NHL Penalty Shot Rules: When One Is Called and How It Runs

Rule 24 of the NHL rulebook does something rulebooks rarely do. It explains itself. A penalty shot, the first line says, "is designed to restore a scoring opportunity which was lost as a result of an infraction being committed by the offending team." The referee is handing back a chance that a foul took away. Punishing the defender comes second, and in the commonest case he is not punished at all.

The shot itself is simple. The referee sets the puck on the center ice face-off spot, the other skaters go and stand in front of their own benches, the clock stays stopped, and on the whistle one player skates in alone against the goaltender. He gets one attempt. The puck has to keep moving toward the goal line, nothing counts off a rebound, and the play is over the instant the puck is shot, stops, or crosses the line. The league awards it most often when a player on a breakaway is fouled from behind, and in a short list of other cases that involve no breakaway at all.

What a penalty shot is: one skater, the goaltender and a stopped clock

It begins with an announcement. Before anyone moves, the referee has the shooter's name read over the public address system, so that both benches and the building know who is taking it. Then he carries the puck to the blue spot at the middle of the rink and sets it down.

From that spot to the goal line is 89 feet. An NHL rink is 200 feet long with each goal line painted 11 feet out from the end boards, which leaves the shooter a long, empty run with time to think. The full set of lines and distances is laid out in our guide to the markings on an NHL rink.

Everybody else leaves. Rule 24.2 sends the players of both teams "to the sides of the rink and in front of their own player's bench," where they stand and watch. No backchecker, no trailing forward for a pass, no defenseman to clear the crease.

• 1Skaters on the attempt
• 1Shots allowed
• 0Rebounds allowed
• 89Feet from the center spot to the goal line

Counts taken from Rule 24 and Rule 1 of the NHL rulebook. The 89 feet is the distance from the center ice spot to the goal line on a regulation 200-foot rink.

Who may stand in the net

Only a goalkeeper. The rulebook says that "only a player designated as a goalkeeper or alternate goalkeeper may defend against a penalty shot," which rules out the old schoolyard idea of sending a big defenseman to lie across the crease.

Two further sentences cover the awkward cases. If the offending team had pulled its goalie for an extra skater when the shot was awarded, he is allowed back on the ice to face it. And a team may swap goalies for the attempt, bringing a cold backup off the bench if it thinks he has a better record against the shooter, but there is a price: the substitute "is required to remain in the game until the next stoppage of play." A coach cannot use one goalie for the shot and return the starter for the faceoff that follows.

The clock

It does not run. "The time required for the taking of a penalty shot shall not be included in the regular playing time or overtime." A penalty shot with four seconds left in a period leaves four seconds on the board afterward, whatever happens.

The breakaway foul: four conditions before the referee points to center ice

Nearly every penalty shot a fan will see comes from the same picture. A forward gets behind the defense, a beaten defender reaches out with a stick or a hand, and the forward goes down or loses the puck. The referee crosses his arms above his head.

He is not supposed to do that on instinct. Rule 24.8 and Rule 57.3 each list four conditions that must all be met before a foul from behind becomes a penalty shot, and a play that fails any one of them is an ordinary two-minute minor.

Condition	What the rulebook requires	What it rules out
Location	The foul happened in the neutral zone or the attacking zone, "over the puck carrier's own blue line"	A trip inside the attacker's own defending zone, however clear the ice ahead
Direction	The infraction was committed from behind	A hook or trip by a defender who was level with the attacker or in front of him
Possession and a lost chance	The player had possession and control, or clearly would have obtained it, and was denied a reasonable chance to score	A loose puck nobody was certain to reach; a chance the player still got cleanly
Open ice	No opposing player stood between him and the goalkeeper	A two-on-one, or any rush with a defender still back

"From behind" is where the arguments start

A defender who has been beaten by a full stride and swings his stick into the attacker's skates has fouled from behind. One who is shoulder to shoulder with him and gets a stick between his legs has tripped him, but from the side, and the call is a minor. Most real plays sit somewhere between those two, with the defender half a step back and diving. The referee has perhaps a second to decide which it was, and two referees watching the same replay will not always agree.

The condition exists for a reason. A defender who is level with the attacker is still defending, and the attacker's chance was contested before the foul. Only the man who has lost the race entirely is taking away something the attacker already owned.

