one that has many different functions. Not only does it catch the puck, but it also serves as additional blocking surface, a way to “freeze” the puck from play, and serves as the goalie’s second stick hand when playing the puck. In this article we’ll get right down to it and cover 2021’s best goalie catch gloves.

A goalie blocker is a critical piece of the goalie’s equipment setup, serving not only as a precious blocking surface, but also as a bridge between the goalie’s hand and stick. We’ve done the hard part and put together a list of the top 10 goalie blockers on the market, making the saves will be easy.

Only 2 weeks away from the release of the Brian’s Optik 2, we wanted to bring you an in depth look on some of the specs available to custom order now and what will be available stock come November 1st! Going piece by piece and spec by spec, we will bring you through all of the custom options and show give a little insight as to what each spec would be good for and what will be available in stores.

We have been having an absolute blast customizing and getting creative with the all new release of the Brian’s Optik 2 Customizer! We can not wait to see what everyone is going to come up with through our customizer! To help create some amazing sets for the upcoming season, we wanted to share some concepts we have been working out using different team colors as examples.

Few pieces of gear in hockey are more iconic than the goalie mask. From its beginnings as a crude piece of leather or fiberglass to appearances in pop culture and stunning modern day artwork donning NHL goalies, fans and goalies alike have fixated on goalie goalie mask as an icon in the sport. No piece of equipment in all sports is more personal than the goalie mask, and for this we will take a trip through the history of the mask, the different styles through the ages, and what makes a goalie’s mask so important to their equipment setup.

Finding the perfect size goalie pad can be key to being comfortable in net and playing your best. While the first instinct may be to pick a pad on the larger side, a pad too big for the goalie can significantly inhibit movement and be a detriment to their performance in net. Likewise, choosing a pad too small will provide better mobility, but could leave areas of the leg exposed and will reduce the amount of net the goalie covers.

As the last line of defense in hockey, a goalie holds the most important position in the game.  A goalie can steal a game for a team and one great save or sequence of saves can shift the momentum more than anything else.  Having to defend the net and stay protected doing so, there is a lot that goes into the position and learning the basics of movement and gear functionality can be a tough learning curve.  With experts who play goalies themselves, we’re here to answer all the questions you might have and GoalieMonkey has all the hockey goalie equipment you need for the game to keep you protected and playing your best.

It's hard to believe that another holiday season is upon us and whether you’re prepared or not, we have you covered with a list of the top 20 hockey goalie gifts of the 2021 holiday season from GoalieMonkey!

So you want to be a goalie?  Have you always wondered what it would be like to don the coolest gear in hockey?  Or maybe you are the parent of an enthusiastic young hockey player who has taken a liking to stopping pucks.  In this article we will cover all the basics of hockey goalie equipment and considerations that should be taken when purchasing your first set of goalie gear.

The NHL started a little over a week ago now and there are some goalies who haven’t had the start they needed to be successful. To be fair, all of these goalies have only played two or three games so it’s way too soon to predict they will not turn their game around within the next week or month to get back on track for a good season.

Today we will take a “way too early” look at which goaltenders will be available if not resigned and protected by the 2021-22 NHL Expansion Draft. Some of the goalies on this list may be highly unlikely to move or be unprotected, but with the way their contracts are set up, there is a chance that one of these goalies may have the opportunity to play for Seattle if unsigned.

We had a very insightful interview with Spencer Freer, Product Manager for Bauer Goalie who gave us the inside scoop on all the upcoming products from Bauer this year!

For the last 10 years, GoalieMonkey has been proud to bring out Koho inspired gear for goaltenders that grew up with that brand. Now, the Koho lineage has morphed into CCM branded gear, however the root design and heritage is still continued.

In 2019, Warrior introduced their new line of protective gear along side the Ritual GT2’s release, with that release came the Ritual X2 line of Knee Pads. First looking at this line you might not see any major differences between the three models purely based on the appearance but diving further in to it, you will find out what exactly separates the top Pro + model from the standard Senior Knee Pad.

In special 5-Friday months, we’re offering our 5th show, Failure to Advance! Featuring Graisen, Hank, Jason, Tyler, and Will, the group talks about everything from the recently announced NHL format (1:43) to which sports video games should be remade (24:51), and everything in-between.

We had an absolutely fantastic interview with Alex Rigsby Cavallini this past week and we can’t wait until you hear it! Tons of interesting stories from her career are through this interview and we had a blast making this one for you guy!

In these times where everyone is spending all of their time at home for the better, all we can do as goalies is work on little things at home. This is the perfect time to work on your skills every single day and come out as a better goalie once we all are allowed to return to the ice. I wanted to leave some easy ideas, routines, drills, and links to things everyone could easily do with minimal to no resources at all!

For this week’s episode, we have a lot to talk about! Due to the length of the interview with Kirk Allen, we have decided to break up the interview and we have both the regular version (as posted on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.) and the extended cut which includes extra topics and covers every piece of gear.

Today we will be looking at the all-new True AX9 Goalie Stick which by design, aims to be an elite goalie stick with optimized balance, superior durability, and maximum strength. Looking directly at the options for the AX9. This stick will come in Senior, Intermediate, and Junior paddle lengths from 21in. to 27in. so that everyone can find an AX9 that will fit their needs.

MonkeySport’s Jason Felts and GoalieMonkey’s Graisen Eatchel discuss the process of buying pads as a consumer from a few different points of view. Ev Bommarito from Vaughn Custom Sports discusses his entry to the world of goalie. During this interview, Jason, Graisen and Ev chat about the upcoming Vaughn V9 gear line and help give some insight into what is to come from Vaughn Custom Sports.

The NHL All-Star weekend kicks off today! We will be taking a quick look at some of the goaltenders who will be attending the event in St.Louis, Missouri!

MonkeySport’s Jason Felts and GoalieMonkey’s Graisen Eatchel discuss the goaltender selection process for Junior and College hockey along with some insight on the all new True AX Series sticks. They then introduce Olympic Goaltender Nicole Hensley for this week’s interview and she chats with Graisen Eatchel about her overall life story in hockey up to being selected for Team USA and heading to PyeongChang for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

As we approach the end of the year with 2020 right over the horizon, we take the opportunity to look at some of the biggest moments in goaltending from 2010 to the very end of 2019. We had trouble narrowing this list down to only 5 moments and ranking them accordingly so, we decided to put a total of 8 moments together and share them in order from the date of occurrence, starting in 2011 with our first moment.

Happy Thanksgiving to all and I am sure everyone is excited about the upcoming holidays! November was an exciting month in the NHL with many teams finding their footing this season and some goalies proving themselves further this season. This month we are going to run through a couple of highlights and follow some quick storylines of goalies in the NHL.

Marc-Andre Fleury has no doubt had a Hall of Fame career. Starting off with his Junior accomplishments, Fleury was named QMJHL’s Best Professional Prospect, Defensive Player of the Year, and Second All-Star team as well as the U20 World Junior Championships Best Goals Against Average at 1.57, Best Goaltender, Most Valuable Player and earning himself a Silver Medal all in the 2002-03 season.

As we turn into the first of November, we take a look at some NHL goalies from around the league and breakdown some significant performances and address some goalies who may be struggling early on. We will also take a look at some storylines that developed over the month and help bring you up to speed in the NHL season!