Vaughn Ventus SLR Pro Carbon Blocker & Trapper Review

New for 2017 are the Vaughn SLR Pro Carbon blocker and trapper. Building off a successful Ventus LT98 series, Vaughn made some small tweaks and enhancements to make the SLR gloves some of their best yet.

Blocker

Vaughn uses a combination of high-density foam and carbon fiber to create a sturdy blocker face, as well as adjusting the board angle, sideboard, finger protection and palm.

The Vaughn LT98 blocker, along with a couple other blockers, featured an aggressive blocker angle for controlling shots that don’t contact the center of the blocker. As the position progresses, goalies become more and more technical, which results in better rebound control. For this reason, most blockers—and now including the Vaughn SLR—are designed with a less aggressive board angle.

The less aggressive board angle also increases the length of the board slightly; the SLR blocker board is actually 1/4" longer than the LT98.

The sideboard is much larger on the SLR, increasing coverage at your wrist and fingers. HD foam and carbon fiber are used to construct the sidewall; directly integrated into the blocker board, giving the blocker an entirely one-piece look and overall better protection.

Also, Vaughn has increased the size of the air pillow on the inside, absorbing greater amounts of impact to protect your hand.

Turning the blocker over, we see some improvements made to the finger protection. Firstly, the thumb protection is made with a molded carbon fiber cap. Carbon fiber is then used to reinforce the finger protection—compared to the LT98, it’s much more difficult to bend the finger protection on the SLR.

Further to this, the SLR features a larger, straight edge index finger protector. This protects your index finger as it sits atop your stick paddle.

Vaughn uses VX suede on the SLR palm, like they did the LT98; however, they removed VX suede from the middle, ring and pinky fingers, and use VX suede on just the index finger and thumb. This way, you have a more controlling grip on your stick and better mobility with just Nash on your other fingers.

Trapper

The SLR Pro Carbon trapper has a few tweaks in design, to improve the glove’s performance. The Ventus LT98 trapper was very popular for Vaughn, so making drastic changes to the SLR Pro Carbon would be unnecessary.

The most important change in the SLR is the catching area. The SLR cuff is slightly smaller than the LT98 cuff, enabling Vaughn to allocate more surface area in the catching area of the glove. For those of you that transition from a previous Ventus glove to the SLR, you will need to adjust your hand position and familiarize with the larger catching area. Other than that, the glove closes the same and feels similar to the LT98. Given Vaughn’s reputation, you know you’re getting a good glove.

Rather than having a traditional single-T, Vaughn uses a thinner version of the single-T. This thinner T does two things: first, it increases puck retention by having more lace and less T bridge; secondly, it allows the glove to close easier. The more a T bridge gets reduced, the more lace gets required to fill the pocket, resulting in the T having less influence on the way the glove closes.

In terms of protection, Vaughn incorporates carbon fiber in the SLR Pro Carbon trapper to keep your glove hand always protected.

A carbon fiber palm, as well as additional inner hand inserts, will prevent stingers on your palm and fingers. The cuff of the glove also has a panel of carbon fiber to shield your wrist.

Vaughn also constructs the back-thumb protection with molded carbon fiber, like they do in the SLR blocker.

Internally, the SLR Pro Carbon features a Sure-Grip-like, ‘positive grip’ liner, to ensure your hand stays in position throughout the game.

Make sure you come get sized up for your set of Vaughn SLR Pro Carbons with us at The Shop! Also, give us a Like on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram and Twitter!