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FastestThings

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Zdeno Chara

Fastest shot in an NHL skills competition: 108.8 mph on 29 January 2012 in Ottawa. Guinness, the Boston Globe and the CBC skills sheet all print 108.8.

Also known as Chara 108.8
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Ball speed

Published as 108.8 mphPublished as 108.8 mphPublished as 108.8 mph

Fastest recorded shot in NHL skills-competition history. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins, All-Star skills, Ottawa, 29 January 2012. 108.8 mph is 175.5 km/h. Not the KHL record, and not his older 105 mph shot.

OfficialGuinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 1.7× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • A football field in 1.9 sConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 31 h 49 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

Mechanism

Why it's so fast

Zdeno Chara's shot speed comes from the stick unloading. The shaft bends, stores energy, and throws the puck as it straightens. Skating speed is not this number.

  1. Stick flex

    Loading the shaft and letting it rebound adds puck speed beyond the speed of the hands. The flex has to match the shooter's timing.

  2. The measured shot

    Zdeno Chara's figure is the shot the event printed. A skating top speed is a different measurement and is not substituted.

Nearby on this list: Denis Kulyash.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 175km/h108.8mph48.6m/s94.5knRanked figure

    Fastest recorded shot in NHL skills-competition history. Zdeno Chara, Boston Bruins, All-Star skills, Ottawa, 29 January 2012. 108.8 mph is 175.5 km/h. Not the KHL record, and not his older 105 mph shot.

    The Boston Globe prints 108.8 miles per hour. CBC's 2012 hardest-shot sheet prints Zdeno Chara, BOS, 108.8. The Globe also prints his previous record as 105.9 mph. Guinness's Kulyash page prints 105.4 mph for a 2009 shot. Those older figures disagree, so they are not stored.

    Official
    Guinness World Records (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Player
Zdeno Chara
Event
NHL All-Star skills
Speed
108.8 mph
Date
29 January 2012

Context

Background

Guinness records the fastest shot in NHL history as 108.8 mph, also 175.5 km/h, by Zdeno Chara at the All-Star skills competition in Ottawa on 29 January 2012. The Boston Globe prints 108.8 miles per hour for that skills shot. CBC's results sheet for the 2012 hardest-shot event prints Zdeno Chara of Boston at 108.8.

The row is the NHL skills record. Kulyash's 110.3 mph is a different league's skills event and is its own row. Chara's previous skills mark is 105.9 mph in the Globe and 105.4 mph on a Guinness page about a 2009 shot, so that older number is not ranked.

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.