How Hockey ChangedThe Vanishing Game
The Slapshot Went From One NHL Goal in Four to One in Twelve
Wrist and snap shots took nearly all of those goals and now score more than two in three. Tips rose from one goal in ten to one in eight by 2008 and have stayed there.
By Edgehalla ResearchPublished 11 min read
On New Year’s Eve 2016 in Denver, Chris Kreider scored three times for the Rangers. “Chris Kreider didn’t need his stick for two of his three goals,” the Associated Press recap began. “Sometimes it hits you and drops there,” Kreider said.
The scoresheet logged all three as tips. Through Oct. 26, 2026, Kreider had 111 tip goals, two behind Joe Pavelski for the most since the NHL began logging shot types on goals in 1997-98.
Tips like his feel like the goals that took over from the slapshot. Their share of goals barely grew. In the typical NHL rink, one goal in four was a slapshot in 1998-99, and one in twelve last season. Something else scored the rest.
On this page
One goal in four used to be a slapshot
Nearly every NHL goal since 1997-98 carries a label typed in by the scorer in the press box: slapshot, wrist shot, snap shot, tip-in, backhand, wraparound and, lately, a few rarer ones. We count wrist and snap shots together, and tip-ins together with deflections, because the scorers have moved the line inside each pair over the years.
Then we went rink by rink, because a few rinks kept odd books. Take 1998-99. Set aside the two rinks we come to below and line up the other 25 from the highest share of slapshot goals to the lowest. The 13th sits in the middle, with twelve rinks above it and twelve below. That 13th rink is the typical rink, the median to a statistician, and it is the line this story follows. We do the same for every kind of shot. In 1998-99 the typical rink logged 24% of its goals as slapshots, about one in four. In 2025-26 it logged 8%, about one in twelve. Over the same years, wrist and snap shots in the typical rink went from 54% of goals to 68%.
Alex Ovechkin kept the old shot alive longer than anyone. He has 214 slapshot goals since 1997-98, the most in our data, about a quarter of his 857. In 2018-19 his 21 slapshot goals were about 3% of every slapshot goal in the league. Washington’s scorer wasn’t padding his total. In 2013-14, the season he scored 20, 15% of goals in Capitals home games were logged as slapshots and 14% in their road games. Since Sheldon Souray’s 23 in 2006-07, Ovechkin is the only player with a 20-slapshot season, and he has done it twice.
The slapshot fell from one goal in four to one in twelve, and the wrist shot took its place
Share of goals by shot type in the typical NHL rink each season (rank the rinks by that shot’s share and take the one in the middle), regular season, goals with a goalie in net (empty-net goals left out). Dashed: slapshots across the whole league
Show data
| Season | Wrist and snap shots | Slapshots | Tips and deflections | Backhands | Slapshots, whole league |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 57% | 16% | 13% | 11% | 18% |
| 1998-99 | 54% | 24% | 10% | 10% | 32% |
| 1999-00 | 52% | 24% | 11% | 10% | 28% |
| 2000-01 | 55% | 23% | 11% | 10% | 26% |
| 2001-02 | 55% | 21% | 11% | 10% | 25% |
| 2002-03 | 52% | 25% | 11% | 9% | 27% |
| 2003-04 | 53% | 25% | 11% | 10% | 26% |
| 2004-05 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2005-06 | 57% | 22% | 12% | 9% | 25% |
| 2006-07 | 56% | 20% | 12% | 10% | 22% |
| 2007-08 | 60% | 16% | 13% | 10% | 17% |
| 2008-09 | 61% | 16% | 12% | 11% | 15% |
| 2009-10 | 60% | 15% | 14% | 12% | 15% |
| 2010-11 | 63% | 13% | 14% | 12% | 13% |
| 2011-12 | 62% | 15% | 13% | 11% | 14% |
| 2012-13 | 63% | 13% | 13% | 11% | 14% |
| 2013-14 | 63% | 12% | 13% | 11% | 13% |
| 2014-15 | 65% | 12% | 13% | 10% | 13% |
| 2015-16 | 64% | 12% | 14% | 11% | 12% |
| 2016-17 | 66% | 11% | 13% | 10% | 12% |
| 2017-18 | 66% | 11% | 13% | 10% | 11% |
| 2018-19 | 66% | 9% | 14% | 10% | 10% |
| 2019-20 | 65% | 10% | 14% | 10% | 11% |
| 2020-21 | 65% | 9% | 12% | 9% | 11% |
| 2021-22 | 67% | 10% | 13% | 10% | 10% |
| 2022-23 | 68% | 9% | 13% | 9% | 9% |
| 2023-24 | 68% | 9% | 13% | 9% | 9% |
| 2024-25 | 68% | 8% | 13% | 9% | 8% |
| 2025-26 | 68% | 8% | 12% | 9% | 8% |
- Partial records: 1997-98 to 1998-99
- 2007-08: “Deflected” label added
- 2022-23: New labels; wrist/snap split moves
Follow the slapshot line down and the wrist-and-snap line up. They move almost in step. In 1998-99, 24 goals in every 100 in the typical rink were slapshots. By 2025-26 it was 8 in 100, a drop of about 16 percentage points. Wrist and snap shots picked up about 15 of those points. Tips and backhands barely moved. The dashed line, the league as a whole, starts much higher, near one goal in three, for a reason that has nothing to do with how anyone shot.
In St. Louis, every goal was a slapshot
In 1998-99 the scorer at St. Louis Blues home games logged all 207 goals as slapshots. Florida’s logged 222 of 223. Pavol Demitra scored 28 slapshot goals for the Blues that season, the most by anyone in a season of our data, and every goal he scored at home went down as one. When the same two teams went on the road, the scorers there logged about 29% and 27% of the goals in their games as slapshots.
Those two buildings lift the league’s 1998-99 slapshot count to about a third of all goals (32%). That is why this story follows the typical rink, which a couple of loud rinks can’t drag far. We also drop any rink-season that logged nine goals in ten or more as a single type. Only St. Louis and Florida, in that one season, cross the line. With them in, the typical rink sat at 24.3%. Without them it sits at 24.0%.
Other rinks leaned hard without going all the way, and they stay in. Boston’s scorer logged 72% of home goals as slapshots in 1998-99, against 31% in Bruins road games. Atlanta logged 79% in 2001-02. Carolina leaned the other way, toward tips. In 2000-01, tips made up 30% of goals in Hurricanes home games and 11% on the road. On Jan. 29, 2001, Carolina scored five goals at home against Tampa Bay, and the scorer logged every one as a tip. The next season it was 42% at home against 14% on the road. A team has scored five tip goals in a game seven times since 1997-98, all between 2000-01 and 2013-14.
