Most team sports across the globe are played with some type of ball. However, ice hockey differs as it’s played with a hard, solid disk-shaped puck which is designed to easily slide across the ice.
Hockey pucks are made of hard vulcanized rubber and bonding material, they behave a lot better when they’re frozen before using them on the ice as they bounce less during gameplay.
What Material Are Hockey Pucks Made of?
Ice hockey pucks are typically made out of vulcanized rubber but there are other types of pucks that are designed for children’s and indoor versions of hockey. These are often made with foam/sponge-type materials, plastic or softer rubber.
A regulation-sized ice hockey puck is made of natural rubber, bonding materials, antioxidants and chemicals to provide it with hardness and resilience.
How Are Hockey Pucks Manufactured? (Full Process Explained)
Ice hockey pucks are currently manufactured in Canada, China, Czech Republic and Russia.
The manufacturing process for official regulation-sized pucks is as follows:
- Granular rubber and a bonding material are mixed together by hand.
- The rubber is fed into a pultrusion machine which slices it into long pieces which are 4 to 5 inches (10 to 15 centimetres) in thickness.
- Four inches (10 centimetres) of the rubber mixture is placed by hand into a two-part mold cavity.
- This mold is then heated to harden and the two sections of the mold are compressed together at room temperature.
- A slight, raised rough texture is added to the outer edge of the puck to create friction for better control between the hockey stick and puck.
- Once the pucks have been made, coloured, rubber-based ink logos can be placed on them with a silkscreen machine.
- The pucks are typically packed in cases of 100 and are separated in rows by wax paper to make sure the logos aren’t compromised in any way.
Before packing and shipping the pucks though, they are inspected to make sure they are of regulation weight and size. If a puck fails to meet the specifications it is recycled with the rubber being reused by the manufacturer to make another puck. In addition, any excess rubber is also recycled and used again.
Some pucks are frozen for 10 days and then tested for consistency when it comes to their bounce.
Read our related article “How Much Does a Hockey Puck Cost?” here
How Heavy is a Hockey Puck?
An official regulation-sized hockey puck weighs between 5.5 and 6 ounces and it is most commonly found in the color black. The dimensions of an official puck, which is circular and flat in shape, are 1 inch (25 millimetres) thick by 3 inches (76 millimetres) in diameter.
However pucks which are designed for practice purposes may be slightly smaller or larger than a regulation-sized model and could weigh more or less. You can buy light hockey pucks that are often blue in color, and you can buy heavy hockey pucks that are often orange in color. These are for training purposes and not designed to be shot at a goalie, more on these below.
Read our full post on “How Much Does a Hockey Puck Weigh” here.
Are Hockey Pucks Hollow or Solid?
Official ice hockey pucks are hard and solid all the way through. This prevents them from bouncing and being too light in weight.
Are Hockey Pucks Made to Last? (Are they Durable?)
Pucks are very strong and durable but they aren’t perfect. After excessive use a puck may chip or have nicks taken out of it. In this case the puck should be replaced as it won’t be perfectly flat our rounded around the edges.
Pucks can become damaged in many ways, hard shots can scratch them up, if they hit the corner of the boards or glass they may chip. It’s even possible for a skate to scratch or chip the puck.
Can a Hockey Puck Split into Pieces?
It is possible for a hockey puck to split, but it’s very uncommon. A new hockey puck is almost impossible to split though, you are most likely to see a puck split during a practice when using older pucks. A puck with a current chip or crack can split into pieces if it is shot hard into the goal post or the glass.
There have been times in the NHL that the puck has split in pieces, take a look at the tweet below. The Pittsburg Penguins were playing the Philadelphia Flyers and the puck fell apart.
the puck…split in half? pic.twitter.com/rXbuwZDlDI
— NBC Sports Hockey (@NBCSportsHockey) April 12, 2018
What are Training Hockey Pucks Made of?
Training pucks are typically lighter or heavier in weight than a regulation-sized puck and could vary in size.
