The NHL offseason is over and that means the league's hockey players are back to days filled with skating and eating right.
With the 2023-2024 NHL season now underway, hockey players like the Edmonton Oilers' Connor McDavid and Toronto Maple Leafs' Mitch Marner need to ensure they're eating the right foods to help them stay fuelled on game days.
Cristina Sutter is a sports dietitian based in Vancouver who has worked with many NHL players, including the Vancouver Canucks team for 10 years, and she recently spoke to Narcity about what pro hockey players eat on a regular basis.
Sutter says nutrition is a "game changer" for professional hockey players because it's what fuels all their time on the ice.
"They have to play twice a day, every day, all season long. You have to have a full gas tank for that. You have to be able to recover and you have to be able to keep your speed and your power," she explained.
"Even after a late game you have to play again the very next morning (at practice) and so the only way to do that is with a really solid recovery nutrition plan."
That's why Sutter says NHLers need to consume a high amount of calories on game days and focus on the right foods to keep them going.
From what NHL players eat in a day, including right before a game, to how they stay hydrated, here's what Sutter had to say.
What do NHL players eat in a day?
During the season, NHL players will have a morning skate around 10 a.m. and their games are typically in the evening around 7 p.m. so nutrition is focused on fuelling those skate times, Sutter says.
Breakfast is typically eaten about two hours before a player's morning skate.
According to Sutter, breakfast is pretty standard with "toast and eggs, maybe oatmeal, a protein shake, a smoothie."
"They've [NHL players] gotten into the habit of more filling breakfasts. So there'd be a balance of carbohydrates and protein and not much fat there because they'd be skating right after."
Once the morning skate is done, the hockey players will have lunch next and Sutter says it's a meal that's heavy on the carbs with foods like pasta and rice.
"It wouldn't just be a sandwich. These guys are hungry, they're 185 pounds of muscle," the sports nutritionist said. "That lunch is going to be easily 1,000 calories."
Their pre-game "lucky foods," as Sutter calls them, are typically cereal, bagels, rice and pasta.
"That's all carbs and that's the main fuel that you need in hockey."
A nap follows lunch and then hockey players have their dinner or pre-game meal around 4 p.m.
"We would consider that a light dinner because you don't want to eat anything really heavy before you have to perform. So it would also be low in fat but lots of carbs because that's your main fuel for hockey. So it would be rice, toast, cereal, chicken, yogurt, fruit, peanut butter, that kind of stuff."
Hockey players need to recover almost immediately after a game, but Sutter says it's never the biggest meal of the day.
"We're always looking for 40 grams of carbs and a little bit of protein but mostly carbs. So that might be a smoothie, it might be a recovery shake, or it might be a [protein] bar or a sandwich."
What do NHL players eat before a game?
The pregame meal happens around three hours before a game.
Sutter says NHLers do still eat a snack before getting on the ice to give them a "little boost of sugar energy to fuel those muscles."
"Fifteen minutes, [or] half an hour before the game, that's when they would have like a sport drink type product or something just with a lot of sugar. Drinks obviously get into your muscles faster so some of them prefer drinks, but some of them might have like a Clif Bar."
Do NHL players eat after a game?
Sutter says a hockey player's recovery meal after a game is super important. However that meal shouldn't be too heavy because the athlete's fuel typically comes before and during exercise. A post-game meal should therefore account for about 25% of the athlete's daily intake.
According to Sutter, NHLers will likely be refuelling with a smoothie or shake soon after getting off the ice. Then they'll have their dinner when they get onto the bus or plane.
"If they're lucky it might be sushi or something light or it might be like a hot meal," Sutter noted.
"We want a good balance between the carbs, the protein and veggies. If it's a home game, we can control it. We have a chef that would do a nice pasta option, rice option, chicken option, salad option. All super clean. But if they're travelling, then it's whatever can be organized as close as possible to that."
How many calories should a hockey player eat in a day?
Hockey players spend a lot of time on the ice during the NHL season so nutrition is key to ensure they have enough fuel to keep them going.
That means NHLers need to consume between 3,000 to 3,500 calories a day, Sutter says. That's much more than the 2,000 to 2,400 range recommended for the average Canadian.
What do NHL players drink throughout the day?
Sutter says hydration can "make or break" the professional athletes because if they get dehydrated and their body temperature goes up even by 0.2 of a degrees, they can lose "all power and speed."
"They need to drink probably 750 millilitres to a litre per hour of a skate so they need to go through like two water bottles every game and practice," Sutter told Narcity.
The sport dietitian adds that at the NHL level, you would rarely see a hockey player drinking straight water. Instead they're drinking a lot of electrolytes and it's typically a brand called BioSteel.
"I would say 50 to 75% of them are having sport drinks so that would be Gatorade or [something] equivalent and that's to give you the carbohydrate fuel because your fuel stores will only last into second period. [In] third period your legs will crash if you don't have the sport drink to keep you going."
When it comes to caffeine, Sutter says some NHL players will opt to have an energy drink before a game to give them a boost of energy. However, she says energy drinks don't play a role in hydration.
"Water alone wouldn't be enough because they wear so much equipment," Sutter explained.
"When you sweat a lot and if you don't rehydrate your body temperature goes up and your muscles are fried, they can't work anymore. So the electrolytes in the sport drink work on that hydration piece."
As for who needs to drink the most, that would be the goalies who sweat twice as much as the players.
What do NHL players eat when travelling for games?
While travelling for games can be fun, Sutter says it can also be challenging in terms of ensuring the players eat the right kinds of meals.
"A lot of the time it might be something catered or from a restaurant and we try and make it as close to what a home-cooked meal would look like," she told Narcity.
"But it's hard to change the fact that many restaurants will make heavier foods and that can pose a challenge when they're [NHL players] travelling a lot."
What foods are NHL players told to avoid before a game?
Not every NHL team works with a sports nutritionist, but Sutter says there are some universal tips she would share with any player, especially when it comes to foods they should avoid.
The nutrition expert notes that fat takes between 12 to 16 hours to digest so a player doesn't want to have it in their system when they go out on the ice because it won't be available as a "fuel to [their] muscles."
"It would be punishing if you had French fries or pizza right before you played. You wouldn't want a big lasagna dish either, you would just feel like laying on the couch," Sutter said.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
A photo shared by Nazem Kadri from Mitch Marner's wedding.