Great players are excellent goal scorers, but the really great players are outstanding passers. The “Great One” himself, Wayne Gretzky, had 1,963 regular season assists. While the player scoring the goal gets the spotlight, how the puck got onto their stick is often times just as impressive, if not more skillful than the goal itself.
Here are some tips to consistently put the puck on the tape of your teammates.
Keep Your Head Up. Good passers see the ice because they are not looking at the puck, instead they are paying attention to their linemates. Good passers always know not only where their teammate is on the ice, but more importantly, the location of the stick that they are passing to. Are they a left- or right-handed stick, and do they want to receive it on their forehand or backhand? There are far too many passes that end up in skates or behind players because it originates from a player who is not aware of their surroundings prior to initiating the pass.
Just like with stickhandling, eyes up passing takes team and repetitions. The dedicated players are often working on this in the garage or training room, throwing pucks at their PASSMASTER, sauce kit, or into the puck bag. Instead of shooting 100 pucks on your Snipers Edge tarp, set up target on the ground in front and work on those.
Accuracy. Passing the puck with accuracy is a must-have, of course. As players get older and more talented, any time spent turning to circle back for an errant pass or trying to dig it out of your feet takes away precious time and space. Once again, passing accuracy comes from repetition and vision training hitting your targets, whether they are stationary or moving, and tapping into your hand-eye coordination. Visualize your target as you release, just as you would if you are aiming for a top corner shot, and finishing with your stick blade pointed at the target on the follow-through.
Accuracy also involves recognizing what type of pass is required. Low flat passes are nice when possible, of course, but how can you execute a pass if a defenseman's stick is in the lane? Consider passing practice with not only low, flat passes, and a mix of shin-high saucing passes that land on the same target. If you are doing dryland training, something like an old stick, push broom, or a SWEETHANDS in front of you, and practice light sauces over the top.
The wall can also be a useful teammate, of course, and recognizing when banking off the glass or boards can help reach your target better than trying to slam it through traffic.
Anticipation. The great passers are able to know where the play is going, and if they can’t thread the needle directly to the tape, will give an ‘area’ pass and let their teammate skate under it. These passers are the head turners, they have an incredible ability to put the puck into an area of the rink that they know a split second after it arrives, presto, it’s on the tape of teammate cutting across the middle or streaking down the boards. How do you develop anticipation? A great way is to watch games of teams at higher levels than your own to help develop that hockey IQ. Another is simply through hours logged on the ice, playing pond hockey (or ODR, to our Canadian friends) in a non-structured environment, reading body language and knowing what your teammates strengths are.
Communication. The easiest to execute, but the toughest to remember. Talk to your linemates during shifts about where you see open lanes, and where you can find them on the next breakout or mid-ice regroup. The game is fluid and everyone is trying to find open ice, so remind each other to call for it with yells or taps is mandatory. Or instead of forcing a tough angle shot, see whether someone has open space in the slot. Even simple players like give-and-go are really effective, especially at younger levels, because it gets defense turned around, and creates space for the original puck handler.
If you can dominate the passing game you are going to have a lot of best friends on the team and along the way, win an award or two for being a playmaker as a big-time player. Take the time to practice passing in your basement or garage, trying to hit a specific target over and over. Try from a variety of angles and distances and eventually, over an obstacle or two. And mix up being both stationary and moving while passing, and trying to hit both stationary targets and moving targets. Being creative as you practice your passing skills will help in that big game when the puck is on your stick and you have a wide open teammate heading in for the winning goal.
Edited in January 2025 from an original article written by Lance Pitlick in 2015. Based in the Minneapolis area, Lance is a former NHL player with Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers, played collegiate hockey with the Minnesota Golden Gophers, is top hockey training professional both in-person and through onlinehockeytraining.com, and is the founder and former owner of Snipers Edge Hockey.
