The puck
The vulcanised rubber disc ice hockey is played with — its exact diameter, thickness and weight under IIHF rules, and the limits on what may be printed on it.
Overview
The puck is a disc of vulcanised rubber, or other approved material. It slides rather than rolls, which is what makes hockey a game of passing along the ice and of shots that stay flat enough to be difficult to stop.
The IIHF rule book fixes it at 2.5 cm thick and 7.6 cm in diameter, weighing between 156 g and 170 g. All pucks used in competition must be approved by the IIHF.
What may be printed on it
A printed logo, trademark or advertisement on the puck must not exceed 4.5 cm in diameter on each side, or 35% of the area of each side. There may be printing on both sides.
The limit exists because the puck has to remain visible and identifiable at speed — for officials, for players and for the cameras. A puck covered edge to edge in print is harder to track than one with a marked centre.
Why pucks are frozen
Pucks are commonly chilled before use. Cold rubber is harder and bounces less, which makes the puck slide more predictably and reduces the amount it flutters after a hard shot or a rebound.
The IIHF rule book refers the detail of frozen-puck handling to its event regulations rather than fixing a temperature in the rules themselves, so the practice is a competition-operations matter rather than a rule of play.
Good to know
- A puck is 7.6 cm across and 2.5 cm thick.
- It weighs between 156 g and 170 g.
- It must be made of vulcanised rubber or another IIHF-approved material.
- Printing is limited to 4.5 cm diameter or 35% of each side.
- Chilling the puck reduces bounce and makes it slide more predictably.
Where it’s used
Sports that use the puck:
Related equipment
Sources
The rules, dimensions and specifications on this page were read from these documents.
- IIHF Official Rule Book — International Ice Hockey Federation, 2026/27, Puck — Dimensions (read 2026-09-12)
How it connects
The meaning-bearing relationships that place The puck in the wider knowledge graph — each one with the reason it exists.
Foundation of
These build directly on this one.
Used with
Turns up alongside this across the same sports.
Explore across the knowledge base
Follow the threads that connect The puck to the rest of SocialSportHub.
Techniques
- Ice hockey shootingThe four shots hockey is scored with — wrist shot, snap shot, slap shot and backhand — how each trades power against release time, and why the stick is bent on purpose.
- StickhandlingHow a hockey player carries and protects the puck at speed — why the hands work independently of the feet, the role of soft hands, and how body position beats stick skill.
Facilities
- The ice hockey rinkThe dimensions and markings of an IIHF ice hockey rink — length, width, corner radius, the blue and centre lines, the goal lines and the face-off circles, with the line widths the rule book specifies.
- Padel court dimensionsThe exact size and markings of a padel court under FIP rules — the 10 by 20 metre rectangle, the service lines, the line width, and the free height the rules require above it.
- The table tennis tableThe exact dimensions of a table tennis table and its markings — length, width, height, the bounce test the surface must pass, and the lines that only matter in doubles.
- Ice rinkA sheet of prepared ice, usually rink-boarded with rounded corners, used for skating and ice sports.
- The cricket pitchThe 22-yard strip at the centre of a cricket field where the bowling and batting happen — its exact dimensions, how it is bounded, and who decides whether it is fit to play on.
Tactics
- The penalty killHow a team defends a player short — the box and diamond formations, why killers ice the puck legally, and what a short-handed team is actually trying to protect.
- The forecheckHow a hockey team attacks in the opposition's defensive zone without the puck — the 1-2-2, 2-1-2 and trap approaches, and what each one risks to win the puck back.
- Neutral-zone play and the breakoutThe 15 metres between the blue lines where most hockey possession is decided — how a breakout moves the puck out of the defensive zone, and why zone entries are so contested.
Rules
Go deeper with The puck
Everywhere else on the platform that covers The puck — assembled from what actually references it, so nothing here is a dead end.
Take it away
Open data and the whole-platform view of this subject.
How this page is maintained
- Content type
- Equipment
- Provenance
- Tier A — evergreen educational
- Verified external sources
- 0
- Content updated
- 2026-09-01
Evergreen, first-party explanation — it makes no claim that needs an external source. How we handle sources and reviews.