A shot does not cancel the call

The third condition contains the sentence referees are most often accused of forgetting. The fact that the fouled player got a shot away "does not automatically eliminate this play from the penalty shot consideration criteria." If he was fouled from behind and denied "a 'more' reasonable scoring opportunity," the rulebook says the penalty shot should be awarded. A forward who is slashed across the hands as he releases, and flutters a weak puck into the goalie's pads, has still lost his breakaway.

Play goes on until the puck is lost

The referee does not blow the whistle at the moment of the foul. Rule 57.3 tells him not to stop play "until the attacking team has lost possession of the puck to the defending team," exactly as he would on a delayed minor, the procedure described in our guide to why the referee's arm goes up before the whistle.

That delay can erase the penalty shot. If the fouled player gets up and recovers a reasonable scoring chance, or a teammate gets one, the rulebook says no penalty shot should be awarded and the ordinary penalty is assessed if no goal results. If a goal is scored on the play, the foul has cost the attacking team nothing and the minor is wiped out as well.

One more exclusion. A defender who touches the puck first and then brings the attacker down in the same motion has committed a trip, and Rule 57.3 says a minor is assessed, but no penalty shot.

The fouls that qualify are broader than tripping. The rulebook files the breakaway call under Rule 57 for convenience, and its reference tables spell out that it covers fouling from behind "including hooking, holding, slashing, etc." A grab of the jersey counts. So does a stick across the wrists.

When a penalty shot is awarded in the NHL without any breakaway

The summary table of penalty shots at the back of the rulebook lists eight routes to one in the 2026-27 edition. Only three of them involve a player in the clear. The rest punish acts that the league has decided are too cheap to be worth only two minutes.

That table is one shorter than it used to be. Editions through 2025-26 carried a ninth entry, for a net intentionally dislodged during a breakaway, and the 2026-27 book drops it. What Rule 63 says in its own text is that a goaltender who deliberately displaces the goal on a breakaway concedes an awarded goal, and that a referee may award a goal when any defender knocks the net off in front of an imminent scoring chance.

Infraction	Rule	Who takes the shot
A defending skater falls on, holds, picks up or gathers in the puck in his own goal crease	63.6 and 67.4	A player chosen by the captain
A defender throws or shoots a stick or other object at the puck or puck carrier in his defending zone	53.7	The player fouled
A player on a breakaway is interfered with by a thrown stick or object	53.7	The player fouled
A player on a breakaway is interfered with by an opponent who entered the game illegally	70.7	The player fouled
A player deliberately dislodges his own net when the minor could not be served in full before the end of regulation, or at any time in overtime	63.6	A player chosen by the captain
A deliberate illegal substitution, too many men, when the bench minor could not be served in full, or at any time in overtime	74.4	A player chosen by the captain

Covering the puck in the crease

A goaltender may smother the puck in his crease. Nobody else may. Rule 67.4 says that if a defending player other than the goalkeeper "falls on the puck, holds the puck, picks up the puck, or gathers the puck into his body or hands from the ice in the goal crease area," play stops at once and a penalty shot follows.

What decides it is where the puck is, and the defender's own position does not matter. Rule 63.6 is blunt about it: "If the puck is in the crease, penalty shot." A defenseman lying in the blue paint who rakes in a puck sitting an inch outside it has earned a minor for delay of game. The same man covering a puck that is inside the paint has earned the other team a free run at his goalie.

The most consequential example came in Game 1 of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final. Carolina's Niclas Wallin closed his hand on the puck in his own crease, Edmonton was awarded a penalty shot, and the Oilers chose defenseman Chris Pronger to take it. He beat Cam Ward. It was the first penalty shot goal in the history of the Final.

The thrown stick

A defender who has lost the puck carrier and flings his stick along the ice at the puck has committed the oldest desperation play in the sport. Under Rule 53.7 the referee lets the play finish. If the attacking team scores anyway, the goal stands and that is the end of it. If not, a penalty shot is awarded. The rule reaches beyond players, to "the Coach or any non-playing person" on the defending side.

It applies only in the defending zone and only when the throw is aimed at the puck or the man carrying it. A stick thrown elsewhere, or in another zone, is a minor.

