P88: does it still have a place in the modern game?
The P88 is less consistently offered than P92/P28 across current stick selectors. Here is what it still does well, where it asks more of the player, and how to decide whether its quieter strengths fit your game.
Published · 10 min read
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Quick terms
P88
A mid-curve blade-pattern family with a comparatively neutral face and rounder toe. Exact geometry varies by brand.
P92 / P29
Related open, mid-toe pattern names used by Bauer and CCM. Cross-brand equivalents are approximate, not identical.
P28
An open toe-curve family built around moving and releasing the puck nearer the toe.
Flex
The shaft’s stiffness rating. Lower numbers generally bend with less force.
The pass arrives just inside the offensive blue line. You settle it in the middle of the blade, look through two bodies, and want the puck knee-high or lower. A P88 can make that sequence feel wonderfully dull.
Next shift, the puck finds you beside the net. You pull it toward the toe and try to lift it immediately. Now the same blade seems to be asking for paperwork.
There is the P88 dilemma.
The P88 still belongs in modern hockey for a more specific reason than the old “all-around” label suggests. It is a restraint-first pattern for players who work through the middle of the blade and prefer to create lift deliberately. Its comparatively neutral face and mid-blade pocket provide less toe geometry than a P92/P29 or P28. Reviewers and players commonly report that this means less assistance cupping the puck at the toe or creating immediate elevation.
That restraint is the appeal for some players and the problem for others.
The pattern is also less consistently offered than P92/P28 across current stick selectors. Those selectors concentrate on more open, toe-oriented shapes, which manufacturers and reviewers associate with toe-led and elevated releases. The museum debate misses the point. What matters is whether the P88 makes the puck behave the way your game requires.
Pattern codes only get you close
“P88” names a pattern family, with each brand using its own mould.
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Lie describes the angle between the shaft and blade when the bottom of the blade is on the ice. Within one brand, a higher published number generally places the shaft more upright.
The orange arc marks the blade–shaft angle at the heel. AI-generated illustration, not to scale. Lower lie often pairs with more shaft lean and the puck farther out; higher lie often pairs with a more upright shaft and the puck closer in. Stick length, blade rocker and skating posture still affect the fit.
The published number is a brand label rather than a cross-brand ruler. Rocker and the rest of the blade mould still decide how much blade meets the ice. At the same finished stick length, a higher lie generally favours a more upright shaft position; a lower lie gives the player more room to carry the shaft away from the body.
Those descriptions matter. A Bauer P88, CCM P88, Warrior W88, and TRUE T88 can sit in the same shopping category without sitting on the ice or presenting the puck in precisely the same way.
When switching brands, treat the equivalent-pattern code as a starting point. Put the blades together and compare:
the face angle from heel to toe;
the rocker along the bottom of the blade;
blade length and height;
where the curve becomes most pronounced; and
how the blade lies in your normal skating posture.
The family resemblance is still useful. A P88 has a meaningful pocket through the middle of the blade, alongside far less of the increasingly open, hook-like toe found on more aggressive shooting patterns.
That difference becomes clearer once the puck starts moving.
Watch where the puck wants to go
On a P88, the puck’s natural workplace is the middle third of the blade. Start a wrist shot there and roll it through the pocket, and the release can feel orderly and predictable. Carry the puck there with compact touches, and the pocket gives feedback without urgently steering everything toward the toe.
The Bauer P92, CCM P29, Warrior W03, and TRUE T92 family opens more toward the toe. It still provides a broad working area, but offers more help when the puck is pulled inward and released farther forward.
Try the same toe-led move with a P88 and the puck may feel less securely cupped. A P88 can still perform a toe drag or modern snapshot, but its shape contributes less to the movement and leaves more work for your hands.
The geometry difference is modest, but it can require a real mechanical adjustment.
The puck tells the story in corrections. With a P88, a player chasing quick elevation may need to open the blade deliberately and finish the wrist action. With a P92 or P28, a player trying to thread a low shot through traffic may need to close the face more intentionally.
The correction flips with the blade: a P88 often asks you to add lift, while a P92 or P28 asks you to manage it.
Skill can override both tendencies. Players can elevate a P88 from distance or in tight by changing hand position, blade angle, pressure, and release point, and they can keep a P28 shot well below the glass. Each pattern merely changes which correction appears most often. Either can be the right correction for the player.
The P88 may make sense if you frequently want pucks below knee height, shoot through traffic, or take longer wrist shots that travel through the middle of the blade. It may also appeal if you dislike a release that becomes lively when your mechanics are slightly mistimed.
It can be a harder sell if much of your offence begins near the net and ends with immediate elevation. There, extra help from an open toe can be useful rather than fashionable.
