The History Of The Fastest NHL Skater 

Who is the greatest skater in your teams history?

Gretzky put it best in an interview that had himself, Lemieux & Orr when he said to #4 "You did it in a leather boot with a blade on the bottom". Then there was those old leather gloves that got super heavy when wet. Much respect for the old timers who paved the way to what the game's become. Much respect to the current players who are paving the way for what the game will become...

Imagine Orr without knee issues

I wish all teams for all rostered skaters would do skills testing at the start of the year, and post the results. It would generate so much hype and discussion.

Oldguy here, and Paul Coffey was by far the fastest end to end I've ever seen in person. He was already sorta slowed down imo of his top speed in 92 or whenever he won, but man the last few years with oilers and first few with penguins was very different. Gears gotten better and lighter, ect... but if you saw his speed vs everyone else he was playing against it was very very clear who the fastest guy on ice was. This was also during a time of brutal holding/hooking, I couldn't imagine what him in his prime with today's rules would be like. A guy seldom talked about now outside of hardcore hockey fans, but someone who alone was worth the price of a ticket back in the day. Now stay off my lawn. Oldguy out.

I love how Jordan Kyrou won fastest skater at the All Star game in 2022 and EA still didn’t have him in the top ten fastest players in the game. I’m still salty about this

Fedorov had to go around the nets while Gartner had a gigantic advantage of the nets being moved below the blue paint. It’s not really comparable between years because the setup constantly changes. So the progression isn’t really accurate at all.

I see Mike Gartner still not getting his due in the comments the guy had over 700 goals and he’s still underrated

One of your best videos yet imo!

Hey I got a feature on Rob Talks Hockey 😁

This video as with all your content mate was awesome, always such an overlooked attribute for a hockey player, and it's great to see the skating evolve over the years.

It’s not even the fastest skater in the nhl, it’s the fastest star at the comp, same with all the other ones, we need a comp where it’s actually the best players at those specific events and not just superstar marketing

Nobody had the flapping jersey in full flight quite like Mike Modano. Dude was an absolute beast.

amazing video and great editing! thouroughly enjoyed, love me a bit of history

My proposal would be for them to do the lap race at the all stars not just free skating- but with a puck. There are plenty of skaters in the NHL who are within a percent or two of McDavid- but what separates him is the fact that he can go his full speed with the puck.

It dont matter how fast you are, in EA you can be mcdavid or barzel and Chara is still skating faster than you backwards to prevent a breakaway

I love this new video format

Mat Barzal is the fastest player to make the all star game and to be afforded the opportunity to participate in the fastest skater competition. It's a very limited scope. They should hold these competitions for record in the preseason per team for all players if you wanna use the word "fastest".

Barzal's record is just beautiful. Looked like he wasn't even touching the ice.

Perreault and Cournoyer were lightning fast also. But I’m game situation, I think Bure was the fastest.

If I could have one wish as a hockey fan, it would be to see the Winnipeg Jets win the Stanley Cup. The second wish would be Bobby Orr given unbreakable knees at the beginning. Can you imagine how much more he could have done? How fast would have been able to go in modern skates? It’s scary. Fasted dude who ever played. Best player ever!

A while ago, I got some 1980's/1990's ccm super tacks really cool collectors item for my sports bar!

Couldn't they estimate how fast Bobby Orr was going by timing him over the known distance of the rink? I'd like to see them use the high tech analysis they have for today's game and apply it to old film so we can get an estimate of how fast Richard, Orr, and the other greats really were.

This was good!!

Great Video!

Pretty crazy how Bauer & CCM have been ripping for this long. Another fire video Rob 🔥

McDavid without the puck vs McDavid with the puck is like a greyhound running around the back yard vs a greyhound chasing the rabbit out the race gate. Fast either way, but if you give em a reason to be fast, it's a whole nother gear.

1898 first reported hockey game. Amazing, except the first Stanley Cup (Dominion Challenge Trophy) was awarded in 1893.

Would love to see a head to head race for a quarter mile on a frozen lake !

