When I joined the Toronto Maple Leafs’ player development department in 2017, one of the things that caught my attention was our skills coaches’ use of puck trading as a warmup drill.
Two player start with one puck each, then skate down the dot lane while passing and receiving.
Inside this drill, players can blend weight shifts and crossovers with their first touches for more dynamicism and deception. They can also use hook passes and slip passes to ensure that the two pucks don’t collide. Ideally, a lefty starts on the left and a righty on the right, so that both players can use their forehands. After a few reps, the players flip-flop to address their backhands.
Multi-puck drills, such as the ones shown above, seem kind of gimmicky.
Hockey is played with only one puck on the ice, after all.
However, there are two non-obvious benefits to having multiple pucks going at once.
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