A Canadian inventor is hoping tiny batteries and The Great One will make his product the future standard for hockey worldwide.

On Tuesday, Tory Weber's Therma Blade Inc. and Wayne Gretzky came together at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto to launch a new heated skate blade, a battery-powered edge that it's rumoured could be tested by eight to 10 NHL players in upcoming games.

"There's no doubt that we are seeing the latest advance in the evolution of skating technology and I see Thermablade being popular equipment among NHL players," said Gretzky, an investor in the Quebec-made product. "Thermablades are going to revolutionize the game of hockey. They represent the most significant advance in skate blade design in at least 30 years."

The idea of the new skate's design is to maintain a consistent temperature of about 5 degrees Celsius in each blade holder. This is done with a small battery and microprocessor stored within each blade, making the edge warm and in theory, dramatically reducing gliding friction and starting resistance for skaters.

"There is a lot of interest among players throughout the NHL right now to see how Thermablade performs under game conditions," said Stu Grimson, Associate Counsel for the National Hockey League Players' Association.

The reduced friction should allow players to reach top speed faster and to skate using less energy. Physiological benefits could include a reduction in heart rate, increased stamina and less fatigue over the course of a game.

"This is an incredible day both for Thermablades and for the game of hockey," said Therma Blade inventor Tory Weber. "We have spent the last few years working extremely hard to develop our technology from the ground up, with input from both elite and recreational players, and we believe Thermablades are truly the next wave in hockey skate technology."

The blades are expected to be made available in Canadian specialty stores at a suggested price of $399.99.

Comically, as part of Tuesday's unveiling a prototype of the heated blades that Weber has been working on since 1985 - a skate blade with an electrical extension cord attached - was donated to the Hockey Hall of Fame for display. Almost as funny as the prototype is the story of how Weber arrived at the idea.

"I had just finished taking a class in thermodynamics," he explained. "It was a cold February evening and I had my running shoes sitting on the heat register next to the front door.

"I slid my running shoes on, opened the door up, and there was frost on the stairs. When my hot running shoes hit that icy step, I went flying backwards and fell on my can.

"Over the next couple of days as I was nursing myself back to health I thought, `I wonder what would happen if we did the same thing to a skate blade? If we heated a skate blade, would we get that same reduction in friction?'

Here are some more of the purported benefits of the heated blades, according to Therma Blade Inc.

• Starting friction reduced by 65% to 75%;
• Sliding friction is lowered by 50% to 55%;
• Vibration is reduced by about 50%.

In surveys of players who used the heated blades during product testing over the summer:

• 85% of players said the Thermablades were significantly smoother to skate on than conventional blades;
• 68% said they skated farther with less effort; about 61% said they accelerated more quickly;
• 63% said they felt less fatigue while playing.

More information on the product is available online by clicking here.

To read more about the product in CityNews Consumer Specialist Jee-Yun Lee's blog, click here.

To take a look at the Thermablade, click the video link.