GoalForFun

Height: 5’10” Weight: 150 lbs Shoots: Left I've been playing hockey since I was 7 with roller and started ice when I was 11. I've played as high as midget AAA but was a career AA player at best, along with high school varsity hockey in New Jersey. I've used many sticks throughout my time on the ice. To give you an idea of what I have to compare the Proto-R to, I've used: Nike Bauer Vapor XXX Lite TPS Response R8 RBK 7K SicKick Easton Synergy SL Easton Stealth CNT Easton Stealth S19 CCM pro stock with XX-stiff blade TRUE A6.0 SBP (pro stock) Warrior QR Edge Bauer APX2 Bauer Vapor ADV (both retail and pro stock) Bauer Nexus 1NXL Bauer Nexus 2NPro Bauer 1X Lite Bauer Pro Custom 2NPro + Vapor 1X Lite blade Bauer Nexus ADV Stick specs: 70 flex, Pastrnak (MyBauer custom) Blade/Receiving Passes - 9.5/10 Even with the stiff bridges blade it's very easy to receive passes with this stick. Not sure how much of that is my ability versus the stick's construction, however, I don't find that pucks ricochet off the blade even when I'm not consciously making an effort to cradle the pass. The only minus I would give the blade is that it's not the most durable, as evidenced by the top layer of carbon peeling off after a slight chip. It hasn't affected the actual performance of the blade, but I worry that it'll lead to a breakage soon. Shaft/Flex – 10/10 Nothing much to elaborate on here, the traditional shaft taper with the Nexus hybrid corners has started to grow on me. My Pro Customs had the square corners found on the Supreme, but since that was not an option on these limited customs I could not pick it. However, not missing the squared-off shaft at all. As far as the flex goes, I will say that the stick responds fairly quickly to my inputs. I can confidently say that this stick gets pucks off as quickly as my Vapor ADV does. I don't know if that's the boron-infused carbon working but it's definitely noticeable as I can get shots off in traffic faster and passes come off the blade faster before a defender can execute a stick-on-puck defend. Stickhandling – 10/10 Others may disagree but I find that stiff blades are better for stickhandling than softer blades, particularly when it comes to heads-up stickhandling as the extra ping from the blade allows me to feel where the puck is on the blade better than a dampened feel. The bridges blade is certainly the reason for this, and I'm glad that Bauer finally put an XX-stiff blade on a mid kick stick available to retail customers. And the light weight of the stick allows for quick maneuvers in traffic. Shooting – 10/10 As mentioned above, this stick releases shots faster than a traditional mid kick does, probably because of the boron construction paired with the bridges blade. Can't find any fault with how the stick performs with respect to shooting. Weight and Balance – 10/10 This stick weighs 354g without tape which is lighter than the retail Vapor ADV and Nexus ADV. Many players lament light sticks, but I love them. A lot of the complaints come down to puck feel and balance, but I think that's a factor of the entire stick construction rather than just the weight itself. I didn't like the blade feel of the Vapor ADV despite the lightness of the stick, and I actually did like the blade feel of my Pro Customs despite the heavier weight. This stick also feels very well-balanced as in that it does not feel blade heavy in the slightest. Having picked up the newest Bauer Twitch stick and also held the AG5NT, both of those sticks claim to be lighter than the Proto-R (for the AG5NT I believe it; the Twitch less so) but they are so blade-heavy that they feel heavier than the Proto-R even if that isn't the case. Durability – 7/10* This is the only black mark against this stick. Like many players have experienced with the AG5NT, I have experienced what I believe to be premature breakage of the Proto-R. Durability has to be sacrificed in the name of weight savings, however, I have already broken one Proto-R after only 4 men's league games of use (roughly 4 hours of total on-ice play) and the blade on another is starting to flake and peel (as mentioned above). I hope that my warranty replacement and remaining stick from my original order don't suffer the same fate. Intangibles The graphics are cool, reminiscent of the Supreme 1S 2.0 combined with the APX2 livery. However, not the best graphics I have ever seen on a stick. If Bauer allowed a graphic mix-and-match like they do now with the Pro Custom offerings, I would choose to go with the Twitch or Hyp2rlite graphics. I went with the blue color and will say that I love how it looks mixed with the "rainbow" effect of the holographic chrome. Conclusion – 10/10 Bottom line: I initially said that the Nexus ADV was the best stick available for my play style, and at the time that was the truth. However, since the release of the Proto-R I think that I will continue to use these for as long as Bauer offers them on their MyBauer customizer. The perfect blend of lightweight and balance, stiff blade, and quick release on par with a low kick. I will be very sad once the Proto-R is phased out of their customizer, and I don't have the funds presently to hoard more of them... hopefully by the time I do have the money the stick will still be available for customization.

Maybe Bauer has already abandoned the Powerfly holder 😂

The flip side of my comment is that pros are so good that they can excel with just about any gear and incremental changes don't affect performance as significantly as you would see in another sport like Formula 1 which is dependent on fractions of seconds. Now, will they be able to articulate the differences they feel between the two holders (as is the type of feedback that you're looking for)? Absolutely. But would their performance be significantly different enough to compel a pro to use one over the other? Probably not, but there are many players who are superstitious about their gear and almost never change anything. See: Crosby and McDavid are two of the best skaters of the salary cap era and they skate on old CCM tech.

While having a larger sample size is always good, I don’t know if MSH has enough technically sound skaters that would be able to give you an accurate assessment lol It would be like asking the hockeyplayers subreddit their thoughts about the on-ice Marsblade. Based on the initial impressions of those who got the holder, you’d think it was the best technological advancement in skate technology since boots went from leather to composite, and now look how many people are actually using it.

