Hand Pass in Hockey: When Batting the Puck Is Legal

On May 15, 2019, in overtime of Game 3 of the Western Conference Final in St. Louis, Timo Meier of the San Jose Sharks was down on his knees near the Blues' net when the puck dropped beside him. He swept it forward with his glove. Gustav Nyquist picked it up and fed Erik Karlsson, who scored, and the Sharks won 5-4. Every replay showed the glove. None of the four officials had seen it, and at the time no rule let video take the goal away.

The hand pass in hockey is legal in some places and illegal in others, and the NHL rulebook draws the line with care. A skater may stop the puck, bat it down or push it along the ice with an open hand at any time. What he may not do is direct it to a teammate with his hand, unless the whole pass happens inside his own defending zone. When an illegal hand pass reaches a teammate, the officials stop play and hold a faceoff. It is a stoppage, not a penalty. The penalties live in a different rule: closing a hand on the puck or picking it up off the ice.

The Meier goal is the reason the hand pass can now be challenged on video. It is also a good way into a rule that most fans understand only in outline.

The hand pass rule in the NHL, in plain terms

Start with what is allowed, because it is more than most people assume. Under the NHL rule on hand passes, a player may stop a puck in the air with an open hand. He may bat it. He may push it along the ice with his hand. None of that, by itself, stops play.

The violation needs three things. The player has to direct the puck with his hand toward a teammate, or use it to let his team gain an advantage. A player from his own team then has to gain possession and control of it. And the play has to happen outside the passer's defending zone. When all three are present, the officials blow the whistle.

Batting it to yourself

A player who knocks a puck out of the air and then plays it himself has done nothing wrong. The rule is about passing, and a player cannot pass to himself. Watch a defenseman at the point knock down a clearing attempt with his glove and settle it on his stick; that is legal anywhere on the ice, including the attacking zone. The same is true of a forward who bats a high puck to the ice in front of him and skates onto it.

Directed, not merely touched

The word "directed" is doing a great deal of work. A puck that hits a player's hand and happens to land near a teammate has not been directed. A puck swatted deliberately toward a teammate has. The NHL leaves the judgment to the officials, and they look at the motion of the hand: a sweep toward an open player looks like a pass, and a hand thrown up to protect the face does not.

1. 1ContactA skater bats, pushes or stops the puck with an open hand.
2. 2DirectionThe official judges whether the hand directed the puck toward a teammate.
3. 3ZoneThe official checks where the puck was at the touch and at the teammate's reception.
4. 4ControlPlay stops only if a player on the passer's team then gains possession and control.
5. 5FaceoffThe draw is placed so that the offending team gains no territorial advantage.

The NHL's sequence for a skater who plays the puck with his hand. Goalies are covered by separate provisions.

The hand pass rule exists alongside a set of related provisions on handling the puck, and those carry penalties. A fan who sees a player catch the puck and a referee point to the box is watching a different rule entirely, which is covered below.

The defensive-zone exception: where the puck has to be

Inside its own defending zone, a team may pass the puck by hand as much as it likes. The NHL does not stop play for a hand pass between teammates there. The logic is defensive: a team scrambling in its own end is trying to get the puck away from its goal, and a swatted puck to a partner is a clearance, not an attacking weapon.

The detail that matters is what "in the defending zone" means. The NHL decides it by the puck, not the players. Rule 79.2 says the location of the puck when it is contacted by either the player making the hand pass or the player receiving it determines the zone. Where the players' skates are is not the test.

That wording settles the clear cases and leaves a gray area. A pass made and received with the puck inside the blue line stands. A pass made and received with the puck outside it is whistled. A pass in which one contact is inside and the other outside is where the rule's "either" has to be applied by the officials, and fans should expect argument over it.

Three common cases

A defenseman in front of his own net bats a rolling puck to his partner in the corner. Both contacts happen in the defending zone. Play continues.

A forward in the neutral zone swats the puck to a linemate who collects it a few feet away, still in the neutral zone. Neither contact is in the defending zone. Play stops.

A defenseman near his own blue line swats the puck forward to a winger waiting in the neutral zone. One contact is inside the defending zone and one is outside it. This is the case the rule's wording leaves to the officials, and it is the one most likely to draw a complaint whichever way it goes.

Puck location when passer touches it	Puck location when teammate receives it	Result in the NHL
Defending zone	Defending zone	Legal, play continues
Neutral zone	Neutral zone	Hand pass, play stops
Attacking zone	Neutral zone	Hand pass, play stops
Attacking zone	Attacking zone	Hand pass, play stops; faceoff moves to the neutral zone
Inside the defending zone	Outside it, or the reverse	Officials' judgment under Rule 79.2

The attacking-zone row is the one with the most consequence. A hand pass in the attacking zone is the play most likely to lead directly to a goal, and it was exactly the play in the 2019 overtime. The rule on challenges introduced afterward focuses on that zone for that reason.

Why the puck rather than the player

Defining the zone by the puck matches how hockey judges most territorial questions. Offside is judged by skates, but icing and most of the faceoff placement rules turn on where the puck was. Using the puck gives the linesman a single object to track, which is easier than judging two players' skates at once.

Catching the puck: what the rulebook allows and what it penalizes

Skaters catch the puck more often than people notice. A clearing attempt sails at chest height, and a defenseman at the point reaches up with his glove. Under the NHL's rule on handling the puck, that catch is legal. What he does next decides whether he stays on the ice.

Rule 67.2 requires the player to place the puck or knock it down to the ice immediately. He may drop it at his feet or knock it down in front of him. A skater who catches it and skates with it, either to avoid a check or to gain a territorial advantage, is penalized for closing his hand on the puck, a two-minute minor.

Why the standard is "immediately"

Officials give a player a moment. The catch and release is a single motion in the eyes of most referees, and a catch followed by a fraction of a second of hesitation is not called. A player who catches the puck and looks around before dropping it has not put it down immediately, and one who carries it a stride or two has crossed the line. The intent behind the rule is clear even if its edge is not: the puck is to be played with the stick, and the hand is for stopping it, not for possessing it.

The territorial version

The most common closing-hand penalty is not a held puck but a carried one. A player catches a puck at his own blue line and drops it two feet farther up the ice than where he caught it. That small gain is what the rule punishes. Watch the defenseman who catches the puck at the point and drops it straight down, then plays it; he is safe. Watch the one who catches it and moves it forward before letting go; he is inviting the call.

• 0minutesIllegal hand pass
• 2minutesClosing a hand on the puck
• 2minutesPicking the puck up off the ice
• 2minutesGoalie throwing the puck forward

NHL penalty and stoppage outcomes for the most common hand infractions by a skater. The penalty shot applies to a defender who picks up or holds the puck in his own goal crease while play is live.

The power-play point

The place to watch for this is the blue line on a power play. Penalty killers clear the puck high and hard, and a defenseman at the point has a fraction of a second to keep it in the zone. Catching it and dropping it is legal and common. Catching it and skating with it to keep it onside, or to buy time to set up a shot, is closing a hand on the puck. On a power play the second version turns a five-on-four into a four-on-four.

The penalties for handling the puck sit beside dozens of other minors in the NHL book. A broader view of the minor, the double minor and the major is in our explainer on how NHL penalties are graded.

Why a hand pass is a whistle and not a penalty

The NHL treats the illegal hand pass as a violation, in the same family as offside and icing. Play stops, the officials hold a faceoff, and nobody serves time. The team that committed it loses possession and whatever advantage it was building.

That makes sense when you compare the hand pass with the handling penalties. The pass itself is not dangerous and is often instinctive. A player under pressure swats at a puck and a teammate picks it up. Punishing that with two minutes in the box would be out of proportion. What is wrong with it is that it advances play by a means the game does not want, so the remedy is to take back the advance.

Where the faceoff goes

The NHL places the faceoff after a hand pass so that the offending team gets no territorial benefit from it. Under Rule 79.3 the draw goes to the nearest spot in the zone where the violation happened, unless that would give the offending team a territorial gain, in which case it goes to the nearest spot in the zone where play was stopped. A team that hand-passes the puck in the neutral zone and gets control in the attacking zone does not get an offensive-zone faceoff out of it; the draw comes back out.

The attacking-zone hand pass

If the attacking team commits a hand pass in the attacking zone, the officials stop play and Rule 79.3 moves the faceoff out to one of the spots in the neutral zone outside the defending team's blue line, so the attacking team loses the offensive-zone pressure it had. That is the scenario most likely to lead to argument, because the attacking team may have been on the verge of a goal. The full set of placement rules is in our page on where faceoffs go in the NHL.