For instance; practicing with a heavier puck such as a 10-ounce (280 grams) version, will help you develop your wrist strength. Lighter and smaller pucks such as four-ounce (113 grams) blue-colored versions are often used in children’s leagues but are made the with the same materials as regulation pucks. Lighter pucks are also great to increase your stick handling speed abilities.
You will also be able to find heavy steel pucks to practice with and these generally weigh approximately 2 lbs (32 ounces, 910 grams). These pucks should only be used when practising by yourself as the puck could seriously injure somebody if it struck them.
Another popular puck for training purposes is known as the Green Biscuit. This product is designed for off-ice training, weighs approximately 4.6 ounces (130 grams) and is the same size as a regulation puck.
The Green Biscuit is designed to glide over rough surfaces such as concrete and asphalt and is made of two durable plastic pieces which come with a hollow spot in the middle. These two sections are held together with metal bolts and are cushioned with rubber spacers. The puck is designed to help prevent it from flipping over while practising with it.
What Are Inline Hockey Pucks Made of?
An inline (roller hockey) puck looks similar to an ice-hockey puck but is usually a bit lighter as it’s made of tough plastic material instead of hardened rubber. These pucks come with small protruding ribs on the top and bottom section to help them glide better on the playing surface by creating less friction.
Most inline pucks come in lighter colors such as red, orange and green to make them easier to see on the playing surface. Depending on the type of surface the game is being played on, some types of inline pucks may have have plastic bearings or rollers inserted into the bottom of them to help them glide better and weigh about 3.8 ounces (108 grams).
Do Hockey Pucks Need to Be Frozen?
Hockey pucks don’t necessarily have to be frozen but all major amateur and junior leagues use frozen pucks. Pucks are frozen to help solidify them and to help stop them from bouncing and rolling during a game.
Frozen pucks glide smoother and faster on the ice and may begin to bounce when they start to warm up. This is why NHL referees typically change pucks for a frozen one every few minutes. However, most local youth and adult leagues and pickup games won’t freeze their pucks before playing.
History of Hockey Pucks
In the early years of ice hockey in the mid 1800’s the game was usually played with a rubber ball but any type of object could be used on frozen ponds in informal games such frozen chunks of horse or cow manure, coal or stones.
A small block of square or rounded wood would sometimes be used instead as the rubber ball would bounce too much but the wood was often brittle and would break. Around 1875, the modern hockey puck was introduced when a rubber lacrosse ball was cut in half to help stop it from bouncing.
When the ball was sliced in two the flat section of the ball resembled a puck as it slid across the ice and it’s believed the word puck was used to describe the object for the first time in 1876. This idea then evolved as the flat middle section of the ball would be used by cutting off the rounded top and bottom sections.
Early pucks were usually made by gathering two pieces of tire rubber and gluing them together. However this construction method meant that a puck could split in two if it was hit with force.
Vulcanized rubber pucks were created in the early 1900’s and in 1931/32, sloped (bevelled) edges were introduced to the puck but this experiment was quickly discarded due to complaints by players.
The design of what we now know as an official synthetic rubber NHL regulation puck came in 1940 thanks to Art Ross but the league didn’t require specifications for a regulation-sized puck until 1990.
In 1995/96 the NHL altered the puck by placing a small battery and computer board inside of it with 20-pin holes located on the puck. The puck emitted infrared pulses which were picked up by sensoring devices in the arena. Fibre optics linked the sensoring devices to a computer and this allowed television broadcasters to follow the puck’s movement by showing a coloured trail on the TV screen.
In theory, this experiment was done to make it easier to locate the puck when watching games on television. The puck’s battery ran out after approximately 10 minutes however and the experiment was scrapped in 1999, especially considering the cost to produce each puck and considering it would begin to bounce soon after being put into play.
Jamie is the founder of Hockey Response and he is the chief writer/ lead editor. Jamie has been playing hockey for over 20 years. He was the defenseman of the year in NL and has played Jr A level hockey. Jamie has coached several kids hockey camps and he was the assistant coach of the Western Kings.