Hockey is a game of speed, this makes agility crucial in the game. It allows you to dodge checks, deke around appointments and be more agile on the ice. It certainly makes you more difficult to hit, allowing you to keep the puck longer and create more scoring oppurtunities. 

Agility can easily be improved through off ice conditioning. One of the best drills available for this is an "agility ladder". It is a rope ladder that you run through with different exercises. It is a great addition to a warmup before a workout, game or practice. For this reason, it is used by nearly every NHL team and other professional leagues. 

It forces you to move your legs quickly, improves your hand eye coordination and of course, increases your agility. That will increase your foot speed on the ice as well. 

Another great exercise is using hurdles. Small hurdles are all about being as quick as possible. You can jump straight over with two feet, one feet, laterally (do both sides), jumping over the hurdle and sticking your landing, these are all just possibilities. Using bigger hurdles, you will do the same thing, however you will be generating more power as well. This will help to increase your speed on the ice. I recommend using both hurdle sizes as they will benefit two different aspects of your game. 

Agility exercises, especially hurdle jumps also improve your balance and core strength. When you land your jump, your core has to stabilize and you keep you balanced so you can jump again as quickly as possible. Next time you are battling for a puck in the corner, and the defender is trying to push you off the puck, you will be thanking your hurdles when you make a great play out of it.

Last but not least, another fantastic agility drill is using a rubber dot pad (square shape). It has one dot on each corner and one in the middle. You do a series of drills such as hopping on one leg to each dot as quickly as you can. There is a series of drills you can go through each time and time yourself. Push yourself to beat your time each time you go through. At the end of the day, you are only cheating yourself. Work hard and you will increase your speed and agility on the ice.

Agility drills are tough to monitor your effort. It really comes down to how much you want to put into it. As you know, you get out of it what you put into it. If you are serious about taking your game to the next level, take your agility training just as serious. Your game will benefit significantly from  your off ice commitment. 

Good luck and train hard!