Hand passes and high-sticked pucks depend on the next possession.

The ruleset used on this page

This explanation applies to the National Hockey League Official Rules 2025-2026: Rule 67 (handling the puck), Rule 79 (hand pass), Rule 80 (high-sticking the puck), Rule 37 (goal video review) and Rule 38 (Coach's Challenge).

The NHL's official Video Rulebook hub was checked on 27 August 2026 and still linked the 2025-26 book as its downloadable edition. This page therefore describes the last officially published NHL ruleset; it does not assume that unpublished 2026-27 wording will be identical.

Shoulder height and crossbar height answer different questions

For playing the puck during ordinary play, NHL Rule 80.1 prohibits batting it with a stick above the normal height of the shoulders. The relevant point is where the puck contacts the stick, not whether the stick's tip or shaft is raised somewhere else.

For an attacking player directing the puck into the goal, Rules 37.5 and 80.3 use the height of the crossbar. Contact above the crossbar means no goal; contact at or below it can be legal if no other rule was broken.

Rule 79.1 requires contact, direction or advantage, and team control

A skater may stop or bat an airborne puck with an open hand, or push it along the ice with a hand. That act becomes a hand-pass violation when the on-ice officials judge that the player directed the puck to a teammate or allowed the team to gain an advantage, and a player of that team subsequently obtains possession and control.

A deflection off another player or an official does not automatically erase the hand play. Conversely, Rule 79.1 says that a puck which merely deflects off a player's hand, with no team advantage gained, is not a violation. Direction and advantage are judgment calls; glove contact alone is not enough.

An NHL hand pass can be legal within a team's own end

Rule 79.2 says play is not stopped for a hand pass by players in their own defending zone. The puck's location at the hand contact and at the teammate's reception determines the zone—not where the players' torsos or sticks happen to be.

The safe replay test is to track both puck contacts. If the puck is handled and received while it remains in that team's defending zone, Rule 79.2 permits the pass. If the puck is received after it has left that zone, the defending-zone protection does not extend across the blue line.

This exception does not authorize closing a hand on the puck, picking it up from the ice or otherwise committing a Rule 67 handling offence.

The whistle waits for the offending team's control

Under Rule 80.1, officials identify puck-stick contact above the normal height of the shoulders and then watch the next play. If the player who made the high contact or a teammate gains possession and control—even after a deflection off a player or official—the whistle follows.

If the puck has been batted to an opponent, play may continue and the Referee gives the washout signal. This is not a delayed penalty or a discretionary “advantage” in the football sense: the possession-and-control sequence is part of Rule 80's test for whether a stoppage is required.

Cradling the puck on a stick blade above normal shoulder height is also prohibited and produces a stoppage. On a penalty shot or shootout attempt, the attempt is stopped immediately and treated as complete.

Direction is illegal; a clear accidental deflection can count

NHL Rule 67.6 does not allow an attacking player to bat or direct the puck into the net with a hand. The goal remains disallowed if that deliberately directed puck reaches the net after deflecting off a player, goalkeeper or official.

A clear deflection off an attacker's glove, without a bat or directing action, can be a good goal. That distinction explains why a replay may focus on whether the glove supplied purposeful direction rather than merely asking whether puck and glove touched.

A separate sequence occurs when an attacker hand-passes to a teammate in the offensive zone and the teammate later scores. The direct scoring act may be legal, but the earlier Rule 79 stoppage was missed; in the NHL that can enter the Rule 38 Coach's Challenge route.

The contact point relative to the crossbar decides

Rule 80.3 disallows a goal when an attacking player causes the puck to enter the opponent's net by contacting it above the crossbar, whether the puck goes in directly or deflects off a player or official. The puck's contact point is decisive: another part of the stick may be above the bar without invalidating contact made at or below it.

The own-goal exception runs the other way. If a defending player strikes the puck into that player's own net with a stick carried above the crossbar, Rule 80.3 allows the goal. The rule denies an attacking high-stick advantage; it does not rescue a defending team from its own high-stick own goal.

The restart must not reward the offending team

For a Rule 79 hand-pass violation, the faceoff is normally at the nearest spot in the zone where the offence occurred. If the offending team gained territorial advantage before the whistle, Rule 79.3 moves it to the nearest spot in the zone where play stopped. An attacking-zone hand-pass violation is taken to a neutral-zone spot outside the defending team's blue line.

Rule 80.2 uses a different formula. A high-sticked-puck faceoff goes to the spot giving the offending team the least territorial advantage, comparing where the illegal contact occurred with where that team last played the puck. If the attacking team is at fault and play stops in its attacking zone, the faceoff moves outside the blue line to the nearest neutral-zone spot.

Playing the puck is separate from fouling an opponent

A Rule 79 or Rule 80 violation ordinarily produces a whistle, faceoff or no-goal ruling—not penalty-box time. Related conduct can still trigger a penalty under another rule.

• Rule 67, handling puck: covers such acts as closing the hand on the puck rather than immediately placing or knocking it down.
• Rule 60, high-sticking: governs stick contact with an opponent. A stick can play the puck too high, strike an opponent, or do both; the puck-flow decision and player-safety penalty are separate.
• Faceoff conduct: the two centers have specific restrictions on attempting to win the draw with a hand under Rule 67.

Direct goal reviews and missed-stoppage challenges are not the same

Under Rule 37.3, the NHL Situation Room reviews potential goals involving a puck deliberately directed, batted or thrown into the net by an attacker other than with a stick, and a puck struck or deflected into the net by a stick above crossbar height. Rule 37.5 makes the puck's contact point relative to the crossbar the high-stick review test.

Rule 38.2 also permits the defending team to challenge a goal for a missed stoppage caused by the attacking team in the offensive zone. That route can cover an uncalled attacking-zone hand pass or high-sticked puck earlier in the uninterrupted offensive-zone scoring sequence. In the final minute of the third period and throughout overtime, the NHL Situation Room has the exclusive right to initiate a review that would otherwise be a Coach's Challenge.

The original call changes only on conclusive and irrefutable video evidence. A successful missed-stoppage challenge disallows the goal, resets the clock to when play should have stopped and uses the faceoff location that the original call would have produced. These review powers concern goal situations; they do not make every earlier hand or high-stick judgment reviewable.

A glove redirects the puck in the neutral zone

Situation: Blue deliberately bats the puck toward a teammate in the neutral zone. It glances off a Red skate, then the Blue teammate controls it.

NHL 2025-26 ruling: whistle for a hand-pass violation under Rule 79.1. The intervening deflection does not remove the directed hand play, and the offending team obtained possession and control outside its defending zone.

The same pass stays in the defending zone

Situation: Blue bats the puck with an open hand near its end boards and a teammate receives it before the puck leaves Blue's defending zone.

NHL 2025-26 ruling: play on under Rule 79.2, provided no separate Rule 67 handling offence occurred. The decisive facts are the team's own defending zone and the puck's location at both contacts.

A high-sticked puck clips a defender first

Situation: Blue contacts the puck above normal shoulder height. The puck glances off Red and is then controlled by another Blue player.

NHL 2025-26 ruling: whistle under Rule 80.1. A deflection is not possession and control by the opponent, so it does not wash out Blue's high-sticked puck.

The opponent controls the high-sticked puck

Situation: Blue contacts the puck above normal shoulder height, but Red cleanly controls it and starts out of the zone.

NHL 2025-26 ruling: washout and play on under Rule 80.1. Red's control completes the play in favor of the non-offending team; there is no Rule 80 faceoff.

The stick is high, but the puck meets it at the bar

Situation: an attacker angles a raised stick toward the net. Part of the shaft is above the crossbar, but replay conclusively shows the puck contacted the blade level with the crossbar and then entered.

NHL 2025-26 ruling: the high-stick goal test is satisfied at or below the bar, so the goal can stand if no other offence occurred. Move the contact point above the bar and Rules 37.5 and 80.3 require no goal.

How to rule the replay in order

1. Name the contact. Open hand, accidental glove deflection, closed hand, or stick-to-puck contact.
2. Locate the puck. The zone matters for a hand pass; ordinary high-stick contact uses the player's normal shoulder height.
3. Judge direction or advantage. For a hand play, distinguish a purposeful bat from a no-advantage deflection.
4. Wait for possession and control. Identify whether the offending team or an opponent gets the puck next; a mere rebound does not settle the test.
5. If the puck enters the goal, switch tests. Ask whether an attacker batted or directed it with a hand, or contacted it with a stick above the crossbar.
6. Select the outcome. Play on, washout, whistle and faceoff, no goal, or a separate penalty under Rule 60 or 67.
7. Check review authority. Separate a direct Rule 37 goal review from a Rule 38 missed offensive-zone stoppage challenge.

Five claims the NHL rules do not support

• “Any glove touch is a hand pass.” Direction or team advantage plus later team control is required, and a no-advantage deflection is expressly excluded.
• “A defender touching the puck cancels it.” A deflection is not necessarily possession and control.
• “Every high stick is measured at the crossbar.” Shoulder height governs ordinary puck play; crossbar height governs the puck directed into goal.
• “A high-sticked puck is automatically a penalty.” Rule 80 is normally a game-flow stoppage; Rule 60 concerns an opponent being high-sticked.
• “Replay can fix any missed call.” NHL Rules 37 and 38 define narrow goal-related routes and standards.

Do not export the NHL ruling without checking the book

IIHF, NCAA, USA Hockey and domestic leagues appoint their own rulebooks and competition regulations. They may use similar concepts and even similar rule numbers, but the zone test, faceoff placement, terminology and review authority belong to the ruleset governing that game.

This page intentionally makes no universal claim for international, college, junior or youth hockey. For those games, begin with the appointed competition and effective edition rather than treating an NHL broadcast ruling as controlling.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• National Hockey League — Official Rules 2025-2026, Rules 37, 38, 67, 79 and 80
• National Hockey League — Video Rulebook and current rulebook download hub
• National Hockey League — Video Rulebook: Hand Pass (Rule 79)
• National Hockey League — Video Rulebook: High-Sticking the Puck (Rule 80)
• National Hockey League — Video Rulebook: High-Sticked Puck Video Review (Rule 37)

Checked on 27 August 2026 against the NHL 2025-26 Official Rules and the NHL's live Video Rulebook hub. The hub still presented 2025-26 as its downloadable rulebook; consult the 2026-27 edition when the NHL publishes it. Competition-specific rules outside the NHL are not covered here.