Easton Stealth S19 One Piece Stick Review

By Hockey Gear Review M, Hockey Gear Review 

Thursday September 1st 2011

The high-end one-piece composite stick segment is always exciting and entertaining to analyze; these sticks are pricey, solely performance based and this particular market segment is dominated by just a handful of sticks and even fewer manufacturers.

One of these sticks is the Easton S19, revered as “crème de la crème” by professionals, amateurs and recreational players alike. Those who play with this stick are demanding of it – and so they should be at $289.99. Suffice to say HGR has had the opportunity to demo this stick and we can say that it lives up to its expectations.

While compression molded shafts aren’t big news, Easton claims that the S19 features thin layers of Kevlar wrapping, in fact, “twice as many” layers resulting in added feel, torsional stiffness and responsiveness.

As you make your way down the concave shaft towards the blade, Easton incorporated what they refer to as the TORX Elliptical profile, an oval-shaped shaft designed to “store and release torque” allowing quicker shot releases.

Warrior was one of the first stick manufacturers to design and use multi-ribbed channels found on the backside of the blades. Easton has done something similar with the S19 which they refer to as the Micro Bladder – designed to control and maintain blade torqueing and flexing during shot releases. As expected the blade is rigid and whether you’re passing, loading up one-timers or shooting, the puck comes off hot.

What I discovered shooting around with the S19 was how harmonious the shaft and blade felt, together they felt synchronized. The shaft releases quickly, you feel confident with “point and shoot accuracy” and the high-density core blade provides very good feedback.

One of the other benefits to added layers of Kevlar is shaft and blade dampening – an area that most manufactures pay little attention to. I took a few one timers off the toe of the blade and while it affected the velocity, I didn’t feel any chattering vibrations from the shaft.

I’ve never been one to have performance and durability issues with Easton sticks and I don’t expect the S19 to be any different. This is a high performance stick and you get what you pay for. To get the most out of the shaft and blade you need to get down and into your shots. I would not recommend the S19 to beginner and middle-intermediate players as the performance gains will be marginal and the same results could be achieved from a stick that costs a fraction of the price. Viewers may also want to consider the ST or EQ50 as an alternative to the S19. The Sr. models are available in 3 flexes (100, 85, 65) and just two patterns (Sakic & Zetterberg). The Jr. model is a 50 flex and available in Iginla and Sakic patterns. It would have been nice to see additional patterns but with limited patterns, it allows sales to spread amongst comparable Easton brands. Hockey Gear Review recommends the Easton S19 to the intermediate player and above.