To see when the scorers came together, we compared every team’s home games with its road games. The Bruins are the same players at home and away, so if every press box called shots alike, their home and road slapshot shares should come out close. They would never match exactly. With about 200 goals in each pile, a few extra point shots one way can move a share by several points, the way ten coin flips can easily come up six heads. Across all teams in 1998-99, bounces like that would leave a team’s home and road shares about 4 points apart. They were typically about 24 points apart. A rink that over-called slapshots one season usually did it again the next, right through 2006-07. Those were habits in the press box.
Scorers once disagreed by 24 points about what a slapshot was. By 2010 they agreed
How far a typical team’s home-game slapshot share sat from its road-game share, in percentage points, each season; dashed: the gap luck alone would produce
points
Show data
| Season | Home-vs-road slapshot gap | Gap from luck alone |
|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 6 points | 4 points |
| 1998-99 | 24 points | 4 points |
| 1999-00 | 17 points | 4 points |
| 2000-01 | 15 points | 4 points |
| 2001-02 | 15 points | 4 points |
| 2002-03 | 13 points | 4 points |
| 2003-04 | 12 points | 4 points |
| 2004-05 | – | – |
| 2005-06 | 11 points | 4 points |
| 2006-07 | 9 points | 4 points |
| 2007-08 | 5 points | 4 points |
| 2008-09 | 4 points | 3 points |
| 2009-10 | 4 points | 3 points |
| 2010-11 | 5 points | 3 points |
| 2011-12 | 5 points | 3 points |
| 2012-13 | 4 points | 4 points |
| 2013-14 | 3 points | 3 points |
| 2014-15 | 5 points | 3 points |
| 2015-16 | 5 points | 3 points |
| 2016-17 | 5 points | 3 points |
| 2017-18 | 4 points | 3 points |
| 2018-19 | 4 points | 3 points |
| 2019-20 | 4 points | 3 points |
| 2020-21 | 4 points | 4 points |
| 2021-22 | 3 points | 3 points |
| 2022-23 | 3 points | 3 points |
| 2023-24 | 3 points | 3 points |
| 2024-25 | 3 points | 3 points |
| 2025-26 | 3 points | 3 points |
- Partial records: 1997-98 to 1998-99
- 2007-08: “Deflected” label added
The gap shrinks almost every season until it meets the dashed line, the gap bounces alone would leave. By 2009-10 it was about 4 points against 3 from bounces, and in 2025-26 the two lines sat together near 3. In the mid-2010s the gap opened a little again, to about 5 points against 3, before closing. Tip calls took longer. A team’s home and road tip shares first came down to bounce-sized gaps around 2021-22, and in some seasons since they have run about a point wider than bounces alone would leave.
The biggest one-year drop came in 2007-08. That season the feed added a separate “deflected” label. The first one in our data is from Oct. 4, 2007, in Ottawa, against Toronto. The slapshot share fell in 25 of 30 rinks, and the typical rink lost about 6 points. A year earlier the typical rink lost about 3. A year later it lost less than one. The home-versus-road gap fell from 9 points to 5. The slapshot was already falling before that season. Our best guess is that scorers got new instructions along with the new label, and the fall jumped a step. We found no NHL document that says so.
In 2007 the hockey analyst Alan Ryder spotted the same press-box tilt in another number the scorers log: how far out each shot was taken. “We clearly have an issue of RTSS scorer bias,” he concluded, as Keith Lyons quotes him. “The problem appears to be brutal at Madison Square Garden but is clearly non-trivial elsewhere.” RTSS is the league’s real-time scoring system. Rink scorers still tilt counted stats like hits today.
The slapshot kept falling after the scorers agreed
If the old slapshot had been only a press-box habit, its fall would have stopped once the rinks agreed. It kept going. From 2009-10, when the home-versus-road gap was down near the bounce level, to 2025-26, the typical rink’s slapshot share fell from 14.7% to 8.1%, almost by half. League-wide it fell from 14.9% to 8.5%.
Every rink fell. We compared each arena’s home games in 1998-99 to 2000-01 with the same arena in 2023-24 to 2025-26. All 28 rinks that hosted games in both stretches logged a smaller slapshot share, and all 28 logged a bigger wrist-and-snap share. Tips rose in 21 of the 28, and only by about 2 points in the typical one.
Every rink logged far fewer slapshots in the 2020s, wherever it started
Each dot is an NHL rink: share of goals in its home games that were slapshots, 1998-99 to 2000-01 (across) and 2023-24 to 2025-26 (up)
Slapshot share, 2023-24 to 2025-26
Slapshot share, 1998-99 to 2000-01
Show data
| Slapshot share, 1998-99 to 2000-01 | Slapshot share, 2023-24 to 2025-26 | |
|---|---|---|
| BOS | 60% | 8% |
| FLA | 60% | 7% |
| STL | 49% | 8% |
| DAL | 38% | 5% |
| ANA | 37% | 9% |
| SJS | 31% | 13% |
| WSH | 29% | 9% |
| CGY | 28% | 8% |
| CAR | 28% | 9% |
| LAK | 27% | 11% |
| VAN | 25% | 7% |
| TBL | 24% | 10% |
| MIN | 24% | 7% |
| DET | 24% | 9% |
| NYR | 24% | 7% |
| NYI | 23% | 8% |
| NSH | 23% | 9% |
| NJD | 22% | 7% |
| PHI | 22% | 5% |
| EDM | 21% | 8% |
| COL | 20% | 9% |
| PIT | 20% | 9% |
| OTT | 20% | 9% |
| TOR | 19% | 6% |
| BUF | 19% | 9% |
| CBJ | 18% | 9% |
| MTL | 17% | 8% |
| CHI | 17% | 6% |
Each dot is a rink. Read across and they were spread from about 17% to 60% slapshots. Read up and every one now sits between about 5% and 13%. Boston and Florida, the loudest slapshot rinks of the early years, are down at 8% and 7%.
A skeptic could still ask whether a handful of strange games, or one scorer’s bad week, is doing the work. So we cut the schedule in two. Every NHL game has a number; we put the odd-numbered games in one pile and the even ones in the other. If a few odd nights drove the fall, the two piles would disagree. They match almost to the decimal: 28.9% and 28.9% slapshots in 1998-99 to 2000-01, 8.5% and 8.5% in 2023-24 to 2025-26. This season is lower again. Through Oct. 26, 2026, the league has logged 6.8% of 1,103 goals as slapshots. That is 187 games, about one-seventh of a season.
The last label change didn’t touch it either. When the NHL changed its list of labels in 2022-23, adding bat and poke and shifting goals between wrist and snap, the slapshot held still. Its share went up in about half the rinks and down in the other half, and the typical rink stayed put.
