NHL teams are ramping up for preseason, which makes it one of our favourite times of the year at HockeyStickMan. Not only is regular season hockey just a few weeks away, there is no better time to spot new release twigs on display in the hands of the NHL's biggest stars.
This year, one of the most talked-about twigs hitting the market will be the Bauer AG5NT. Bauer has been pretty tight-lipped about the features of the new stick so far, but that hasn't stopped the hype from building around their latest release.
Slated for a fall release ahead of the Holiday season, the AG5NT's black & neon green colour scheme is reminicent of the Bauer Vapor ADV stick that continues to be an extremely popular build among pros, even despite it only ever receiving a limited retail release. From what we've gathered about the AG5NT, it will be something of a successor to the BGP2B Vapor ADV construction: low kick with a standard-resetting weight.
Rumour has it that the AG5NT will be coming in at a jawdropping 335g, 10 grams lighter than the True HZRDUS which currently reigns as lightest stick on the market. A stick that light brings with it obvious concerns about durability, but Bauer is suggesting it will be twice as strong as a regular stick, perhaps due to the integration of boron into the construction. After all, boron & carbon are key ingredients in protective armour for many tanks... I wonder if a well placed clapper from Zdeno Chara could shatter tank armour like it has done to so many sticks over the years?
New Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki was spotted here using the new AG5NT graphic in this shot from Sportsnet during the NHL Player Media tour. Though it is difficuly to tell if that is actually AG5NT constuction (AG5NTs will have the XE Taper similar to the Vapor Flylite or Hyperlite), the fact that Bauer is starting to put these twigs into the hands of their top young stars like Suzuki and Trevor Zegras means that we should be seeing a lot more of them shortly!
We are excited get our hands on a few of these and check them out further. If they're anything at all like the Vapor ADV, there's no doubt these are going to be a hit at the NHL level, even if the average buyer might prefer to spend their money on something with a bit more weight to it for peace of mind when it comes to durability... rumoured retail price point: $369.99USD.
Thanks to Reddit user u/eastsidehockey for the pics!
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