How to win faceoffs in hockey

Updated October 17, 2026

Every period starts with a faceoff, and so does play after almost every whistle. The team that wins the draw starts with the puck. Winning faceoffs isn't luck. It comes from a strong stance, the right grip, good timing and a plan your linemates know. Here's how faceoffs work, the rules that get centers thrown out, six moves to learn, and drills you can do alone or with a partner.

How a faceoff works

Two players, usually the centers, face off at one of the nine faceoff dots. The official drops the puck between your sticks, and each of you tries to send it to a teammate. Everyone else lines up around you and waits for the drop.

Center ice draws start each period and follow every goal. Other whistles go to one of the other eight dots, depending on where and why play stopped. A lost draw in your own end can turn into a shot against in a second, which is why coaches care so much about them. The hockey positions guide covers what centers do the rest of the time.

The rules that matter

These are the NHL rules. Youth leagues have their own rulebooks and some details differ, so the table below shows USA Hockey's version too.

1. Square up. Stand facing the other team's end of the rink, with your skates clear of the lines painted at the dot. At center ice you stand about a stick length apart.
2. Set in order. At center ice, the visiting center puts their stick down first. At every other dot, the defending center sets first, skates and stick, then the attacking center.
3. Everyone else stays out. No other player can enter the circle or come within 15 feet of the two centers before the drop. At the end-zone dots, wingers line up behind the hash marks on the outside of the circle.
4. Stay still. Don't move your stick or your body until the puck is dropped.

Break one of these and it's a faceoff violation. The common ones are moving early, not squaring up, putting your stick in the wrong spot, and a teammate creeping into the circle. The official throws you out of the draw and another player on the ice takes it. Players call that getting waved out or kicked out.

In the NHL, after an icing, each center gets one warning for a violation instead of being thrown out. If one team commits two violations on the same draw, it gets a two-minute bench minor for delay of game. Batting the puck with your hand to win a faceoff is also a minor penalty.

Youth rules have extra details too. USA Hockey's casebook says a 10U player who's too small to fit their skates and stick inside the lines at an end-zone dot can line up with their skates over the lines, as long as their stick is on the ice and they're squared up. Hockey Canada and other leagues have their own rulebooks, so if you're not sure, ask your coach or a referee.

Stance

A good faceoff stance is low, wide and balanced. It lets you pull hard, and it keeps you from getting shoved off the puck after the drop.

1. Feet wider than your shoulders, knees well bent, weight on the balls of your feet.
2. Dig your inside edges into the ice. That's where your strength comes from. A tall center gets pushed around.
3. Lean forward a little, with your chest over your knees and your head over the dot.
4. Top hand on the knob, bottom hand slid low on the shaft for leverage.
5. Blade on the ice where the rules say, close to your feet, so your pull is short and quick.
6. Eyes on the puck in the official's hand.

Get set quickly when the official tells you to. A center who's slow to set can be thrown out too.

Grip, and the reverse grip

Most of the time you hold the stick the way you do to shoot, with your bottom hand slid down low. That grip is good for forehand draws and for pushing the puck forward.

For a backhand draw, many centers turn the bottom hand over, so the palm faces up instead of down. This is the reverse grip. It lets you pull the puck back on your backhand with your arm and shoulder, the way you'd pull on a rope, instead of with just your wrist.

Practice getting into the reverse grip in your stance until you can do it without looking. If you change grips at the last second, the other center can see what's coming.

Six faceoff moves

Learn the backhand draw first. Then add the others, so the other center can't guess what you'll do.