The signal

The NHL signal for a hand pass is a push: the official holds his hand open with the palm facing forward and makes a pushing motion toward the front of his body once or twice, to show the puck was moved ahead by hand. Fans see it after the whistle when the official explains a stoppage that did not look like offside or icing.

What counts as gaining an advantage

The rule turns on whether the hand pass helped the team that committed it. The NHL's wording reaches beyond the clean, direct pass from one teammate to another. It stops play when the player has directed the puck to a teammate, or has allowed his team to gain an advantage, and a player on his team then gains possession and control of it, whether directly or after it has deflected off any player or official.

The deflection off an opponent

That last clause catches fans out. A player bats the puck toward a teammate, it glances off an opponent's skate on the way, and the teammate collects it. Is that still a hand pass? Under the NHL wording, yes. The deflection does not cleanse the pass. The puck was directed by hand and ended up with a teammate who gained control.

What changes the outcome is an opponent gaining control of the puck. If a defender settles the puck on his stick, he has possession and control, and the hand pass is erased. If he then loses the puck back to the team that hand-passed it, that is a new possession, and play goes on.

The hand pass nobody touches

A player bats the puck toward a teammate who is not there, and it slides into the corner where an opponent picks it up. There is no stoppage. The rule needs a player on the passer's team to gain control, and nobody did. The opponent now has the puck, which is the worst outcome for the passer and needs no whistle to correct it.

The bat off the boards

A player who swats the puck into the boards so that it caroms to a teammate has still directed it. The rule does not care whether the route is straight or bent. Officials judge the hand motion and the destination, and a deliberate bank pass with a glove is a hand pass in the neutral and attacking zones just as a direct one is.

The knock-down that turns into a pass

The hardest call is the knock-down that drops near a teammate. A winger bats a high puck to the ice in the neutral zone and his center, skating past, picks it up. Did the winger direct it, or did he simply stop it and the center happened to be there? Officials look at where the puck went relative to where it was heading. A puck knocked straight down, landing at the batter's feet, is a stop; a puck pushed sideways into the center's path is a pass. Two officials can see the same play differently, and the rulebook leaves that judgment to them on purpose.

Officials stopping it in the moment

Because the violation depends on a teammate gaining control, officials often hold their whistles a beat after seeing the hand contact. They want to know who ends up with the puck. A linesman who sees a hand pass and then sees the opponent collect it simply lets play run.

What happens after the bat	Who gains control	Result
Puck goes straight to a teammate	Passer's team	Stoppage
Puck deflects off an opponent, then to a teammate	Passer's team	Stoppage
Puck goes to an opponent	Opponent	Play continues
Puck slides to open ice and an opponent collects it	Opponent	Play continues
Passer bats it down and plays it himself	Passer, not a teammate	Play continues

Scoring with your hand: goals that are disallowed and goals that stand

A puck that an attacking player bats, throws or otherwise directs into the net with his hand is not a goal. That applies in the NHL, in college hockey and in the international game. There is no zone exception and no defensive-zone exception for goals; a goal must be scored by a stick or, under strict limits, by the body.

The accidental glove

The harder cases are accidental. A shot hits a forward standing in front of the net and goes in off his glove while his hands are still on his stick. Is that a goal? The NHL treats deflections off an attacking player's body as good goals, unless the puck was kicked in with a distinct kicking motion or deliberately directed with a hand. A glove that happens to be in the path of a shot is part of the body; a glove that swipes at the puck is directing it. Officials look at the motion of the hand. Video often settles it.

The batted puck off a defender

A forward bats the puck at the net, it hits a defender's skate and goes in. Rule 67.6 is explicit: a goal cannot be scored by an attacking player who bats or directs the puck and it is deflected into the net off any player, goalkeeper or official. The batted puck that glances off a defender or the goalie on its way in has still been put there by the attacker's hand. The same rule adds the counterweight: when the puck enters the net on a clear deflection off a glove, the goal is allowed. What the book does not spell out is the defender who gains full control of a batted puck and then puts it into his own net with a new play, and that case is left to the officials and the review.

The distinction is narrow and the language is precise, and there are real goals each season where officials have to decide which side of it a play fell on. That is one reason the NHL's video review covers goals scored with a hand.

How video review applies

Rule 37.3 lists a puck deliberately directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacking player with any part of his body other than his stick among the goal situations the NHL Situation Room in Toronto reviews. The question it asks is whether the puck was directed into the net by the hand, not whether the hand touched it. The broader review structure is described in our guide to NHL coach's challenge rules, which also covers what a team risks by asking.