Rob I would respectfully disagree with some of your conclusions. Any kid from the late 1950's and early 1960's, learning to skate on hand-me-down skates, learned to skate with no ankle support. As we learned to skate that way, our ankles were much stronger and it did not affect the speed on the ice. Older skates like CCM tacks in the late 60's early 1970's also lost ankle support over time, this being the norm. I have recently been watching NHL skaters from the early 1920's to the 1950's, before my time. I was amazed to observe how fast they were skating. The camera angles of time just left the appearance that they were skating slower. The trend in the 1970's was to rocker the skates so that only about 1.5 inches of blade were on the ice. While that increased turning agility and allowed rotation of the foot to increase acceleration, it did slow down top speed. It appears that skates of this century are much lighter and I have been told that they no longer rocker the blades to the extent they did in my time...but believe me, I''m not sure many of the modern skaters would outskate Bobby Orr or many other speedsters at all levels of hockey at the time. Lastly, for every kid who puts skates on, speed is where most of the fun is. When I started skating in the late 1950's, skating was the fasted thing you could do until you were old enough to have a bike. I know the rules were different back in the day of seven a side, but I would bet they were going faster than 7 miles an hour. Thanks for the interesting analysis.

Great video, make more historical content, it’s very cool to learn more about the sport! 💯

As a historian, I love this kind of video. More of this please.

McDavid might not be the actual fastest player in top speed from current players, but his skills allow him to keep puck at fast speed

Would love to have seen Pavel Bure in the fastest skater.

I was such a huge Federov fan. That was a magical time. Then it was like the Censorship Industrial Complex killed hockey, preempting the Allstar game for things like Miami-Ohio vs Dayton Ohio basketball games. NHL has never recovered.

I have a pair of Bauer special pro, think they are from the early 70s. Even when they are as sharp as they can be they are pretty hard to skate over 10mph (guesstimate) with, lol.

Gretz was the greatest point scorer of all time. Orr was the greatest hockey player of all time.

It would be interesting to see a faster skater with the puck competition, since that is what matters, as pointed out.

This just inspired me to include a little ice skating experience in my novel about Neanderthals.

I think the skills comp should add a goal line to center ice sprint, should reduce chance of injury

McDavid is the only player that can keep that pace and control the puck at the same time.

Coffey and McDavid are it. No one in history is quite in thier level

No mention of Ivan Cournoyer?

Acceleration in short burts is a lot more important than velocity over long distances on the ice

Mike gartner his record stood for so many years before it was only just broken by a 20 year old 28 mph wow he was absolutely amazing 🤩

Hey I just thought of something! The ultimate way to test for the fastest skater would be the quarter mile! No cornering, just straight ahead full speed. All Star game in a city with a big frozen River.

I have a pair of the Nova Scotia self fastening skates in my shop hanging up.

As a Short Track Speed Skater, I always love watching the burly Hockey Players try to imitate our sport. Though their track I think is bigger, I can clear 100m in about 11 seconds, and 111m (The standard Short Track track) at about 13 seconds while in a longer race, and I am no where near Olympic levels

Should've mentionned Howie Morenz, he was the fastest skater until Bobby Orr. Still a great video!

