Our annual review of the top sticks is once again underway. Receiving advice from pro hockey players, equipment managers, customers, and sales reviews, we compiled the best rankings for the Top 10 Hockey Sticks of 2016!
Great news for all of our customers who share our frustrations with top end composite sticks breaking. This was reviewed as one of the most durable sticks we've seen from the Bauer series in a while. Coupled with it's high kick-point, this stick offered a great amount of power behind players with strong shots.
Not much to say here. Flashy new paint job. Still Awesome. Patrick Kane. The end.
Still one of the best low-kick sticks available on the market, the CCM Trigger ASY builds from the RibCor line by CCM. It is a lighter version of last years' Reckoner, and offers the same great release. They reduced the weight by adding in "ribs" to the bottom of the stick, which give a concave look to the shaft. This looks a bit "gimmicky" but has proved to be successful so far.
A lot of players are currently torn between a low-kick stick for a quick release, or a mid/high kick for more power and accuracy. Why not have both? The Nexus 1N found a middle-ground between a mid and low kick stick, giving players the best ability to release all shots in all situations with power.
#5 Trix Sticks
Younger players are looking for ways to train at home and in the house (without destroying the walls). Floorball is an extremely popular sport in Europe, and has been credited for the phenomenal dangles we see a lot of top European prospects now showing in ice hockey. We made these available to our customers and were so overtaken by sales we had to have a wait list for these...Back in stock now, we are ready to sell like crazy!
#6 CCM Premier
This season was a turning point for composite sticks in the NHL. Goalies looked to enhance their reaction times by cutting weight where possible. The most obvious - switch from a foam core to a composite. CCM boasted some of the top NHL goalies, including Carey Price, using their newly released, CCM Premier. It's nice to see that goalies are nerds about their sticks too...
The NHL's #1 pick, Connor McDavid, using this stick is enough to launch it into our Top 10. It had great reviews from our customers as well in terms of performance and feel, but some complaints about the blade durability for in the face-off circle. Hopefully CCM makes an adjustment to this, because they are really on to something here with this stick!
Warrior made some improvements on their Covert QR1 from last season, putting their new QRL into the Top 10. It is a lighter, more responsive version of the QR1, but maintains a very similar graphics pattern that players seemed to like. They are still behind leading brands, CCM and Bauer, but this stick gives hope that Warrior is reviving their once dominant brand of composite hockey sticks.
Offering the lightest stick on the market made this stick attractive. Many NHL players at least gave this a try this season, and when the pro's use it, it creates a demand at the retail level. Some complaints about durability from our customers, but even they loved the performance of this stick (while it was in one-piece).
Despite receiving lower reviews than it's predecessor, the CX, the GX was still a top choice by players. Sadly, it lost momentum from the NHL level when Easton was acquired by Bauer, as players feared they needed to make a change in their stick brand so they could become used to playing with a different make.