Defencemen traded the windup for the wrist shot
The slapshot belonged to defencemen, so that is where it fell furthest. Shea Weber scored 145 of his 212 goals in our data with slapshots. Nicklas Lidstrom scored 127 of 182, and his first seasons came before the labels.
In 1998-99, 57% of defencemen’s goals were logged as slapshots, a figure St. Louis and Florida push up. By 2009-10, with the rinks agreeing, it was still 42%. In 2025-26 it was 24%. Wrist and snap shots went from 34% of defencemen’s goals to 68%. Forwards dropped it too. Their slapshot share was 28% in 1998-99, also lifted by those two rinks, then 10% in 2009-10 and 6% now.
Defencemen now score two goals in three off a wrist or snap shot
Share of defencemen’s and forwards’ goals by shot type, each regular season (goals with a goalie in net)
Show data
| Season | Defencemen: wrist and snap | Defencemen: slapshots | Forwards: slapshots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 42% | 47% | 12% |
| 1998-99 | 34% | 57% | 28% |
| 1999-00 | 40% | 51% | 24% |
| 2000-01 | 37% | 53% | 22% |
| 2001-02 | 41% | 50% | 21% |
| 2002-03 | 41% | 49% | 24% |
| 2003-04 | 41% | 49% | 22% |
| 2004-05 | – | – | – |
| 2005-06 | 40% | 51% | 20% |
| 2006-07 | 43% | 47% | 18% |
| 2007-08 | 45% | 45% | 12% |
| 2008-09 | 43% | 47% | 10% |
| 2009-10 | 48% | 42% | 10% |
| 2010-11 | 45% | 46% | 8% |
| 2011-12 | 45% | 44% | 9% |
| 2012-13 | 47% | 45% | 8% |
| 2013-14 | 52% | 37% | 8% |
| 2014-15 | 53% | 37% | 8% |
| 2015-16 | 54% | 35% | 8% |
| 2016-17 | 56% | 34% | 8% |
| 2017-18 | 55% | 36% | 7% |
| 2018-19 | 62% | 29% | 7% |
| 2019-20 | 60% | 29% | 7% |
| 2020-21 | 62% | 30% | 7% |
| 2021-22 | 64% | 25% | 7% |
| 2022-23 | 67% | 23% | 7% |
| 2023-24 | 67% | 24% | 6% |
| 2024-25 | 70% | 22% | 6% |
| 2025-26 | 68% | 24% | 6% |
- Partial records: 1997-98 to 1998-99
The two defence lines trade places a few times between 2007-08 and 2010-11. The slapshot last led for defencemen in 2010-11; every season since, more of their goals have come off a wrist or snap shot. The gap has grown, with a few small dips, from about a point in 2011-12 to about 44 points in 2025-26. Our defence scoring story follows the blue-liners who still score.
Goals only show what went in. From 2017-18 our shot-by-shot records also count every attempt, and they show players winding up less. In 2017-18, teams combined for about 15.4 slapshots a game that got past the shot-blockers. In 2025-26 it was 10.1. The slapshots still taken go in more often: 6.1% of those on goal scored in 2017-18, 8.3% in 2025-26. Some are one-timers, a defenceman hammering a cross-ice pass without stopping it, and whether a one-timer goes down as a slapshot or a snap shot is up to the scorer. How NHL goals are scored picks up the one-timer with the NHL’s tracking system, which follows the puck and every player on the ice.
The tip grew a little, then stopped in 2008
Then there are the goals that look like Kreider’s: a point shot, a body at the top of the crease, a stick blade turned at the last second. In the typical rink, tips went from 10% of goals in 1998-99 to 13% in 2007-08. Since then they have barely moved, and in 2025-26 they were 12%. League-wide, every season since 2008-09 has landed between 12.1% and 13.7%.
Part of the 2007-08 bump is the new label. Goals logged as tip-ins fell from 13.0% of all goals in 2006-07 to 12.1% that season, while the new deflections took 2.1%, so the two together rose by about a point in one year.
Tips come a little more often on the power play, so we checked it. In 2025-26, 14% of power-play goals were tips, against 12% at five-on-five. Power plays have shrunk, from 25% of goals in 2009-10 to 21% in 2025-26 (our power-play story covers why). Fewer power plays could have been holding tips down. So we rebuilt each season as if power plays still produced as big a slice of the goals as in 2009-10, about one goal in four (the records only say which goals came on the power play from 2009-10). Tips still run flat: 13.2% in 2009-10, 12.4% in 2025-26.
Tips reached one goal in eight by 2008 and have stayed there
Tips and deflections as a share of goals each regular season: the whole league, the typical rink, and the league with 2009-10’s power-play mix held fixed
Show data
| Season | Whole league | Typical rink | Whole league, 2009-10 power-play mix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 13% | 13% | – |
| 1998-99 | 10% | 10% | – |
| 1999-00 | 11% | 11% | – |
| 2000-01 | 12% | 11% | – |
| 2001-02 | 12% | 11% | – |
| 2002-03 | 12% | 11% | – |
| 2003-04 | 12% | 11% | – |
| 2004-05 | – | – | – |
| 2005-06 | 12% | 12% | – |
| 2006-07 | 13% | 12% | – |
| 2007-08 | 14% | 13% | – |
| 2008-09 | 13% | 12% | – |
| 2009-10 | 13% | 14% | 13% |
| 2010-11 | 13% | 14% | 13% |
| 2011-12 | 13% | 13% | 13% |
| 2012-13 | 12% | 13% | 12% |
| 2013-14 | 13% | 13% | 13% |
| 2014-15 | 14% | 13% | 14% |
| 2015-16 | 13% | 14% | 13% |
| 2016-17 | 13% | 13% | 13% |
| 2017-18 | 13% | 13% | 14% |
| 2018-19 | 13% | 14% | 14% |
| 2019-20 | 13% | 14% | 14% |
| 2020-21 | 13% | 12% | 13% |
| 2021-22 | 13% | 13% | 13% |
| 2022-23 | 14% | 13% | 14% |
| 2023-24 | 14% | 13% | 14% |
| 2024-25 | 13% | 13% | 13% |
| 2025-26 | 12% | 12% | 12% |
- Partial records: 1997-98 to 1998-99
- 2007-08: “Deflected” label added
The league and typical-rink lines climb a couple of points through the early 2000s, step up in 2007-08 and then go sideways for nearly twenty years. The dashed line, which starts in 2009-10, runs right alongside the league line, so the shrinking power play didn’t hold tips back.
Tips passed the slapshot by standing still
That flat line still crossed the slapshot. In 2013-14 the league scored 825 tip goals and 796 slapshot goals, the first season tips came out ahead. They have stayed ahead every season since, thirteen in a row. In 2025-26 it was 931 to 640. This season it is 132 to 75 so far.
