SALT LAKE CITY — While mingling on the ice at the 2023 All-Star Game in Sunrise, Fla., Brady Tkachuk noticed the knob of Adam Fox’s stick. The New York Rangers defenseman handed it to Tkachuk, who tried holding it.

“That’s weird!” Tkachuk said in an NHL mic’d up segment. He got Aleksander Barkov’s attention and made sure the Florida Panthers captain saw the stick, too.

“I need it, dude,” Fox replied with a grin.

Fox’s knob — which is covered in so much tape that it resembles the bottom of a baseball bat — is one of the most distinct equipment quirks in the NHL. He curls his pinky over the knob when he’s playing and says his hand would fly off the stick without it. It serves as a backstop, he says.

As Tkachuk did at the All-Star Game, plenty of other players have taken note. Rangers captain J.T. Miller said he isn’t familiar with anyone else using as much tape as Fox for their knob. When taping his own stick, Miller circles the top 35 times. He estimates Fox — who goes off feel and doesn’t count himself — does it around 70 times.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider said. “It’s wild.”

Fox has liked having a knob on his stick ever since he was young, though it wasn’t always as extreme as it is now. It grew in college, then again early in his professional career. The Rangers’ equipment staffers have joked with him about it since his rookie season in 2019-20, and Miller cracked that the weight might impede his teammate’s skating.

A few of Adam Fox’s sticks sit ready for use (Courtesy of Adam Fox)

“It’s kind of taken a life of its own with its size now,” said Fox, who has heard it compared to the knob on a goalie’s stick.

Fox found a sweet spot around his third NHL season and hasn’t changed the size of his knob in the past few years. He doesn’t think he could have a good grip if it got any bigger, and he’s too used to his current knob size to want to reduce it.

The oversized knob isn’t some sort of superstition for Fox. It’s purely practical, helping his hands feel as comfortable as possible on the ice. Along with the added backstop for his left hand, he likes having a bit of heft at the end of his stick.

“My theory is the sticks have gotten lighter and lighter, so I’ve always added a little more to try and keep that weight,” he said shortly before a two-point night in a Rangers’ loss to the Avalanche.

Fox’s knob is distinct, but it isn’t the only strange one in the league. Look no further than Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone, who wraps his stick with medical tape instead of hockey tape. His knob isn’t as wide as Fox’s, but he adds even more tape under it to create a handle of sorts. Players all have their own preferences.

For each game, Fox has the stick he’s using, plus two backups already taped and a fourth stick cut but without tape. Taping takes 10-15 minutes per stick for Fox.

“It’s definitely a process, so breaking sticks isn’t too fun for me,” he said.

Once or twice, opponents have mentioned Fox’s knob in a game. He’ll hear about it from teammates, too. Schneider remembers being shocked the first time he saw it. He thinks his pinky would get sore if he held a stick the way Fox does.

Most importantly for the Rangers, the tape job works for Fox. He’s been one of the most consistent defensemen in the league, winning the Norris as the NHL’s top defenseman in 2021 and finishing in the top five in voting the next three seasons. His point production went down in 2024-25, mostly because of the Rangers’ struggling power play, but this year he’s been by far the team’s best player by colleague Dom Luszczyszyn’s Net Rating model. He and Vladislav Gavrikov have teamed up to make one of the league’s top defensive pairs.

The large knob hasn’t come with on-ice drawbacks throughout his career, even if it still baffles some teammates.

“It’s definitely something I feel like you see here and there among some (defensemen), but it’s definitely surprising,” Schneider said. “I think you think of more of a steady, stay-at-home guy when you see a knob like that, not a guy that’s walking you at the blue line. But it works.”