The curve is only one contributor to shot speed. Flex, stick length, kick point, shaft loading, and sequencing all affect the release. A weak P88 shot may say more about where the player loads and releases the puck than about speed built into the pattern.
The quiet side of the game
Passing, receiving, and backhand play are the strongest parts of the P88 argument.
One independent review (opens in a new tab) and recurring player reports describe predictable forehand reception, flat passes, and comfortable backhand work. Compared with an aggressively open toe, more of the blade presents a relatively neutral surface to the puck. On the forehand, the middle can feel like a broad landing area. On the backhand, players often describe the same sense of predictability when receiving or sending the puck.
These remain repeated experiences rather than measured universal outcomes. Players in the same discussions report excellent backhands with P92 and P28 patterns. Others dislike the P88’s lie or rocker in their stance. Technique and blade contact remain major variables.
There is a trade-off, too. The more open face of a P92/P29 may make a rising saucer pass feel easier because it supplies more initial loft. A P88 can make the same pass, but a newer player may need to create more elevation and spin with the hands.
Stickhandling is similarly specific. The P88’s stable pocket may feel excellent when you carry through the middle, make compact touches, protect the puck with your body, and move it quickly into passes. A game built around toe retrievals, toe drags, and pull-and-release shots may expose the reduced toe hook instead.
That split tells you where you expect the puck to live.
In an unopposed drill, watch your hands. If the puck naturally spends most of its time between the heel and middle, the P88 deserves a look. If nearly every attacking movement ends with the puck captured at the toe, switching to a P88 is likely to demand a real mechanical adjustment.
Young players need the whole diagnosis
Calling the P88 a curve that “teaches proper technique” presents an editorial theory as fact. The evidence we found does not support that leap.
Because the pattern supplies less automatic loft, a young player using it may learn to control face angle and complete the shooting motion. Or an undersized player may build a poor compensation because the stick is too long, too stiff, or difficult to load. The curve cannot be diagnosed in isolation.
If a junior player cannot lift the puck, check the whole setup:
Can the player flex the shaft during a normal shot?
Has cutting the stick made its effective feel too stiff?
Does the blade sit reasonably flat in the player’s normal stance?
Is the puck being pushed, or does it travel along the blade before release?
Has the player used one setup long enough to develop repeatability?
A move to P28 may produce faster elevation without solving the underlying problem. Using a P88 to “force” development can be equally misguided.
For a developing player, consistency is usually more valuable than chasing a new pattern every few months. P88, P92, and P28 can all work when flex, length, and technique make sense. The best developmental pattern is one the player can obtain consistently and practise with long enough to understand.
TRUE still documented T88/MC in its curve information, but we could not verify it across the brand’s current flagship retail selectors. The evidence supports only thin mainstream availability; it does not establish that TRUE has formally discontinued the pattern.
Replacement convenience affects the hockey decision, too. A curve is less useful if your combination of hand, flex, length, and price is rarely available in your market.
Keep the rest of the setup intact. Preserving the P88 with an unsuitable flex or a heavily cut, overly stiff stick can erase the reason you liked the curve in the first place.
Choose from the corrections you keep making
Position is a poor shortcut. A modern defenceman may release primarily from the toe. A winger may build an entire game around low passes, retrievals, and backhands. Repeated puck actions tell you more than the letter beside your name on a lineup card.
Start with three questions:
Where does the puck live? If you naturally carry and release it through the middle of the blade, P88 geometry is working with you. If you depend on toe pulls and toe-release snapshots, P92/P29 or P28 geometry may ask less of your hands.
Which mistake costs you? If unwanted elevation and lively misses are the problem, the P88’s restraint may help. If the puck escapes the toe or will not rise quickly enough in tight, another pattern may remove a correction you keep making.
Can you replace the complete setup? Confirm the right hand, flex, length, and price before committing. The right curve on the wrong shaft is still the wrong stick.
Then compare, if you can. Keep finished length similar, along with flex and kick point, and test the ordinary game actions that curves have to survive:
receive firm passes on both sides;
collect pucks from the boards;
make flat forehand and backhand passes;
send short and long saucer passes;
shoot low and high from several distances;
release once from the middle and once from the toe; and
record misses, bobbled receptions, and unwanted elevation.
A new curve can seem better immediately because it produces one result the old pattern did not—perhaps an effortless high shot. Give that novelty one vote. The better pattern is the one that reduces corrections across the actions you perform most.
Already trust a P88 and cannot name a problem it is failing to solve? Keep playing. That is evidence, too.
The P88 still has a place. In the August 2026 assortments we checked, open, toe-assisted patterns occupied more of the shelf. For players who want predictable work through the middle of the blade, comfortable passing and backhand play, and intentional control of shot height, its restraint remains useful.
Boring puck contacts win shifts. The P88 still has a place for the player who wants more of them.