When I ordered my FT4 Pros I did not see any options like what you're describing. They only offered builds in the 3 (now 2) lines of Ribcor, Tacks, and Jetspeed and there weren't options to change the facing beyond stiffness. I don't even think they had the option for a +1" boot.

Is it possible? Yes, but there are only like 3 or 4 sellers on eBay that you can get it from who get it from the teams directly. Is it the same as other leagues? For the most part, yes. The sticks are the same prostock offerings that the major retailers provide to the NHLers. As far as the protective goes, the higher-budget teams like CKSA, SKA, and Dynamo will have custom colorway gloves with the team logo on the thumb and their pants will be custom colorway with whatever side striping and team logo on the pant leg. Lower budget teams will often use retail gloves with colorways that match their team colors, and their pants will be solid color with the European style velcro patches that come off so sponsor patches can be placed on the legs.

Got a pair of custom Proto-Rs for my birthday (70 flex Pasta curve), this stick is honestly incredible. It’s a mid kick but pucks release off it almost as quickly as the Vapor ADV. And I love the XX stiff blade.

Correct (if you haven't gotten a response before now lol)

Pic 1 and 2: P28/Pasta/Kuch Pic 3 and 4: Kuch/Pasta/Kuch Pics 5 and 6: Pasta/Kuch/Pasta I don’t have a second P28 that isn’t a Nexus ADV right now to sandwich but you can see compared to the Kuch, the Pasta is more closed. Comparing the Pasta to the P28 is more subtle, but at least to me looks like the toe of the Pasta is slightly more open than the P28. If you want I can try to do a comparison with Pasta/P28/Pasta.

Maybe they just don’t manufacture those ones individually and are trying to find a way to send you new holders?

Funny that Bauer used to offer this, then did away with it, and now that CCM has been doing it since the first gen Jetspeed Bauer is bringing it back.

When I went to a store to compare the Pasta to the Kuch to the P28, the Pasta is closer to the P28 than it is to the Kuch, but the difference is super subtle and I doubt it makes *that* much of a difference to the average beer leaguer. And my impression is the Pasta is actually more *closed* than the P28 but that’s based on the eyeball test with the sample they had on display; I don’t know if they’ve updated any of the curves since introducing them on MyBauer (like if pros have since modified them). The Kuch is identical to the Warrior W28, which to my understanding is essentially a Fisher Pro (think of it as a P28 that is smoothed out from the heel to the mid part of the blade, where the P28 has an ever so slight heel “kink” similar to what you would find on the P91/A family of curves).

They're still an option on CCM custom skates if you want to go that route.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/325630791286?itmmeta=01HQNQA7MD3M9VR52DK2PARVT4&hash=item4bd11b8e76:g:kIIAAOSwKztkRvij&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwGqkvvzQnoTYMlqi%2BBjpPwJGZxUtuc6WuBhxZCV6wvltLQqGHJd7ALSbGVe%2FsKpUm6aVbTnKHZrDmAe%2FupT0DDsUY%2FZ5tSBdrzliAQ1PIvNiCpwXT3hTkbe%2FgAsuo6Bqs70BjmeK%2FL0Ax9tDWjCf677nVcXgVQQqSqmdgsifogr51m4htoqlW%2FmSnj3SAyKGi1EtRUjjjY3NhUCkNTu8%2BEuzklKQMDGz5UNoLvqFu%2B9JxXP21VuBNJy6PesqpNQNTg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6j6qLe9Yw Here is your Malkin AG5NT. 87 flex though.

I mean, the stick order sheet I got was from a non-NHL pro team in Europe and it had all the options (including the G15F that OP is asking for).

Short answer: 99% no. Long answer: the 1% of the time you need to know either an EQM of a pro team with a Bauer account that has access to the full range of pro custom options. Then that EQM needs to be willing to ask their team’s management office if they can slip in your order with the next batch of (re)orders for their players. If the mould of the blade exists then great; if you’re planning on sending in your custom curve then it’ll be something like $2000 to have it made. I was actually trying to do the same thing through a friend of a friend who is the EQM of a team in Europe but the guy ghosted me, even after giving me the order spec sheet with literally every Bauer stick option to date.

Thanks for the info, not sure it’ll apply to me, someone who weighs twice as much and will be using a 70 flex 😅

I remember when it was: Hockey Monkey > Hockey Giant > Total Hockey > Pure Hockey

Thanks for reply. How’s the blade holding up? And how would you say the stiffness compares to say a 1X Lite blade?

Any updates on Proto R durability?

Someone already mentioned Oggie grips but STX Surgeon had a different shaft shape at the top only for a similar effect. I guess you could consider any “odd” shaft shape in the answers to this question: Easton Ellipse, CCM Octogun, CCM Ribcor taper, CCM Jetspeed asymmetrical, RBK O-stick, Bauer ER Spine, Bauer Sonic Taper, Trilage triangle hockey shaft.

Nothing like showing off an AG5NT stick that clearly doesn't have the ellptical taper.

will have to see what my schedule looks like, should find out next month, and if i can take a vacation that month then will try to come on through!

Yup. If you want any custom work done on gloves and can wait, then CPR is your go to.

These were like 4 years in the making, from finding appropriate donor gloves to getting the embroidery files digitized and then stitched out, then sent off to CPR. Didn't get around to sharing on this forum. Here's a teardown photo CPR sent me: