Knee Rolls, Flat Face, on pads, purpose?

What is the purpose of the knee roll? I'm seeing more pads coming out with the older style rounded knee pad. Why are some flat faced?

What are the benefits of these options?

Chewy, that's a damn good question and one I honestly have no clue about. I know it has something to do with deadening rebounds or controlling the direction they go in, but honestly I have no idea. I prefer flat faced pads since they seem to give the most predictable patterns.

Purpose of the knee roll? Basically, the goalie leg pad design was based on the cricket leg pads. The knee rolls on their pads carried over to goalie leg pads. As pad design changed, the knee rolls-look disappeared with appropriate padding still intact in that area. Some company in the 80's started making leg pads without any rolls. I forgot the name but Arturs Irbe wore them. Aero something

Caveman, I've recently noticed they're coming back though. So there has to be a specific purpose. Good question.

Originally Posted by ItechWarrior

Caveman, I've recently noticed they're coming back though. So there has to be a specific purpose. Good question.

Goalie leg pads used to be made with leather stuffed with deer hair. Nowadays, padding is man-made foam, there's no reason to compact foam in a roll. As for knee rolls with man-made foam, I think it allows for more pad flexibility.

Originally Posted by caveman27

Goalie leg pads used to be made with leather stuffed with deer hair. Nowadays, padding is man-made foam, there's no reason to compact foam in a roll. As for knee rolls with man-made foam, I think it allows for more pad flexibility.

Right but they're still placed over top of the interior foam that's over your leg anyways, in my mind it demotes flexibility for the purpose of doing something else.

I think I remember hearing somewhere that the knee rolls dampen the speed of the puck, allowing for better rebound control. I could be wrong, and maybe it's just my rebound control that has improved, but ever since switching to my Vaughns with the knee rolls, I've had a lot less rebounds to deal with than with my flat faced RBKs.

Glad someone asked this question because I was too embarrassed to ask. I'm attaching a pic of my pillows: D&R LG55 Talk about rolls or coils! At 20 lbs dry each these bad boys have coils out the yin-yang. Dont know if the pic shows it clearly but you could literally catch a puck in the knee coils if you had your knees bent enough. IE, the coils are deep enough at trap a puck in them. Not their designed purpose obviously but it was a nice result of the design.

They are stuffed with horse hair and kapok. Rebounds, even rockets, were never much of an issue (not because I was good but because they are so damn thick, they'd absorb shots and the puck would just drop down to the ice) with them but boy oh boy are they heavy and very heavy when wet. My guess is the roll or coil design was to aid flexibility of the pad itself. When I got back into things again (old fart observer status) I was pretty surprised at the lightness of the new pillows and the front face of them but it seems the new design has a lot of flex built into the knee and top of the ankle. What are they stuffing them with these days and how much do they weigh each?