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Ultimate Guide: Mastering How to Tape Your Hockey Stick

Ultimate Guide: Mastering How to Tape Your Hockey Stick

The ultimate guide to learning how to tape your hockey stick and perfecting the tape job of your butt end, shaft, and blade.

Brandon Rubeo
April 27, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 14 minutes

Ultimate Guide to Taping Your Hockey Stick

Taping your hockey stick isn’t just about style—it’s a performance essential.

From puck control and grip to expressing your personal flair, this guide breaks down everything you need to know to tape your twig like a pro.

Whether you’re cutting and prepping a brand-new stick or fine-tuning your blade’s feel, you’ll learn the techniques, tools, and tape jobs trusted by top players.

From: Brandon Rubeo, founder of the Hockey Players Club and co-founder of Quest Hockey.

🧠 Why Taping Your Hockey Stick Matters:

There are two main reasons hockey players tape their hockey sticks:

Puck Control: whether it’s tape on the blade, butt end, or shaft, taping a hockey stick is all about maximizing puck control through our beloved stick.
Personal Expression: the newness, or lack thereof, and design of a hockey player’s tape job speak volumes about their style, on and off the ice.

The second reason for why players tape their sticks the way they do is just that — secondary! — as taping your twig to optimize for on-ice performance is all that really matters.

📣 Public Service Announcement:

There is no definitive way to tape your hockey stick!

It’s all about personal preference.

Of course, certain tape job styles are more standard than others.

But between the butt end, shaft, and blade of a hockey stick and numerous options for each, there are countless combinations.

If you’re newer to the game, test what you like best — try taping your blade and butt end in different ways to find what’s most comfortable in your hands, particularly with a puck on your stick.

Also, there is no correct frequency for how often you re-tape your hockey stick.

Once again, this is all personal preference.

Some players re-tape their blade every time they skate but it’s certainly not necessary.

Generally, butt ends and shafts aren’t re-taped frequently, if ever.

And unless you’re a bonafide NHL All-Star and goal scorer like David Pastrnak, please don’t tape your stick blade like him!

David Pastrnak’s blade tape job. Some might call it ‘abominable.’

🧰 Gather Your Hockey Stick Taping Supplies:

Your stick
Cloth tape — black or white are far and away most common and least likely to get you chirped on the ice.
- Some players prefer friction tape on their blade.
- Some players prefer ‘grip tape’ for their butt ends.
Stick wax, if necessary.
Scissors, if necessary.

🏒 Prepare Your Weapon Hockey Stick:

If your hockey stick is new:

Remove the plastic wrap and stickers
Cut it down to size, if necessary.

Stick height general rule of thumb: while on skates and holding the stick in its tallest position, the top of the butt end should end somewhere between the bottom of your nose and bottom of your chin.

If your hockey stick isn’t new:

Remove your prior tape job.

Veteran tip: remove prior tape job residue from your blade by rubbing it across rubber locker room floors. Use your thumb to rub and remove the residue on the other blade surfaces… but be wary of any areas of your blade that are cracked or splintered. Carbon fiber splinters are anything but fun!

🔝 How to Tape the Butt End of Your Hockey Stick:

Considering your top hand is responsible for a vast majority of your stickhandling and puck control, it’s easy to understand why your butt end is arguably the most important aspect of a tape job.

Also, it’s easily the most customizable as it can be of any length, thickness, design, or type of tape (cloth or grip) that feels most comfortable in your top hand.

Make sure the top of your stick is covered with a plastic end cap or a couple layers of cloth tape to reduce the risk of injury.

If you prefer to use the plastic end cap that comes with most sticks, secure it down with a layer or two of cloth tape across the top of the stick before taping your handle down the shaft.

The most common is a simple, classic butt end, as seen here covered in grip tape:

Classic butt end covered with grip tape, secured at the bottom with a wrap of cloth hockey tape.

Pretty straightforward to create, you’ll apply numerous layers (to your preferred thickness) of cloth tape at the very top of the butt end to create a “knob.”

Running down the shaft underneath the knob, to your desired length, will be 1-2 layers of tape.

If you prefer grip tape (as pictured above), create the cloth knob first, then cover the knob with grip tape and proceed down the shaft to your preferred length. At the very bottom, wrap cloth tape around the shaft to ensure the grip tape doesn’t unravel during play.

If you prefer cloth tape, it’s your call if you prefer to start from the top or bottom.

Regardless of where you start, it’s recommended to end at the bottom so your top hand isn’t constantly rubbing and potentially unraveling your butt end if your tape job is ended and cut at the top.

Some players, like Sidney Crosby, prefer to add some extra grip to their butt end by adding a candy cane of rolled tape underneath their grip or cloth tape.

Sidney Crosby’s butt end featuring candy cane of rolled tape covered in white cloth.

In order to reproduce this, secure one end of the cloth tape and pull a long strand to be twisted.