Tip goals rose from about 0.5 a game in 1998-99 to 0.7 in 2025-26, helped by more goals overall (5.1 a game then, 5.8 now). The slapshot went from about 1.6 a game to 0.5.
Tips caught the slapshot in 2013-14 because the slapshot came down to meet them
Tip goals and slapshot goals per game (both teams), each regular season, goals with a goalie in net
goals a game
Show data
| Season | Slapshot goals a game | Tip goals a game |
|---|---|---|
| 1998-99 | 1.7 goals a game | 0.5 goals a game |
| 1999-00 | 1.5 goals a game | 0.6 goals a game |
| 2000-01 | 1.4 goals a game | 0.6 goals a game |
| 2001-02 | 1.3 goals a game | 0.6 goals a game |
| 2002-03 | 1.4 goals a game | 0.6 goals a game |
| 2003-04 | 1.3 goals a game | 0.6 goals a game |
| 2004-05 | – | – |
| 2005-06 | 1.5 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2006-07 | 1.2 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2007-08 | 0.9 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2008-09 | 0.9 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2009-10 | 0.8 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2010-11 | 0.7 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2011-12 | 0.7 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2012-13 | 0.7 goals a game | 0.6 goals a game |
| 2013-14 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2014-15 | 0.7 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2015-16 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2016-17 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2017-18 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2018-19 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.8 goals a game |
| 2019-20 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.8 goals a game |
| 2020-21 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2021-22 | 0.6 goals a game | 0.8 goals a game |
| 2022-23 | 0.5 goals a game | 0.8 goals a game |
| 2023-24 | 0.5 goals a game | 0.8 goals a game |
| 2024-25 | 0.5 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
| 2025-26 | 0.5 goals a game | 0.7 goals a game |
- 2013-14: Tips pull ahead
The slapshot line drops for most of three decades. The tip line drifts up a little and then holds. They meet in 2013-14 and never cross back.
Kreider and Pavelski made careers at the top of the crease
A few players built whole careers out of those goals. Pavelski scored 113 tip goals from 2006-07 to 2023-24, about a quarter of his 460. Writing about him in the 2016 playoffs, the AP said he “also has a knack in front of the net.” Kreider has 111, one goal in three of his 336. Sidney Crosby is third, with 100 through last season, and he has added one this fall.
Kreider holds the season record in our data: 18 tips among his 51 goals in 2021-22. Next come Thomas Vanek’s 16 in 2007-08 and Kreider’s own 16 in 2023-24. His Denver hat trick is one of only seven games since 1997-98 in which one player scored three tip goals.
Tomas Holmstrom, in Detroit, was the purest case. Of his 236 goals, 88 were tips (37%), the highest share of any player with 150 or more goals in our data, and his first season came before the labels. When he retired, the Sports Network wrote that he “made his reputation by disrupting goaltenders, often standing atop the crease providing screens.” Ken Holland, Detroit’s general manager, called him “the league’s best net-front presence for 15 seasons.” David Backes, with 56 tip goals of his own, explained the trade-off: “It’s similar speed, knowing that there’s a chance you get hit, but the reward for standing in there is well worth it.”
| Player | Seasons in our data | Tip goals | Share of his goals | Share on the road |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joe Pavelski | 2006-07 to 2023-24 | 113 | 24.6% | 25.1% |
Continues below
| Player | Seasons in our data | Tip goals | Share of his goals | Share on the road |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Kreider | 2012-13 to 2025-26 | 111 | 33.0% | 31.9% |
| Sidney Crosby | 2005-06 to 2025-26 | 100 | 16.3% | 19.4% |
| Ryan Smyth (partial) | 1997-98 to 2013-14 | 97 | 28.9% | 29.6% |
| Corey Perry | 2005-06 to 2025-26 | 95 | 21.2% | 15.5% |
| Keith Tkachuk (partial) | 1997-98 to 2009-10 | 91 | 27.7% | 27.9% |
| Scott Hartnell | 2000-01 to 2017-18 | 89 | 28.3% | 26.1% |
| Tomas Holmstrom (partial) | 1997-98 to 2011-12 | 88 | 37.3% | 34.5% |
| Anders Lee | 2012-13 to 2025-26 | 87 | 29.3% | 28.8% |
| James van Riemsdyk | 2009-10 to 2025-26 | 85 | 25.2% | 25.7% |
A tip can be a lucky bounce off a shin pad, so we checked whether these men are just lucky. Picture every player with 150 or more goals tipping at the league rate, about 13 goals in 100, with only bounces deciding which ones go in off a stick. Some would still finish a few points high and some a few points low, the way a fair coin comes up heads 55 times in 100 now and then. Those bounces would spread the players about 2 points either side of the league rate. The real players spread about 6 points either side, more than twice as wide. Kreider, at 33%, is far outside anything bounces would do. Split each career in two, odd-numbered seasons in one pile and even-numbered seasons in the other. A player who tips a lot in one pile usually tips a lot in the other. If it were all bounces, one pile would tell you nothing about the other. Slapshot habits hold up between the piles even better. Kreider’s tips travel, too: 34% of his goals at home were tips, and 32% on the road.