Connors a beast. Get this man to 100k

There were a lot of fast skaters in the NHL that never made the all star team, so we dont know who is REALLY the fastest. Someone like Russ Courtnall may have set crazy records, there have been a lot of fast dudes play in the NHL. Watching McDavid still gives me chills, im not an Oilers fan, but watching that guy, he is just so amazingly gifted. I wish the Habs would get a goal scorer, it would have to be a defensemen like Orr, because apparently that's all they want to draft now, is defensemen, and pick up players who failed on other teams. They're in their 3rd year of a rebuild, and they were doing so good, up til this draft. Taking reinbacher over Ryan Leonard was a HUGE mistake, worse then the Kotkaniemi over Tkachuk pick, it's way worse, because not only did we miss out on leonard, we could have had Michkov too. Every NHL fan says oh we didnt want him anyway, he's going to just be problems. I guarantee if ur team drafted him, ud be stoked to have him come play for your team. Habs missed out big time, Hughes said a couple days ago, he believes they are a better team then last year, HOW??? By adding Newhook?? Or is it Lindstrom that makes them a better team? I aint seeing it, i dont think they got worse, but they did miss a couple big opportunities to get better. 3rd year of a rebuild, and during the WHOLE off season, they added newhook and Lindstrom, THAT'S NOT ENOUGH!!! Habs need a 50 goal scorer to go with Caufield, to mentor him, and make sure he doesn't become another Habs draft failure. People think he's already proven himself, not in my eyes, dont get me wrong, I LOVE Caufield, he's my 2nd favorite player, but I want to see him play a couple 70-75 game seasons, THEN i will start feeling comfortable that he's that 40 goal scorer that they NEED so desperately. Go Habs Go, this is the first year EVER that i am not at all , not even a small bit, excited for preseason to start. I am always excited, even last year, when i knew we were gonna suck, i was still excited to see what the season brought. I just can't muster that excitement up, I have been a loyal Habs fan for over 40 years, and this year, nothing, not a bit of excitement. The Habs are going to be out of a playoff spot in early December, BUT they wont finish low enough to get a good pick, tanking on purpose doesnt work, just ask Chicago, Columbus, and Anaheim... If we're out of a playoff spot THAT early, just keep losing, get that top pick, and DONT USE IT ON A FUCKIN DEFENSEMAN... I almost wish i didnt have so much time and energy invested into this team, and could just switch like some of my friends, they just basically hope for whoever they think's gonna win! lol. I can't do that tho, and besides, if I stopped rooting for the Habs, they'd win the cup THAT year, and id be so mad!!! lol. Habs management better smarten up, they are overloaded on D, they NEED scoring, and to figure out what's going on with their goaltending. Im sure they arent done with the D yet tho, for some reason. On draft day, if Hughes was within arms reach of me, i swear to God, i would have kicked him right in the teeth. When Price said David...David...David... I was like FUCKKKK NOOOOOOOOOOO... I am still like FUCKKKK NOOOOOOO! I wake up shouting that almost every night in my sleep! lol.Thanks Hughes and gorton, ur doing swell. To the point when i almost want bergevin back, and THAT'S saying something. The ONE thing I am a bit looking forward to, is seeing Logan Mailloux, he's our best prospect, it's not Lane Hutson, and it's DEFINITELY NOT David reinbacher, THAT'S FOR SURE. I have nothing personal against reinbacher, i wish him the best in his career and im sure he will be a fine 2nd pairing defensemen, but u dont use a 5th overall pick on a 2nd pairing defensemen in an offensively deep draft, ESPECIALLY WHEN U NEED SCORING DESPERATELY. Dont believe they need scoring, they've finished in the bottom 5 in goals for, and goals against for the last...how many years?? I am too lazy to check right now, but in my opinion, it's been LONG enough. They better not waste the draft pick after this year's abomination, that's all i have to say. If they go with another D, I would.... i cant even go there, im still too mad about this year's draft.

You forgot about Long Pond, Nova Scotia. That's what I understood to be the origin of ice hockey.

Coffey was the best, smoothest skater i've ever seen live...

7 MPH? 7 MPH is roughly the speed of a Koala bear, a notoriously slow animal. in the 1924 Olympics, the speed skaters could go 500m in 44 seconds, and that is from a stand still. That means they were skating on average at a speed of 25 mph. That isn't the top speed sprint, just the average That includes starting at a stand still. Skating in the 1920s was more than just a recreation activity back then. It was a legitimate means of transportation. People did it as a way to deliver goods, and could really skate. Even with the differences in skates, and the differences in speed skating and hockey skating, to think that the top speed of NHL players, even in the era of the 1920s couldn't hit 20 MPH is questionable, but to say that it was 7? There is just no way that 7 is even in the realm of a realistic guess. However, you did do a good job at pointing out that Larkin's time wasn't from a stand still for that year, and most people miss that. I will also add, that Larkin wasn't even an All-Star that year, the NHL invited rookies to compete in the speed competition, probably because the NHL knew that they younger you were, the faster you would be. As you pointed out, Gartner couldn't defend his title each year, because he wasn't an All-Star each year. That is part of the deal, you need to be an all-star to defend your title. The NHL stacked the deck with rookies and gave them a running start so they could have a record breaking moment, but totally killed the reputation of the even in the process.

What happened to the all star game and skills comp. these guys used to actually take pride in it and try their hardest.

Honorable mention: the Golden Jet ✈️ and the Roadrunner Unsung speedster: Paul Ranheim

For me the fastest skater competition is akin to long drive contests in the golf world. They over emphasize just one component of the sport. In hockey I'd like to see some standardized test of speed WITH THE PUCK a much more valuable skill set!

Pavel Bure was my favorite skater and was fast. Today I believe McDavid is the fastest in a hockey game.

Cournoyer. The roadrunner was impressively fast.

Why didn't you mention Bobby Hull? He was clocked at 38.3 mph in a race against teammate Murray Balfour in 1960. The current record is 38.82 mph set by Denis Kulyash of the KHL. Of course timing methods have improved so Hull could even have been faster than Kulyash. These are apples-to-oranges comparisons, but they still should be included.