The late-game cheats

Two entries in the table share a logic. A minor penalty with thirty seconds left in a one-goal game is close to free, because the game ends before most of it is served. So a team could, in theory, deliberately knock its own net off its pegs to kill a scramble, or jump a sixth skater over the boards to break up a rush, and accept a penalty it would never have to finish serving.

The rulebook closes that door. When a minor for deliberately displacing the net or a bench minor for a deliberate illegal substitution "cannot be served in its entirety" within regulation, either because too little time remains or because of penalties already on the clock, the result is a penalty shot. The same applies at any time in overtime. The ordinary version of the bench minor is explained in our guide to the too many men penalty.

How the attempt has to run under NHL penalty shot rules

1. 1AnnouncementThe referee has the shooter's name announced and places the puck on the center ice face-off spot.
2. 2Clearing the icePlayers of both teams move to the sides of the rink in front of their own benches. Only a goalkeeper may defend.
3. 3WhistleThe referee blows his whistle. The goalkeeper must stay in his crease until the shooter has touched the puck.
4. 4ApproachThe shooter carries the puck in. It must be kept in motion toward the goal line the whole way.
5. 5ShotOnce the puck is shot the play is complete. No goal counts off a rebound.
6. 6RestartA goal sends the faceoff to center ice. A miss or a save sends it to an end-zone dot in the zone where the shot was tried.

The order of events under Rule 24 of the NHL rulebook. The game clock is stopped throughout.

Forward motion

The governing sentence is this one: "The puck must be kept in motion towards the opponent's goal line and once it is shot, the play shall be considered complete."

The shooter may go as slowly as he likes. He may swing wide, stickhandle, fake, and drag the puck from forehand to backhand. What he may not do is stop the puck or bring it back up the ice. The requirement is about the puck, so a player can turn his body and glide almost to a standstill as long as the puck itself keeps creeping toward the end boards. A puck that "comes to a complete stop" ends the attempt, whether the shooter meant it or lost the handle.

One shot, no rebound

"No goal can be scored on a rebound of any kind." A save that pops out to the slot is a dead puck, and a shooter who whacks it in has scored nothing.

The rulebook allows a single exception, and it is narrow: a puck that goes "off the goal post or crossbar, then the goalkeeper and then directly into the goal." That sequence is treated as one continuous shot. A puck that hits the goalie first, drops, and is poked across by the shooter's second touch is not.

The attempt is also complete "any time the puck crosses the goal line," which includes crossing it wide of the net. A shooter who misses the cage entirely does not get to chase the puck behind the goal.

The lacrosse move and the spin-o-rama

Two trick shots have their own paragraphs in Rule 24.

Scooping the puck onto the blade and whipping it into the top corner, lacrosse-style, is legal, "provided the puck is not raised above the height of the shoulders at any time and when released, is not carried higher than the crossbar." Those limits come from the high-sticking rules, covered in our guide to the high stick as a penalty and as a puck violation.

The spin-o-rama is banned. A shooter who "completes a 360° turn as he approaches the goal" has his attempt whistled dead, and no goal can result. The league outlawed the move before the 2014-15 season, after years of arguments over whether the puck had stopped or gone backward halfway through the spin. Banning it outright was the tidier answer.

Who takes a penalty shot, and what happens when the fouled player is hurt

It depends on the kind of call, and the team that was fouled has less say than most fans assume.

Rule 24.3 draws the line. "In cases where a penalty shot has been awarded to a player specifically fouled, that player shall be designated by the Referee to take the shot." A breakaway foul has a victim, and the victim shoots. A coach whose fourth-line checker was hauled down cannot hand the puck to his leading scorer.

"In all other cases," the shot goes to "a player selected by the Captain of the non-offending team from the players on the ice at the time when the infraction was committed." A hand on the puck in the crease has no single victim, so the captain picks. His pool is limited to the players who were on the ice at the time, which is how a defenseman came to take the most famous penalty shot of 2006. Once the choice is reported to the referee, it "cannot be changed."

The injured shooter

A player dragged down at full speed sometimes cannot get up. The rule covers it: if the designated player, "by reason of injury," is "unable to do so within a reasonable time," the captain selects a replacement from the players who were on the ice when the foul occurred.