1. Backhand draw. The basic win. With the reverse grip, pull the puck straight back on your backhand to a defenseman, in one short, hard motion. Turn your hips and shoulders with the pull, not just your arms.
2. Forehand draw. Sweep the puck back on your forehand side. Use it when the teammate you want is on that side, or when the other center is cheating to block your backhand.
3. Tie-up. If you can't win it clean, take away the other center's stick. As the puck drops, lift their stick or pin it with yours, then step into the spot so your body is between them and the puck. A winger comes in and takes it, or you kick it back with your skate. Tie up the stick, not the player. In USA Hockey, making contact with the other center's body, except while playing the puck after the drop, is an interference penalty.
4. Push through and go. Push the puck forward past the other center's stick, between or beside their skates, then step around them and pick it up. It works best in the neutral zone or the other team's end, with open ice behind them, against a center who leans back to pull.
5. Poke past. Poke or chip the puck forward or to the side, past the other center, to a winger moving up the ice. In the attacking zone you can even shoot it at the net right off the draw.
6. Use your feet and your wingers. Lots of draws end up as a loose puck in the skates. Kicking it to a teammate is legal (you just can't kick it into the net), and a winger who jumps on that loose puck turns a tie into a win.

Before every draw, decide which move you'll use and where the puck is going, and tell your linemates. "Back to the left D" is enough.

Reading the drop and timing it

A lot of draws are lost on timing. You want to move the instant the puck leaves the official's hand, not before.

• Watch the hand. Keep your eyes on the puck in the official's hand. Some centers watch the wrist or elbow, which starts to move a split second earlier.
• Learn the official. Every official has a slightly different rhythm. Watch the first few drops of the game from the bench, and ask teammates who've already taken draws.
• Don't guess. Jump early and you're thrown out, and whoever replaces you starts cold.
• Play it in the air. You don't have to wait for the puck to land. Hitting it with your stick on the way down is fine, as long as it's a real attempt to play the puck.
• Keep battling. Plenty of draws aren't decided on the first touch. If it's a tie, stay low and keep working for it.

Faceoff drills

On your own

1. Grip switches. In your stance, switch from your normal grip to the reverse grip and back. 3 sets of 20, until you can do it without looking down.
2. Backhand pulls. On a smooth floor or a shooting pad, set a puck in front of you and pull it back on your backhand to a target about six feet behind you, like a shoe. 3 sets of 15, then the same on your forehand.
3. Quick hands. Stickhandle a ball fast in a small space for 30 seconds, then rest 30 seconds. 5 rounds. Quick hands help on the second and third touch. Stickhandling drills at home has more.

With a partner

1. Partner drops. A parent or teammate stands where the official would and drops the puck, changing the timing every time. Win it back to a target. 10 on your backhand, 10 on your forehand, 3 rounds.
2. Live draws. Two centers and someone to drop the puck. Play to 10, then switch sides of the dot. Then add a winger on each side, so ties turn into battles.
3. Draws at practice. Ask your coach for 5 to 10 minutes of faceoffs at the end of practice, in all three zones, with each unit calling its play first.

Ten minutes a few times a week will do more for you than one long session once a month.

The wingers' and defense's jobs

A faceoff is a five-skater play. The center gets the first touch, but the other four decide a lot of draws.

• Everyone knows the plan. Where the center will win it, and what happens next: a shot, a breakout pass, a dump-in.
• Wingers line up legally. Creeping over the hash marks gets your center thrown out.
• Wingers win loose pucks. On a tie, the winger closest to the puck jumps in and takes it. If your center is tying up the other center, that puck is yours.
• Wingers take away the other team. Block the other winger's path to the puck. In your own end, get to your coverage fast if the draw is lost.
• Every forward can take a draw. If your center gets waved out, a winger steps in, so practice taking them.
• Defense is the target. On a backhand draw, the puck often comes to a defenseman. Be ready with your stick on the ice and move it right away. The other defenseman stays ready to cover the front of the net if the draw is lost.

In your own end, if the draw is lost, wingers usually cover the other team's defensemen at the points and your defensemen pick up the forwards near the net. Your coach sets the exact assignments. How to play defense covers what happens after that.

Common faceoff mistakes

• Moving early and getting thrown out.
• Standing up tall and getting pushed off the puck.
• Using the same move every time. Good centers remember.
• Giving up after the first touch.
• Wingers watching the draw instead of jumping in.
• Nobody knowing the plan.

Take draws at the end of every practice and they'll come. On a day off the ice, Brudvig Hockey is a free 3-on-3 arcade hockey game you can play in a web browser.