Full Blade, Mid-Blade or Half: How Much of the Blade to Tape

You do not have to tape the whole blade. Plenty of NHL players do not. How much you cover changes what is protected, what the puck touches and how much tape you use.

The main coverage styles

Style	What is taped	What is bare	Trade-off
Full blade	Heel to toe	Nothing	Most protection, most tape
Mid-blade	The middle of the blade	Heel and toe	Lighter, but both ends unprotected
Toe half	Toe to about halfway	Heel half	Suits shots off the toe, back half unprotected
Heel half	Heel to about halfway	Toe	Toe left bare and unprotected
Strips	A few separate bands	Most of the blade	Least tape, least protection

Each one is drawn in 3D on the blade styles page, and you can try them in the Tape Lab.

Full blade

DK Pittsburgh Sports, surveying the Penguins dressing room in 2020, found that most players cover most of the blade. Sports Illustrated wrote in 1982 that Wayne Gretzky taped “all the way from toe to heel.” The puck sits on tape wherever it lands, and the whole blade is protected from the ice and from sticks.

Ottawa’s Tim Stützle showed how much a change in coverage can matter to a player’s confidence. TSN reported that in October 2025, after two periods of fumbling the puck against Boston, he wrapped his whole blade in white with more tape than usual and scored twice in the third.

Half-blade jobs

HockeyMonkey’s taping guide describes taping from the toe to about halfway as a fit for players who take quick, powerful snapshots off the toe, with the drawback that the back half is unprotected.

Nashville’s Ryan Johansen used a half tape job with white tape. He told NashvillePredators.com in 2022 that he tried a different job suggested by Gretzky and Brett Hull, went about 15 games without a goal, then went back to his half job and scored in his next game.

Mid-blade

The same HockeyMonkey guide describes a mid-blade wrap, covering the area that meets the ice, as suited to players who mostly take wrist shots. It leaves both the heel and the toe exposed.

Strips and minimal tape

Some players use almost none. In a 2020 DK Pittsburgh Sports piece, Penguins players described:

• Jamie Benn: three or four strips in the middle of the blade, in a colour that contrasts with the blade.
• David Pastrňák: three separate lines across the blade.
• Artemi Panarin: tape on the toe and a single strip across the bottom.
• Kevin Fiala: a single stripe along the bottom when he entered the league, though he now tapes the full blade.

Chicago defenceman Jarred Tinordi uses about three strips, teammate Jason Dickinson told Second City Hockey in 2023.

How to choose

1. Start with full blade. It protects the stick and gives you a baseline.
2. Notice where your blade wears. If the tape always shreds in one spot and the rest stays fresh, that spot is where you handle the puck.
3. Try one partial style in practice. Keep the same tape and overlap so coverage is the only change.
4. Watch the bare parts. Uncovered heels and toes take scrapes from the ice and sticks. Check them for chips and cracks.

Safety note

Partial tape jobs leave parts of the blade unprotected. If a bare area chips or cracks, replace the stick rather than taping over the damage.

For direction and overlap, see heel to toe vs toe to heel and how much to overlap.