Picking the puck up off the ice

A skater who picks the puck up off the ice with his hand while play is in progress is penalized. That is a two-minute minor under Rule 67.2, and it applies anywhere on the ice. The rulebook files it under the same heading as the caught puck, closing a hand on the puck, alongside a third version: covering the puck with a hand on the ice to hide it from an opponent.

The rule is aimed at the obvious abuse: a player who scoops the puck up, holds it and protects it with his body. The hand is not supposed to possess the puck at all.

In the crease

The penalty becomes more serious in one place. If a defending player, other than the goalie, falls on the puck, holds it, picks it up or gathers it into his body or hands while it is in his own goal crease, play is stopped at once and the other team is awarded a penalty shot. The rationale is that the crease is where the goalie is protected and where goals are scored, and a skater using his hands there is doing the goalie's job illegally while play is live.

That penalty-shot rule is one of the more common ways a team gets a penalty shot without a breakaway. Our page on when the NHL awards a penalty shot lists the others. When the defending team's goalie has been pulled, the NHL rulebook goes further under its awarded-goal provisions, and the attacking team can be credited with a goal outright instead.

Puck in the crease, goalie down

The scenario fans recognize is a scramble: the goalie is down, the puck is loose in the crease, and a defenseman covers it with his glove to stop a tap-in. The defenseman knows the cost. The penalty shot is a gamble against a goal; sometimes he takes it on purpose. The rulebook gives the other team a chance one-on-one rather than the goal, unless the net is empty.

What the goalie may do with his hands

Everything the skater may not do, the goalie may. He can catch the puck. He can close his glove on it. He can freeze it to stop play. He can drop it in front of himself and play it with his stick. The goalie's glove is the one place in hockey where a closed hand on the puck is the normal state of affairs.

The limits are tight but narrow. A goalie who throws the puck forward toward the opponent's net is penalized with a delay-of-game minor under Rule 67.3; the NHL does not want goalies turning their glove into an outlet pass. If an opponent picks up the thrown puck, the referee lets the play finish: a goal by the other team stands and no penalty is given, and if there is no goal the minor is assessed. A goalie who holds the puck longer than necessary when he is not under pressure can be penalized for delay of game, and the NHL rulebook sets a limit of three seconds in that situation. A goalie who freezes a puck he could easily have played, with no attacker anywhere near him, is the target of that same delay-of-game provision.

The goalie's hand pass

In practice the defending-zone exception covers almost every hand pass a goalie could make, because he spends almost all his time inside his own blue line. A goalie who drops the puck to a defenseman in the corner has made a legal hand pass. The throw forward is the one exception, and the rule against it is about direction rather than the hand.

The goalie behind the net

The NHL's trapezoid rule limits where a goalie may play the puck behind his own goal line, and that limit applies whether he uses his stick or his glove. A goalie who goes into the corner outside the trapezoid to grab a dump-in is penalized for that, regardless of the hand. The detail is in our guide to the NHL trapezoid rule.

For the goalie's role in general, including what separates the position from every other on the ice, see the hockey goalie position page.

Hands at the faceoff

A center lines up, the linesman drops the puck, and the center swats it back to his defenseman with his glove. The draw was not won; it was taken. The NHL does not allow it.

The faceoff rules require the players taking the draw to play the puck with the stick. A center who tries to win a faceoff by batting the puck with his hand takes a minor for delay of game, faceoff violation, under Rule 67.2, which is a heavier sanction than an ordinary hand pass draws in open play. The ban on the centers using their hands lasts until a third player from either team has touched the puck. The reasoning is that a faceoff is a contest of sticks, and a hand on the puck there is a deliberate attempt to win it illegally.

After the draw

Once the puck has been played off the faceoff, the ordinary hand rules apply. A winger who bats a loose puck after the draw is judged like any other skater. A defenseman who catches a puck that pops up off the draw and drops it straight down is fine; one who holds it is not.

Wingers and the line

A player who is not taking the draw but who reaches in with his hand to grab the puck before the center has played it is interfering with the faceoff. The linesman can wave the center out, and a second violation by the same team on the same faceoff draws a bench minor for delay of game in the NHL. That is a faceoff violation, not a hand pass, but fans often see the hand and assume the latter.

