from Jack Han of Eyes On The Prize,

First, you want a player with long arms. Longer arms for a skater means more range for stickhandling, more power for shooting, and more leverage in corner puck battles. For a goalie, long arms means a better ability to take away the top of the net when down in a butterfly stance.

Second, you want a player with a big, heavy torso. This is much more important for goalie than for skaters, since a goaltender with a big torso can use a bigger chest protector and cover more of the gap between his shoulders and the crossbar.

Third, you want a player with short legs. Longer legs means a higher top-end speed, as Usain Bolt has demonstrated in sprinting, but shorter legs means better acceleration,as almost every other sprinter in Olympic history has demonstrated. In hockey, a skater reaches top speed for a brief moment, before needing to stop, change direction, and accelerate in the opposite direction. Goalies with shorter legs have a better push-off angle when going across the crease, and can be quicker to close the five-hole.

Anecdotally, it may help for a player to have smaller calves. Less weight at the extremities means more efficient movement, mirroring and amplifying the benefits of lighter skates. Wayne Simmons and Daniel Briere's lower legs look like they belong on a distance runner.

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