McDavid is not only really fast but also a human cheat code.

Fun fact, Im pretty sure Federov is the only player to win both fastest skater and hardest shot.

This had a Summoning Salt vibe

How come mcdavids time that was slower than larkins didnt shatter larkins time, but barzals time that was slower than larkins shattered larkins record?

just kncredible

Says "Good skaters" precedes to show a Milan Lucic highlight :) (from a Flames fan that isn't really well let's just say accurate)

Excellent video with one glaring mistake. It's very easy to determine the speed of players from the 40s, 50s, 60s and Bobby Orr in the 70s even before tracking technology. No eye test needed. Because we know the distance between the blue lines one just has to analyze actual footage to see how long hard back checking player (without puck) takes to get from one line to another. Then using basic math converting feet per second into miles per hour would give you that data.

Im curious to know where the human and technological limit is: 110MPH is believed to be the absolute hardest shot a human can rip, perhaps a 13 second lap is the fastest a human could possibly skate?

Mcdavid´s top speed is not that great but he´s accerelation and agility is just something else

Syl Apps was an amazing skater, but Max Bentley was one of the best skaters in Leafs' history, the eye test, says he was like McDavid in the 40s, fast, skilled, agile as can be.

Paul Coffey had wheels.

McDavid is the fastest skater when it matters with the puck on his stick in games

I also think we need a longer rink to see how fast these guys can really go

Imagine Gartner with modern skates. 35 mph easily.

The average neighborhood teenage athlete can run about 16 or 17 mph.

Nice video but with a couple of mistakes in it. The NHL was formed in 1917, not 1907. Syl Apps played in the 1940s, not the 1910s. The fastest skater before Bobby Orr played was likely Bobby Hull. At one point in his career, he was measured as being the fastest skater and having the hardest shot, which he was more known for. Imagine how he and Orr would have done in an NHL All-Star skills competition in their prime. Their records would still stand today.

The lack of helmets in the modern era surprises me. Oh well. They are professionals and more than competent skaters, goes without saying. The crashes, though!

Imagine time traveling back with a pair of 2023 ccm skates and giving them to a player from 1909!🤣 i wonder how they would perform…??

Matthew Lombardi never made an all-star roster, but if you watch him in highlights literally no one could keep up with him.

i watched the old star manufacturing building burn to the ground... 1998 .

Fastest skater with and without the puck should be in the all star competition in my opinion. What’s the point of blazing speed if you can’t control the puck at the same time?

This video really played down how dominant Fedorov was in time (in terms of speed). Yes Fedorov won it in 92 with 14.36 and Gartner won in 93 with 13.510, Fedorov won again in 1994 with 13.525. Gartner won it again the following year. Gartner was probably the fastest person of all time, but this video really plays down Fedorov's achievements. For some reason, fedroov was not in the Fastest skating competitions in 93 and 95. I think he would have gave Gartner a run for his money

What I dont get is, for the people that denounce Larkin's fastest lap. Why not time it from the blue lines? He starts at the Blue, then crosses the red. So stop the clock after he hits the Blue on the way around.

Are we really going through this video without mentioning pavel bure?

I often wonder with the changes in technology and how much lighter a pair of skates has become.... just how quick would some of these guys be today if they were still in their prime?

Mike Gartner 👍

Klick bait the first ice skater was faster than 7mph People have been hitting speeds well over the fastest sprinters of today from the inception of the single steel bladed leather boot skates.

No mention of Russ Courtnall

Actually allmost all players, even in this video, after crossing a blue line, are entering a "corckscrew" mode. So no, they are not doing multiple things at the same time.

it make it funny when people say that the skating is faster now then the 80s. gardner is only .2 off mcdavid.

Aren’t they really just the fast All-Stars in hockey.

While he is nowhere near a legend and while he never played for my number 1 team, I gotta give a shoutout to Viktor Stalberg. When he played in the NHL he was fast asf! Ofc this other guy who I am gonna mention is certainly a legend and doesn't play for my team and that guy is Nathan MacKinnon. Natedogg flies by in frames so effortlessly

Larkins record should be removed.

Im still mad that the Leafs traded Gartner in 1996 after a 35 goal season.

They never standardized where they left the nets.

Put the nets back on the pegs znd no running start

Yvan Cournoyer would win first 20 yards

Gartner doing it at that age... imagine in his prime.

1. Gaborik, 2. Bure, 3. McDavid

I do hope Bob Bourne is in this video.