The 2019 overtime and the review rule that followed

The Meier play was not an isolated controversy, but it was the one that moved the league. The officials on the ice did not see the hand contact. The goal stood. The NHL acknowledged after the game that the play was not reviewable under the rules then in force, because the coach's challenge covered only offside and goaltender interference. The Sharks went on to lose the series in six games, and St. Louis won the Stanley Cup.

That summer the NHL changed the challenge. Starting with the 2019-20 season, a coach can challenge a goal on the ground that the play should have been stopped in the offensive zone before it was scored. Missed hand passes, pucks that had gone out of play and high-sticked pucks all qualify. The challenge reaches back only through the sequence that led directly to the goal, and only if the puck did not leave the attacking zone between the missed stoppage and the goal. A hand pass on a rush through the neutral zone a minute earlier is not reviewable.

1. 1The playIn overtime of Game 3 in St. Louis, Meier bats the puck with his glove and the Sharks score.
2. 2On the iceNone of the four officials sees the hand contact and the goal stands.
3. 3The rulebookMissed stoppages are not reviewable under the 2018-19 challenge rules.
4. 4The changeBefore the 2019-20 season the NHL adds missed stoppages in the offensive zone to the coach's challenge.
5. 5The costA failed challenge carries a delay-of-game minor, so coaches challenge only on clear evidence.

The sequence from the May 2019 overtime goal to the expanded coach's challenge used from the 2019-20 NHL season. The failed-challenge cost is a delay-of-game minor.

What a coach risks

A failed challenge costs a minor penalty for delay of game. A team that has already lost a challenge and fails again in the same game gets a four-minute double minor for delay of game. That cost is deliberate. The league wanted coaches to challenge only when a missed hand pass is plain on video, not to fish.

Who decides

Under the challenge rule, the NHL Situation Room reviews the video, consults the on-ice officials and renders the final decision, which the referee then announces. The standard is the usual one: video has to establish conclusively that a stoppage was missed in the offensive zone.

The 2019 change has mostly worked as the league hoped. Clear hand passes before goals are now caught. The cases left over are the close ones, where the hand contact is visible but the direction is debatable, and those are the cases the original rule always left to judgment. The playoff format in which the 2019 series took place is explained in our guide to the NHL playoff format.

Hand, skate or high stick: three ways to play the puck without the blade

Hockey gives each part of a player a different set of permissions. The stick blade is the default and can do almost anything. The hand, the skate and a stick raised above the shoulder each come with their own rules, and those rules do not line up.

The skate is the most generous. A player may kick the puck to a teammate anywhere on the ice, and play continues; kicking is a legal way to pass. What the skate may not do is score with a distinct kicking motion. A puck redirected into the net off a skate that is not kicking it is a good goal. Our guide to kicking the puck in hockey explains how officials judge that motion.

The high stick is a different kind of restriction. Batting the puck with a stick above the shoulders stops play only if the offending team is next to control the puck; a high-sticked puck that goes to an opponent is just a puck. A goal scored with a stick above the four-foot crossbar is disallowed, and the height that matters is where the stick met the puck. The detail is in our page on high-sticking in hockey.

The hand sits between them: passing is legal only in the defending zone, and scoring is never legal.

Way of playing the puck	Pass to a teammate	Score a goal	Penalty attached
Open hand	Only inside the defending zone	Never	None for the pass; minor for closing a hand or picking up
Skate	Anywhere on the ice	Only without a distinct kicking motion	None
Stick above the shoulders	Stoppage if his own team, himself included, gains control	Not if contact is above the crossbar	None for the puck; the high-sticking penalty is for hitting a player
Stick blade at normal height	Anywhere	Yes	None

Why the rules differ

The pattern makes sense once each restriction is traced to its purpose. The hand is restricted because hockey is a stick sport and the hand would otherwise make possession far too easy. The skate is allowed because players cannot avoid using it, and a kick pass is not much of an advantage. The high stick is restricted because a raised stick is a danger to other players, and the puck rule discourages players from swinging at pucks in the air. For the larger picture of how the NHL's game rules fit together, the ice hockey section is the place to start.

How the college and international books compare

The NCAA and IIHF rulebooks share the NHL's basic structure: open-hand batting allowed, passing by hand restricted outside the defending zone, no goals by hand, and penalties for closing a hand on the puck. The exact wording differs and each book is revised on its own schedule, so the precise treatment of edge cases such as the deflection off an opponent should be checked against the current edition before being applied to a college or international game.