One great way to save some money on hockey gear is to invest in a two-piece stick. These sticks allow you to mix and match your favourite brands, kick points, and blade patterns, in addition to requiring only half of a stick replacement rather than the full thing.

Winnwells shafts and blades offer a great place to start. The RXW5 Senior Wood hockey blade has a laminated fibreglass wood hosel and a laminated ABS construction. It is also equipped with a PS119 blade pattern.

Winnwells PS119 blade pattern is similar to Bauers P92 and CCMs P29, which is considered one of the best blade patterns for all-around play. It has a mid-curve style and is great at handling the puck in small spaces, including face-offs. This curve may suffer a little bit on the backhand.