When the shooter is in trouble himself

Hockey being hockey, the fouled player sometimes retaliates and takes a penalty of his own on the same play. Rule 24.3 lets him shoot first and serve afterward. He takes the penalty shot, then goes to the box.

The exception is the serious end of the scale. If what he did earned a game misconduct or a match penalty, he is out of the game, and the captain picks a shooter from the others who were on the ice.

What happens to the original penalty after the shot

A penalty shot replaces a minor. It does not replace anything heavier.

The foul would normally have been	If the shot scores	If the shot fails
A minor	No penalty is served	No penalty is served
A double minor, or a minor plus a second minor to the same team on the play	One minor is served	One minor is served
A major	The major is served	The major is served
A match penalty	The match penalty is assessed	The match penalty is assessed
A misconduct	The misconduct is assessed	The misconduct is assessed

The first row is the one that surprises people. Rule 24.6: "If the offense for which the penalty shot was awarded would normally incur a minor penalty, then regardless of the outcome of the shot, no further minor penalty shall be served." The goalie makes the save, and the defender who committed the foul skates back to his bench with nothing against his name but a line on the scoresheet. Fans who watch a breakaway trip go unpunished after a save sometimes feel robbed. The rulebook's answer is that the scoring chance was the debt, and it has been repaid in full whether or not the shooter cashed it.

The double minor

Suppose the foul from behind was a high stick that drew blood, normally four minutes. The penalty shot stands in for the first two. The rulebook says the first minor "is not assessed since the penalty shot was awarded to restore the lost scoring opportunity," and the second is served whether or not the shot goes in. It is announced as a double minor, and the player sits for two minutes.

Majors and worse

A slash from behind that is violent enough for a major, or an act that draws a match penalty, costs both things: the penalty shot and the full penalty. The fouled team gets its attempt and then, if a major was called, five minutes of power play on top.

Two details that catch out scorers

"No penalty shall expire when a goal is scored against a team on a penalty shot." If the offending team already had a man in the box, he stays there after a successful penalty shot. Ordinarily a power-play goal releases the penalized player. This goal does not, because it was not scored on the power play in any meaningful sense.

And if two separate fouls at one stoppage produce two penalty shots for the same team, only one goal can come of them. Should the first attempt score, the second is not taken, and the second foul is penalized in the ordinary way.

Penalty shot or awarded goal: the empty-net fouls

A penalty shot presumes a goalie. Take the goalie away, and the logic of the call collapses, because a free run at an empty net is a goal with extra skating. So the rulebook skips the formality.

Rule 25.1 awards a goal outright when the defending team "has taken their goalkeeper off the ice" and an attacking player with possession and control in the neutral or attacking zone, with no defender between himself and the goal, "is prevented from scoring as a result of an infraction." The referee points at the net. The scoreboard changes. Nobody shoots anything.

The infractions that trigger it mirror the penalty shot list: tripping or otherwise fouling from behind, a thrown stick, covering the puck in the crease, displacing the net, an illegal substitution, interference by someone who came off the bench illegally. Each of the relevant rules carries its own awarded-goal paragraph alongside its penalty-shot paragraph, and the only thing separating the two is whether a goaltender was on the ice. The tactic that creates these situations has its own page, our guide to pulling the goalie for an extra attacker.

Awarded goals with the goalie still in his net

There are a few of these, and they are newer.

A dislodged net with a goal about to be scored. Rule 63.7 allows the referee to award a goal when a defending player knocks the goal off its moorings, "either deliberately or accidentally," before the puck crosses the line, provided the attacker had an imminent scoring opportunity and the puck would have gone in between the normal position of the posts.

A goalie who deliberately knocks his net off on a breakaway. The rulebook says that "a goal will be awarded." The league made that change for 2019-20. Before then the remedy was a penalty shot, which gave a beaten goaltender a second chance at a save he had already decided he could not make.

A goalie who pulls off his own mask to force a whistle. Do it on a breakaway, a penalty shot or a shootout attempt, and Rule 9 awards the goal.

The gap between the two rules

One situation falls between them, and the rulebook addresses it directly. An attacker dekes around the goaltender and has the whole net in front of him, and then somebody hauls him down from behind. The net is open in every practical sense. But the goalie has not been removed from the ice, so Rule 57.3 says "no goal can be awarded," and the call is a penalty shot. The attacker, who had beaten the goalie once, has to beat him again from center ice. It is a slightly unjust result, and the text is explicit that it is the intended one.

What the goalie cannot do during the attempt

He has to wait. "The goalkeeper must remain in his crease until the player taking a penalty shot has touched the puck." After that first touch he may come out as far as he likes, and most do, skating out to the hash marks to cut the angle and then backing in at the shooter's pace. The position's broader rules and habits are covered in our guide to how goaltenders play and what they wear.

Leaving early, or committing any other infraction, sets off a graduated response. In every case the referee lets the attempt play out first, since a goal makes the whole question moot.

What the goaltender does	Result if the shot fails
Leaves the crease early, or commits a foul worth a minor, for the first time	The shot is taken again; no penalty
Commits a second violation	Misconduct penalty, and the shot is taken again
Commits a third violation	Game misconduct, and the shot is taken again against the alternate goalkeeper
Commits a foul worth a major or match penalty	The shot is taken again and the penalty is assessed
Throws his stick or any object, or deliberately dislodges the goal	A goal is awarded

"The goalkeeper may attempt to stop the shot in any manner," says Rule 24.4, and then lists the exceptions in that final row. A poke check is fine. A sliding two-pad stack is fine. Letting go of the stick so that it slides into the shooter's path is a thrown stick, however innocent it looks, and it is a goal.

The accidental dislodge

Goalies push hard off their posts, and nets come loose. If that happens by accident during the attempt, Rule 24.4 gives the referee three options. He awards a goal if he judges the puck would have entered the space the net normally occupies. He orders a re-take if the shooter did not score or if nobody can tell where the puck would have gone. And if the net came off after the puck had already crossed the goal line, the shot was over and nothing changes.

Read alongside Rule 25.4, which speaks of awarding a goal when the net is dislodged "either deliberately or accidentally" on a penalty shot, the two sections do not sit perfectly together. The detailed procedure in Rule 24.4 is the one referees apply.

Penalty shot versus shootout attempt

In the NHL they are the same act. Rule 84.4, which sets up the regular-season shootout, says in its first paragraph that "the rules governing the shootout shall be the same as those listed under Rule 24 - Penalty Shot." The forward-motion requirement, the ban on rebounds, the spin-o-rama, the goalie staying home until the first touch: all of it carries over word for word.

The differences are in how the attempt is reached and how it is recorded.

Point of comparison	Penalty shot	Shootout attempt
When it happens	Any time a qualifying foul occurs, in regulation or overtime, regular season or playoffs	Only after a regular-season game is still tied following overtime
Who shoots	The fouled player, or a player on the ice chosen by the captain	Any eligible player, in the order the coach selects
Shooter's statistics	A goal counts in his goal total	A deciding goal is not credited as a goal in his personal statistics
Goaltender's statistics	A goal counts against him; a stop counts as a save	The losing goalie is not charged with the extra goal against
Effect on the score	One goal, like any other	One goal added to the winner's total, however many were scored
Swapping the goalie	Allowed, but the substitute must stay in until the next stoppage	Not allowed once the shootout begins, except for injury

A penalty shot is part of the game. A goal on one can tie a game in the third period, win it in overtime, or decide a playoff series, and it goes on the shooter's record like any other goal, though with no assists and no effect on anybody's plus-minus. The stop goes on the goalie's save percentage.

A shootout is a tiebreaker bolted onto the end. Each team gets three attempts, then it goes to sudden death, and no player may shoot twice until every eligible teammate has gone. Whatever happens, the final score shows the winner one goal ahead of where things stood at the end of overtime. The league keeps shootout numbers in their own columns for that reason. The full extra-time procedure is in our explainer on NHL overtime and the shootout.

The playoffs have no shootouts. They do have penalty shots, and one awarded in sudden-death overtime is the single most pressurized moment the sport can produce: one skater with a whole series, potentially, on his stick.

How often penalty shots go in, compared with a two-minute power play

Over the long run, NHL shooters have scored on roughly one penalty shot in three. The rate moves from season to season, as any figure built on a few dozen attempts a year will, but it has stayed in that neighborhood for decades, and the shootout, with thousands of attempts behind it, converts at a very similar rate.