Tip specialists tip just as often on the road, except in Anaheim
Each dot is a player with 75+ goals in both home and road games since 1997-98 (339 players): share of his home goals that were tips (across) and of his road goals (up)
Tip share of road goals
Tip share of home goals
Show data
| Tip share of home goals | Tip share of road goals | |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Ovechkin | 5% | 8% |
| Sidney Crosby | 14% | 19% |
| Steven Stamkos | 8% | 11% |
| Jarome Iginla | 12% | 11% |
| Patrick Marleau | 12% | 15% |
| Evgeni Malkin | 9% | 12% |
| John Tavares | 15% | 17% |
| Marian Hossa | 7% | 8% |
| Jaromir Jagr | 6% | 5% |
| Patrick Kane | 4% | 3% |
| Joe Pavelski | 24% | 25% |
| Corey Perry | 26% | 16% |
| Teemu Selanne | 23% | 10% |
| Anze Kopitar | 16% | 13% |
| Eric Staal | 19% | 14% |
| Jeff Carter | 18% | 19% |
| Ilya Kovalchuk | 6% | 5% |
| Leon Draisaitl | 7% | 7% |
| Rick Nash | 11% | 11% |
| Vincent Lecavalier | 11% | 13% |
| Auston Matthews | 11% | 10% |
| Brad Marchand | 5% | 8% |
| Phil Kessel | 6% | 7% |
| Zach Parise | 17% | 18% |
| David Pastrnak | 8% | 7% |
| Joe Thornton | 10% | 15% |
| Patrice Bergeron | 14% | 19% |
| Jamie Benn | 14% | 15% |
| Nathan MacKinnon | 7% | 5% |
| Marian Gaborik | 9% | 13% |
| Patrik Elias | 17% | 20% |
| Connor McDavid | 6% | 3% |
| Daniel Sedin | 14% | 14% |
| Martin St. Louis | 10% | 17% |
| Shane Doan | 12% | 12% |
| Jeff Skinner | 7% | 11% |
| Daniel Alfredsson | 10% | 6% |
| Nikita Kucherov | 5% | 7% |
| Milan Hejduk | 6% | 13% |
| Matt Duchene | 11% | 11% |
| Jonathan Toews | 17% | 20% |
| Claude Giroux | 6% | 9% |
| Dany Heatley | 16% | 10% |
| Thomas Vanek | 21% | 26% |
| Jason Spezza | 8% | 15% |
| Mark Scheifele | 10% | 7% |
| Tyler Seguin | 14% | 17% |
| Filip Forsberg | 9% | 9% |
| James van Riemsdyk | 25% | 26% |
| Mika Zibanejad | 13% | 13% |
| Ryan Smyth | 28% | 30% |
| Chris Kreider | 34% | 32% |
| Markus Naslund | 9% | 7% |
| Keith Tkachuk | 28% | 28% |
| Alex Kovalev | 4% | 7% |
| Mats Sundin | 8% | 14% |
| Henrik Zetterberg | 9% | 9% |
| Brock Nelson | 13% | 14% |
| Jordan Eberle | 7% | 6% |
| Evander Kane | 15% | 14% |
| Jason Arnott | 10% | 22% |
| David Perron | 14% | 16% |
| Max Pacioretty | 10% | 9% |
| Scott Hartnell | 30% | 26% |
| Bill Guerin | 11% | 11% |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 4% | 5% |
| Ryan O'Reilly | 11% | 8% |
| Brayden Point | 9% | 14% |
| Brendan Shanahan | 13% | 9% |
| Ray Whitney | 12% | 6% |
| Olli Jokinen | 15% | 7% |
| Nazem Kadri | 16% | 20% |
| Joe Sakic | 9% | 5% |
| Justin Williams | 18% | 28% |
| Dustin Brown | 18% | 15% |
| Daniel Brière | 11% | 9% |
| Pavel Datsyuk | 14% | 11% |
| Artemi Panarin | 6% | 4% |
| Logan Couture | 14% | 16% |
| Petr Sykora | 10% | 10% |
| Jordan Staal | 20% | 17% |
| Anders Lee | 30% | 29% |
| Sam Reinhart | 26% | 19% |
| Miroslav Satan | 7% | 7% |
| Kyle Connor | 7% | 11% |
| James Neal | 11% | 10% |
| Blake Wheeler | 18% | 20% |
| Brad Richards | 8% | 13% |
| Brian Rolston | 10% | 5% |
| Brayden Schenn | 18% | 10% |
| Mike Modano | 11% | 5% |
| T.J. Oshie | 18% | 16% |
| Tyler Toffoli | 13% | 10% |
| Michael Cammalleri | 8% | 12% |
| Taylor Hall | 9% | 13% |
| Mikko Rantanen | 14% | 11% |
| Simon Gagne | 12% | 18% |
| Bo Horvat | 14% | 17% |
| Jason Pominville | 15% | 18% |
| Brian Gionta | 21% | 25% |
| Paul Stastny | 19% | 21% |
| Sebastian Aho | 14% | 14% |
| William Nylander | 6% | 4% |
| Alex DeBrincat | 6% | 6% |
| Ryan Nugent-Hopkins | 13% | 9% |
| Jake Guentzel | 20% | 21% |
| Mark Recchi | 21% | 14% |
| Paul Kariya | 12% | 8% |
| Aleksander Barkov | 14% | 16% |
| Alex Tanguay | 13% | 9% |
| Ryan Getzlaf | 12% | 9% |
| Todd Bertuzzi | 25% | 14% |
| Patrick Sharp | 6% | 17% |
| Glen Murray | 10% | 6% |
| Kyle Palmieri | 19% | 14% |
| Mike Fisher | 13% | 16% |
| Pavol Demitra | 10% | 8% |
| Mike Knuble | 24% | 13% |
| Radim Vrbata | 9% | 12% |
| Brent Burns | 7% | 3% |
| Adam Henrique | 22% | 19% |
| Steve Sullivan | 11% | 10% |
| Chris Kunitz | 23% | 14% |
| J.T. Miller | 17% | 17% |
| Sean Monahan | 13% | 12% |
| Patric Hornqvist | 20% | 33% |
| Matt Cullen | 19% | 10% |
| Brenden Morrow | 14% | 14% |
| Dylan Larkin | 7% | 10% |
| Nicklas Backstrom | 13% | 15% |
| Rickard Rakell | 19% | 19% |
| Erik Cole | 21% | 16% |
| Andrew Brunette | 16% | 18% |
| Brandon Saad | 15% | 11% |
| Tomas Hertl | 17% | 18% |
| Bobby Ryan | 20% | 12% |
| Wayne Simmonds | 24% | 22% |
| Peter Bondra | 11% | 7% |
| Jonathan Huberdeau | 14% | 13% |
| Chris Drury | 16% | 11% |
| Andrew Ladd | 16% | 15% |
| Jack Eichel | 5% | 10% |
| Cory Stillman | 17% | 16% |
| Mark Stone | 15% | 12% |
| Ryan Kesler | 20% | 16% |
| Loui Eriksson | 17% | 20% |
| Vyacheslav Kozlov | 13% | 10% |
| Vinny Prospal | 14% | 10% |
| Daymond Langkow | 19% | 23% |
| Nick Foligno | 18% | 20% |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 21% | 20% |
| Cam Atkinson | 19% | 14% |
| Tomas Holmstrom | 40% | 35% |
| Sergei Fedorov | 6% | 5% |
| Jonathan Marchessault | 7% | 10% |
| Elias Lindholm | 13% | 20% |
| Zach Hyman | 22% | 26% |
| Marco Sturm | 22% | 13% |
| Robert Lang | 10% | 9% |
| Alexander Semin | 3% | 7% |
| Kyle Okposo | 13% | 16% |
| Brendan Gallagher | 20% | 25% |
| Michael Ryder | 11% | 14% |
| Alexander Steen | 9% | 12% |
| Nikolaj Ehlers | 9% | 1% |
| Owen Nolan | 9% | 13% |
| Martin Havlat | 9% | 9% |
| Nino Niederreiter | 15% | 24% |
| Alex Killorn | 18% | 20% |
| Timo Meier | 15% | 15% |
| Jason Zucker | 16% | 21% |
| Mitch Marner | 6% | 10% |
| Matthew Tkachuk | 27% | 26% |
| Alexei Yashin | 5% | 9% |
| Reilly Smith | 8% | 12% |
| Freddy Modin | 12% | 18% |
| Sergei Samsonov | 10% | 10% |
| David Backes | 30% | 20% |
| Mats Zuccarello | 17% | 8% |
| Johnny Gaudreau | 5% | 5% |
| Henrik Sedin | 20% | 14% |
| Tony Amonte | 13% | 11% |
| Rod Brind'Amour | 31% | 15% |
| Mike Ribeiro | 16% | 25% |
| Mike Hoffman | 5% | 5% |
| Vincent Trocheck | 24% | 15% |
| David Krejci | 7% | 11% |
| Craig Smith | 10% | 15% |
| Ziggy Palffy | 11% | 6% |
| Tomas Plekanec | 1% | 10% |
| Milan Lucic | 19% | 24% |
| Kevin Fiala | 10% | 4% |
| Tomas Tatar | 9% | 11% |
| John LeClair | 13% | 18% |
| Brock Boeser | 16% | 21% |
| David Legwand | 8% | 12% |
| Antoine Vermette | 12% | 15% |
| Bryan Little | 15% | 11% |
| Mikael Backlund | 16% | 15% |
| Shea Weber | 0% | 1% |
| Dainius Zubrus | 12% | 20% |
| Jeremy Roenick | 8% | 17% |
| Jakub Voracek | 13% | 16% |
| Erik Karlsson | 3% | 3% |
| Bryan Rust | 15% | 15% |
| Patrik Laine | 5% | 3% |
| Travis Konecny | 12% | 20% |
| Kirill Kaprizov | 18% | 17% |
| Jamie Langenbrunner | 11% | 10% |
| Adrian Kempe | 19% | 9% |
| Saku Koivu | 15% | 17% |
| J-P Dumont | 16% | 16% |
| Derick Brassard | 11% | 19% |
| Jaden Schwartz | 19% | 20% |
| Mark Parrish | 17% | 20% |
| Jere Lehtinen | 15% | 12% |
| Jeff O'Neill | 28% | 13% |
| Pavel Bure | 18% | 7% |
| Brad Boyes | 14% | 16% |
| Tage Thompson | 4% | 4% |
| Clayton Keller | 4% | 4% |
| Brady Tkachuk | 23% | 19% |
| Joffrey Lupul | 13% | 13% |
| Jason Robertson | 10% | 6% |
| Jason Blake | 17% | 7% |
| Sean Couturier | 20% | 22% |
| Marc Savard | 14% | 11% |
| Zdeno Chara | 6% | 7% |
| Milan Michalek | 19% | 13% |
| Boone Jenner | 27% | 21% |
| Luc Robitaille | 21% | 13% |
| Viktor Arvidsson | 17% | 11% |
| Nathan Horton | 15% | 7% |
| Brendan Morrison | 18% | 18% |
| Darcy Tucker | 17% | 16% |
| Travis Zajac | 13% | 13% |
| Mikko Koivu | 12% | 15% |
| Ryan Johansen | 16% | 10% |
| Charlie Coyle | 22% | 16% |
| Joe Nieuwendyk | 16% | 17% |
| Yanic Perreault | 19% | 11% |
| Lee Stempniak | 10% | 5% |
| Roman Josi | 2% | 0% |
| Bobby Holik | 12% | 11% |
| Brett Hull | 7% | 14% |
| Drew Stafford | 13% | 13% |
| Richard Zednik | 18% | 13% |
| Marcus Johansson | 11% | 19% |
| Gustav Nyquist | 13% | 14% |
| Nico Hischier | 20% | 21% |
| Elias Pettersson | 10% | 12% |
| Martin Straka | 12% | 13% |
| Nik Antropov | 17% | 20% |
| Tom Wilson | 20% | 22% |
| Jared McCann | 12% | 6% |
| Alexandre Burrows | 13% | 27% |
| Pavel Buchnevich | 14% | 12% |
| Derek Roy | 14% | 9% |
| Valtteri Filppula | 18% | 12% |
| Sam Gagner | 12% | 17% |
| Tyler Johnson | 16% | 20% |
| Alex Tuch | 27% | 16% |
| Radek Dvorak | 15% | 10% |
| Pascal Dupuis | 12% | 14% |
| Kristian Huselius | 11% | 7% |
| Jussi Jokinen | 12% | 13% |
| Jake DeBrusk | 29% | 20% |
| Mike Sillinger | 13% | 14% |
| Mikael Granlund | 14% | 11% |
| Shawn Horcoff | 19% | 22% |
| Andy McDonald | 21% | 5% |
| Johan Franzen | 22% | 6% |
| Oliver Bjorkstrand | 10% | 7% |
| Jason Chimera | 17% | 25% |
| Lars Eller | 11% | 7% |
| Josh Bailey | 15% | 13% |
| Sam Bennett | 16% | 15% |
| Anson Carter | 10% | 7% |
| Scott Gomez | 15% | 15% |
| Ryan Malone | 18% | 14% |
| Artem Anisimov | 17% | 9% |
| Roope Hintz | 20% | 17% |
| Jochen Hecht | 17% | 16% |
| Andrew Cogliano | 19% | 19% |
| Derek Stepan | 12% | 11% |
| Ondrej Palat | 18% | 15% |
| Kevin Hayes | 10% | 13% |
| Anthony Mantha | 15% | 12% |
| Mike Richards | 18% | 11% |
| Matt Moulson | 15% | 23% |
| Ryan Callahan | 25% | 24% |
| R.J. Umberger | 16% | 17% |
| Eric Lindros | 14% | 21% |
| Rob Blake | 10% | 9% |
| Martin Erat | 13% | 10% |
| Frank Vatrano | 10% | 11% |
| Troy Brouwer | 17% | 17% |
| Cole Caufield | 2% | 8% |
| Peter Forsberg | 16% | 10% |
| Michael Nylander | 11% | 16% |
| Jonathan Cheechoo | 10% | 11% |
| Ales Hemsky | 6% | 3% |
| Tyler Bozak | 12% | 17% |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 17% | 16% |
| Doug Weight | 15% | 21% |
| Alex Frolov | 14% | 14% |
| Jesper Bratt | 5% | 9% |
| Alexander Mogilny | 4% | 6% |
| Stu Barnes | 13% | 10% |
| Jordan Kyrou | 6% | 5% |
| Craig Conroy | 14% | 10% |
| Jean-Gabriel Pageau | 11% | 13% |
| Dan Boyle | 4% | 7% |
| Tyler Bertuzzi | 23% | 26% |
| Dylan Strome | 17% | 18% |
| Carter Verhaeghe | 5% | 8% |
| Nick Suzuki | 8% | 8% |
| Geoff Sanderson | 6% | 14% |
| Matt Cooke | 16% | 15% |
| Jakob Silfverberg | 28% | 16% |
| Mike Comrie | 11% | 9% |
| Jiri Hudler | 17% | 15% |
| Evgenii Dadonov | 18% | 17% |
| Nick Bjugstad | 11% | 9% |
| Erik Haula | 24% | 13% |
| Jack Hughes | 1% | 7% |
| Eric Daze | 13% | 11% |
| Daniel Cleary | 28% | 21% |
| John Madden | 13% | 9% |
| Chris Higgins | 14% | 10% |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 13% | 16% |
| Scott Young | 5% | 16% |
| Rene Bourque | 21% | 13% |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 11% | 7% |
| Mariusz Czerkawski | 12% | 9% |
| Chris Stewart | 22% | 15% |
| Michael Grabner | 17% | 9% |
| Anthony Duclair | 7% | 6% |
| Shawn McEachern | 11% | 15% |
- Same share home and road: from (0%, 0%) to (40%, 40%)
Most dots sit near the diagonal, so a player who tips at home tips on the road. The dots well below it are the scorer again. Teemu Selanne’s tip share was 23% at home and 10% on the road, and Corey Perry’s 26% and 16%. Both played most of their careers in Anaheim, where tips have been logged far more often in home games than in road games: 22% against 12% from 2007-08 to 2016-17, and 19% against 14% since.
A tip on goal goes in about one time in seven
On the ice, the tip is the close-range shot. In 2025-26 the average slapshot attempt came from about 48 feet, the average tip-in from about 17. Of tips that reached the goalie, 13.8% went in, about one in seven. Slapshots on goal went in 8.3% of the time, about one in twelve. Wrist shots went in 9.0% and snap shots 11.9%.
A slapshot on goal scores less often than a tip, a snap shot or a wrist shot
Share of shots on goal that scored, by the scorer’s label, 2025-26 regular season
In 2025-26, 15.9% of deflections on goal scored, 13.3% of tip-ins, 11.9% of snap shots, 9.0% of wrist shots and 8.3% of slapshots.
Slapshots sit near the bottom, and players take far fewer of them than in 2017-18. The tip-in’s own rate fell, and the scorer is part of why. Tip-in goals barely changed, 701 in 2017-18 and 720 in 2025-26. Scorers logged far more shots as tip-ins, though: 4,206 on goal then, 5,426 now, or 5.9 tip-in attempts a game against 8.1. About the same goals over more logged tries makes a lower rate: 16.7% then, 13.3% now. Our rebound story found that the NHL’s puck-and-player tracking calls about half as many goals tips as the scoresheet does.
Twenty of the last 28 Cups ended on a wrist or snap shot
If the wrist shot really took the slapshot’s goals, it should show up in the goals that won the Cup. Of the 28 Stanley Cup-clinching goals since 1998, twenty were wrist or snap shots. The latest was Taylor Hall’s wrist shot for Carolina on June 14, 2026. Three were slapshots: Martin Lapointe (1998), Frantisek Kaberle (2006) and Kris Letang (2016). Four were tips: Brendan Shanahan (2002), Mike Rupp (2003), Jeff Carter (2012) and Ross Colton (2021). Alex Pietrangelo’s 2019 winner was a backhand. Four tips in 28 is 14%, close to the 13% of goals tips score in a regular season.
More than two NHL goals in three now come off a wrist or snap shot
In 2025-26, 68.7% of goals with a goalie in net were wrist or snap shots, 12.3% tips, 9.2% backhands and 8.5% slapshots.
Those tiles are the whole league last season. Wrist and snap shots sit far on top, and the slapshot comes last of the four. The Cup winners below are mostly wrist and snap shots too.
| Season | Team | Scorer | Shot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | DET | Martin Lapointe | Slapshot |
| 1998-99 | DAL | Brett Hull | Wrist |
| 1999-00 | NJD | Jason Arnott | Snap |
| 2000-01 | COL | Alex Tanguay | Wrist |
| 2001-02 | DET | Brendan Shanahan | Tip-in |
| 2002-03 | NJD | Mike Rupp | Tip-in |
| 2003-04 | TBL | Ruslan Fedotenko | Wrist |
| 2005-06 | CAR | Frantisek Kaberle | Slapshot |
| 2006-07 | ANA | Travis Moen | Wrist |
| 2007-08 | DET | Henrik Zetterberg | Snap |
| 2008-09 | PIT | Max Talbot | Snap |
| 2009-10 | CHI | Patrick Kane | Wrist |
| 2010-11 | BOS | Patrice Bergeron | Snap |
| 2011-12 | LAK | Jeff Carter | Tip-in |
| 2012-13 | CHI | Dave Bolland | Wrist |
| 2013-14 | LAK | Alec Martinez | Wrist |
Continues below
| Season | Team | Scorer | Shot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | CHI | Duncan Keith | Wrist |
| 2015-16 | PIT | Kris Letang | Slapshot |
| 2016-17 | PIT | Patric Hornqvist | Wrist |
| 2017-18 | WSH | Lars Eller | Wrist |
| 2018-19 | STL | Alex Pietrangelo | Backhand |
| 2019-20 | TBL | Brayden Point | Wrist |
| 2020-21 | TBL | Ross Colton | Tip-in |
| 2021-22 | COL | Artturi Lehkonen | Snap |
| 2022-23 | VGK | Reilly Smith | Snap |
| 2023-24 | FLA | Sam Reinhart | Wrist |
| 2024-25 | FLA | Matthew Tkachuk | Wrist |
| 2025-26 | CAR | Taylor Hall | Wrist |
Read down the shot column and the old slapshot winners thin out: three in 28 finals, the latest in 2016.
Every label still comes from a person in the press box
Kreider’s three goals in Denver went down as tips because a scorer in the press box, watching live, typed them in that way. Every number in this story rests on calls like that. The NHL changed its list of labels twice, in 2007-08 and 2022-23, and rinks disagreed widely until about 2009-10. Most of that washes out when wrist and snap count as one shot, tip-ins and deflections count as one, and the story follows the typical rink. It can’t settle exactly how high the slapshot started in 1998-99: about a third of goals league-wide, about a quarter in the typical rink.
Kreider is two tips short of Pavelski
Last season the slapshot still scored 640 goals, about one in twelve across the league. Tips scored about one in eight in the typical rink, the same as in 2007-08.
Pavelski’s last season was 2023-24. Through Oct. 26, 2026, Kreider has one goal this season and no tips. He is still two behind.
“But occasionally,” Kreider said, “they glance off you and go in.”