Spin the tape roll until you have a nice solid rolled segment to wrap around your butt end, as pictured below:

The rolled tape can be spaced as close or as far apart as desired underneath:

L: rolled tape candy cane with wide spacing
M: rolled tape candy can with tight spacing
R: tight candy cane covered in grip tape

Of course, you can have a butt end that has no knob but is an even thickness throughout:

Or you could go full on ‘psycho-mode’ and not tape your butt end at all, like Tyler Bertuzzi:

@br_openice
Tyler Bertuzzi’s style is out of this world 😨 (via @TSN) #hockey #fyp #hockeytok #nhl #style #torontomapleleafs #hockeyplayer

🍬 How to Tape the Shaft of Your Hockey Stick*

*If at all

Most hockey sticks come standard with a grip texture applied.

Of course, if you search far and wide you can still find some hockey sticks that don’t have added grip on the shaft.

If you’re looking for extra grip on the shaft of your hockey stick, a simple ‘candy cane’ spiral of cloth tape does the trick.

Like Phil Kessel, normal 1″ wide white cloth tape down the shaft works well.

Phil Kessel is known to apply a ‘candy cane’ tape job to the shaft of his hockey stick.

Although, some players prefer to tear the tape to only apply roughly 1/2″ wide cloth tape down the shaft.

1” white cloth tape ripped down the middle for a thin ‘candy cane’ tape job.

Most players begin the ‘candy cane’ a few inches below the bottom of their butt end.

🔪 How to Tape the Blade of Your Hockey Stick:

We’ve finally made it to our beloved blade!

Like the butt end and shaft, how you tape the blade of your hockey stick is entirely personal preference.

But here are two tips to ensure you don’t look like a bender:

Consistent spacing between layers/rows of tape.
Only using white or black cloth, or friction tape.

The Million Dollar Tape Job Question: Heel-to-toe or Toe-to-Heel?

This might get us canceled but we really believe it doesn’t matter!

Some will argue the direction you tape your stick, whether heel-to-toe or toe-to-heel, adds a certain control of or spin to the puck.

Frankly, we’re no physicists and won’t attempt to explain the science behind one or the other.

Speaking from pure experience, we’ve noticed little to no difference in on-ice feel and performance.

The real answer is:

Whichever way you find comfortable while working your way from one end of the blade to the other given the shape and lie of your hockey stick.

Classic Blade Tape Job

Pick a starting point – your heel or your toe – and begin working your way to the other end of the blade and try to be as consistent as possible in the spacing of your tape.

Sidney Crosby’s classic blade tape job.

Some players prefer to have small tight spaces between wraps, resulting in a slightly thicker tape job and different feel.

Other players prefer the thinnest tape job possible by barely overlapping the wraps of the tape around the blade.

Toe-Covered Tape Job:

Many, like Alex Ovechkin and other players in and outside of the NHL, prefer the look and feel of taping the entire toe of their blade.

This is typically done in one of two ways: with or without a pair of scissors.

For those who want a clean, smooth toe-covered tape job, utilizing a pair of sharp scissors is the way to go.

Tape your stick normally but once you get to the toe of your blade, wrap it as if it’s square while pinching together the tape that isn’t on the blade, creating a squared-off flap of tape on your toe.

Grab your scissors and cut around your toe, like Ovechkin below, and you’re all set.

Alex Ovechkin trimming the excess tape from the toe of his blade for the perfect toe-covered tape job.

If you’re not using scissors you’re bound to have some extra tape layered on your toe.

Some players purposefully lay one strip of tape along the toe of the blade, as pictured below, and proceed to tape their blade as usual over top.

By pulling tight to the curve of the blade’s toe, you can typically avoid bunching the tape or leaving any spots bare.

Just the Tip + a Strip

This style of blade tape job is becoming increasingly popular thanks to superstars Artemi Panarin and Tim Stutzle using it, among other NHL players.

Artemi Panarin’s Just the Tip + a Strip blade tape job.

Start with a strip of wide cloth tape across the forehand of your blade, approximately a quarter inch from the bottom of your blade.

Add a toe-covered tape job beginning approximately 4-5 inches in from the end of your toe.

This tape job won’t win you style points — in our book at least — but maybe it’ll help you find a silky pair of hands like Panarin and Stutzle?!

Two-Strand Blade Tape Job

Generational talent Bobby Orr made this tape job famous in his day.

Bobby Orr showcasing his two-strand blade tape job.

We’re confident an explanation really isn’t necessary but for good measure:

Pick a spot on your blade to start taping — most likely the middle — and add two strips of tape around your blade.

You officially just taped the blade of your hockey stick like one of our game’s all-time greats.

We hope you enjoyed the practice as we strongly encourage you not to tape your stick like this again.

🕯️ To Wax or Not Wax Your Blade?

Once again: it’s all about personal preference!

Applying stick wax to the front of a classic blade tape job.

Generally, stick wax adds a little extra grip to your blade while also extending the shelf-life of your blade’s tape job.

How?

The thin coating of stick wax adds some tackiness to your blade’s surface which doubles as a water resistant layer, reducing how much ice and water accumulates on your blade.

Some players even use an old puck instead of tape, as pictured below.

TL: toe-covered tape job with flap of cloth
TR: trimmed toe-covered tape job
B: toe-covered tape job rubbed with a puck to repel water

Apply nothing if you like the natural feel of cloth hockey tape. It’ll require more retaping but there’s nothing quite like the texture of a fresh natural tape job.