A power play is worth less. League-wide, a two-minute man advantage produces a goal about one time in five, a little better in some seasons and a little worse in others.

Penalty shot33%

Two-minute power play20%

Rounded long-run NHL averages, not figures for any single season. Both move by a few points from year to year.

Show the numbers

Approximate chance of a goal: penalty shot against a minor power play

Item	Value
Penalty shot	33%
Two-minute power play	20%

So the fouled team, on average, does better from the shot than it would have from the minor. That is worth remembering when a defender skates away unpunished after a save. He did not get away with anything. His team faced a one-in-three chance of conceding, which is a stiffer price than the one-in-five it would have faced with him in the box.

Why the fouled team gets no choice

In the NHL the call is not an offer. A captain cannot decline the penalty shot and ask for two minutes of power play. The referee awards the shot, and it is taken.

That is not universal. USA Hockey's rulebook, which governs most youth and adult amateur hockey in the United States, lets the non-offending team choose between the penalty shot and having a minor penalty assessed. There are moments when an NHL coach would love the same option: protecting a one-goal lead in the final minute, a team would often take two minutes of puck possession against a shorthanded opponent over a single shot followed by a faceoff at even strength.

The NHL's refusal is consistent with its own first sentence. If the purpose is to restore a particular lost chance, then the remedy is that chance, not a menu. Allowing a choice would turn the penalty shot into a strategic asset for the fouled team, and the league has never wanted it to be one. How the shorthanded side would have defended those two minutes is covered in our guide to penalty kill formations.

Where the rule came from: 1934-35 and the circle shooters had to stay inside

The penalty shot is older than its place in the NHL. Frank and Lester Patrick, who ran the Pacific Coast Hockey Association and spent a decade inventing things the eastern leagues later borrowed, put it in their rulebook in the early 1920s. The NHL adopted it for the 1934-35 season.

The original version would be hard to recognize. The shooter did not skate in. He had to fire from inside a 10-foot circle painted 38 feet from the goal, and the goaltender was not allowed to come more than a foot off his goal line to meet the shot. It was, in effect, a free slap at the net from long range against a goalie pinned to his line.

The first one in league history was taken on November 10, 1934, by Armand Mondou of the Montreal Canadiens. George Hainsworth of the Toronto Maple Leafs stopped it. Three nights later Ralph Bowman of the St. Louis Eagles, a defenseman known as Scotty, beat Alec Connell of the Montreal Maroons for the first penalty shot goal.

The stationary shot did not last. Before the 1938-39 season the league changed the rule to let the puck carrier skate in before shooting, which is the attempt as it exists now. For some seasons in the 1940s the NHL ran two versions side by side, a shot from a line for lesser infractions and a full skate-in for a foul on a clear breakaway, before the skate-in became the only form.

Since then the changes have been at the edges. The shootout arrived in 2005-06 and borrowed the procedure wholesale. The spin-o-rama went in 2014-15. The awarded goal for a goaltender who deliberately dislodges his net on a breakaway came in 2019-20. The core of Rule 24, one skater and one goalie and a single shot, has kept its shape since the skate-in became the only form.

End of a period, overtime, and where the puck is dropped next

A penalty shot does not disappear because time ran out. Since the referee holds his whistle until the attacking team loses the puck, the period can end before he gets to blow it. Rule 24.7 says the shot "shall be awarded and taken immediately in the usual manner" regardless. The horn sounds, the players stop, and the fouled man gets his attempt with zeroes on the clock.

In regular-season overtime the stakes are simple: a goal ends the game. A miss does not, and play resumes with whatever time was left.

The faceoff afterward

"If a goal is scored from a penalty shot, the puck shall be faced-off at center ice," like any other goal. If the attempt fails, the puck is dropped "at either of the end face-off spots in the zone in which the penalty shot was attempted." The defending team has survived the shot, and it then has to win a draw beside its own net with its goalie barely settled. How that draw is conducted, including who must put his stick down first, is the subject of our guide to faceoff procedure and violations.

The rulebook notes exceptions for the usual reasons a faceoff gets moved out of the zone, such as attacking players crowding in past the circles during a scrum, or the attacking team being penalized on the same play.

The classes of penalty that sit around the call are laid out in our explainer on NHL penalties from a minor to a match, and more of the rulebook is covered on our ice hockey pages.