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Show the work
- Tests written down
- Not in advance (exploratory)
- Results computed
Every regular-season goal into a guarded net (shootouts and empty-net goals excluded; penalty-shot goals kept, since the older feed can’t flag them), 175,816 typed goals over 27 seasons (1998-99 to 2025-26), from the NHL play-by-play: our cached game feeds for 1997-98 to 2016-17 and our play-by-play database from 2017-18. The two sources agree goal for goal, type by type, in all 9 seasons where both are complete (2017-18 to 2025-26). Labels are merged into stable groups: slap; wrist/snap; tip (tip-in + deflected); backhand (backhand + wraparound); other (bat, poke, between-legs, cradle). The main series is the median rink: each season, the median across rinks (100+ home goals) of a type’s share of all goals in that rink’s home games, leaving out rink-seasons with 90% or more of home goals logged as one type (St. Louis and Florida, 1998-99). The league total is the second line. 2026-27 to date (through Oct. 26, 2026) is the holdout. Rink disagreement: each team’s home-game share minus its road-game share; the standard deviation of that across teams against the binomial spread luck would give.
| Test | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Headline: the typical rink’s slapshot share went from one goal in four to one in twelve | Median rink 24.0% (1998-99, 25 rinks, two default-fill rinks left out; 24.3% with them) to 8.1% (2025-26, 32 rinks). League 32.4% to 8.5% | Holds (guarded in code) |
More tests below
| Test | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Default-fill rinks: rink-seasons with 90%+ of home goals as one type | 2: St. Louis 1998-99 (207 of 207 slap; 28.5% on the road) and Florida 1998-99 (222 of 223; 27.4% on the road). Next highest: 89.0% (1999-00), kept | Left out of the median |
| The slapshot’s fall is real once rinks agree (from 2009-10) | Median rink 14.7% to 8.1%; league 14.9% to 8.5%. Slap spread 3.9 vs luck 3.4 (2009-10); 2.8 vs 2.6 (2025-26) | Holds |
| Every rink fell (home games, 1998-01 vs 2023-26) | Slap down in 28 of 28 (median -15.4 pts); wrist/snap up in 28 of 28 (median +14.4); tip up in 21 of 28 (median +1.9) | Holds |
| Odd vs even game ids (split-half) | Slap 28.9 / 28.9% (1998-01, 9,134 / 9,189 goals) to 8.5 / 8.5% (2023-26, 11,205 / 11,335) | Holds |
Continues below
| Test | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Holdout: 2026-27 to date | Slap 6.8% of 1,103 goals in 187 games; tips ahead 132 to 75. Odd/even tip split 10.5 / 13.4% on about 550 goals a half: luck | Same direction; small sample |
| The 2007-08 step (deflected label added) | Slap share fell in 25 of 30 rinks, median -5.7 pts; placebo steps a year before -2.8 (22 of 30 down) and after -0.5 (19 of 30). Spread 8.9 to 5.5. Tip-in 13.0% to 12.1%, deflected 2.1% | Recording change on a trend; undocumented |
| The 2022-23 relabel moved the slapshot | Median rink step 0.0 pts, 17 of 32 down. Snap 16.3% (2021-22) to 29.5% (2025-26); wrist 50.4% to 39.2% | No; wrist/snap merged for that reason |
| Rink habits repeat year to year (slap home-minus-road effect) | Year-to-year correlation 0.79, 0.87, 0.79, 0.70, 0.60, 0.92 (2000-01 to 2006-07); 0.01 in 2025-26 | Scorer habit, then gone |
Continues below
| Test | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Tips flat since 2008, not held down by the shrinking power play | League tip share 12.1-13.7% every season 2008-09 to 2025-26. Fixed 2009-10 strength mix: 13.2% to 12.4%. PP share of goals 24.5% to 20.7% | Holds |
| Tip specialists are real (not luck) | Career tip-share spread 5.6 pts vs 2.3 from luck (375 players, 150+ goals). Odd vs even seasons r 0.66 (luck median 0.00, 95th 0.06; 633 players, 40+ goals per half); slap 0.90. Home vs road tip share r 0.67 (339 players) | Holds |
| Anaheim logs tips at home | ANA home vs road tip share: 16.5 vs 10.4% (1998-2007), 22.4 vs 12.0% (2007-17), 18.8 vs 13.6% (2017-26) | Scorer effect |
Continues below
| Test | Result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Cup-clinching goals | 20 wrist/snap, 4 tip, 3 slap, 1 backhand of 28; tip share 14.3% vs league 12.9% | Colour, not a pattern |
Frequently asked questions
When did the NHL start recording shot types on goals?
In 1997-98, though that first season is patchy: about 20% of goals carry no type. A separate “deflected” label was added in 2007-08 (the first one in our data is from Oct. 4, 2007), and bat, poke, between-the-legs and cradle shots were added in 2022-23.
Are slapshot goals going away in the NHL?
They are shrinking. In the typical rink, slapshots went from about 24% of goals in 1998-99 to 8% in 2025-26, and league-wide from 15% in 2009-10 to 8%. The league still scored 640 slapshot goals in 2025-26.
Who has the most tip-in goals in the NHL?
Since 1997-98, Joe Pavelski, with 113 tip goals (tip-ins and deflections), through Oct. 26, 2026. Chris Kreider has 111 and Sidney Crosby 101. Kreider holds the single-season mark in our data, 18 in 2021-22.
What counts as a tip-in?
A goal the scorer labels a tip-in or a deflection: a shot redirected on its way to the net by a player’s stick or body. The scorer decides, live, and rinks have disagreed about it; we count tip-ins and deflections together because the deflected label only arrived in 2007-08.
What shot scores the most NHL goals?
The wrist shot, with the snap shot. Together they scored 69% of goals with a goalie in net (no empty-net goals) in 2025-26, up from 48% in 1998-99.
More in The Vanishing Game
- Verdict: Data story
Hainsworth’s 22 Was Mostly Arithmetic
- Verdict: Data story
For 19 Seasons, an NHL Hit Depended on the Rink
- Verdict: Data story
Did Garbage Goals Take Over the NHL?
- Verdict: Data story
The Last Goalie Who Played Every Night
- Verdict: Data story
Is the Rush Dying in the NHL?
- Verdict: Data story
NHL Fights Fell to 0.18 a Game in 2018-19, Then Climbed Past the 0.20 of Gordie Howe’s Era
Sources and method
- NHL stats (NHL.com), every season since 1917-18
- NHL API reference (community documentation of the stats endpoints)
- Associated Press via ABC7 New York: Kreider gets hat trick to lift Rangers past Avs 6-2 (Jan. 1, 2017)
- Associated Press via SI.com: Blues’ Backes tips (May 19, 2016)
- The Sports Network via Fox News: Winging it no more, Holmstrom retires (Jan. 22, 2013)
- Keith Lyons: Alan Ryder (Jan. 15, 2020), on scorer bias in recorded shot data
Research and analysis, not betting advice. Past results do not guarantee future returns; bet only what you can afford to lose.