Let us first go through a few basics on the goaltender hockey stick. The stick is composed of three parts, the shaft, the paddle and the blade.
The shaft is the longest and thin section, it mostly serves to grip the stick and facilitate handling the puck.
The paddle is the thicker section directly below the shaft. This section is wider in order to cover more surface and to facilitate the stopping of pucks. Some goaltenders place the paddle length along the ice in some positions in order to cover the bottom portion of the net.
Finally, the blade portion of the stick is used to stop pucks along the ice and to handle the puck. The blade section will be in contact with the puck more often than any other section.