The NHL’s general managers have concluded their annual three-day meeting in mid-March, discussing the latest trends of the game and what new rules could prove impactful. Each of these rule changes is still in their infancy, still needing to be approved by the Competition Committee and the NHL Board of Governors before they’re enacted. We’re here to break down each of the new proposals, with all information courtesy of Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter Link).
- Goaltenders will now join the list of players that can receive a penalty for intentionally dislodging the net – removing netminders’ ability to stop play on their own accord.
- Centermen will receive a warning before getting tossed from the dot in offensive-zone draws following an opponent’s icing. Previously, defensive centermen received a warning, while offensive centermen were tossed immediately.
- Backup goaltenders will receive a warmup if the starter is pulled out of the game due to injury or concussion.
- If a goalie’s mask is knocked off and play is blown dead, the offensive team will have a choice of which offensive-zone dot they want to take the faceoff at.
- Coaches will now have the ability to challenge a minor high-sticking call, in an attempt show that the infraction was the result of a teammate’s stick, not the offenders. This should clear up high-sticking calls from highly-congested scrums, where multiple players have their sticks up at once.
- Coaches will now have the ability to challenge a delay of game penalty for the puck going over the glass – attempting to show that the puck deflected off something. If they fail, the team immediately receives a 5-on-3 penalty kill – one penalty for the delay of game, and one for the failed review.
- If a player refuses to play the puck after a teammate’s high-stick or hand-pass, the opposing team will receive a faceoff one zone better than where the play occurred – meaning the faceoff will be in the non-offending team’s offensive zone, if the infraction occurs in the neutral zone.
- Players will no longer be able to have legs over the bench while play is ongoing. Teams will be assessed a warning, and then a bench minor, for the infraction. This rule change comes after an official was cut by a skate over the side of the bench.
- Notably, no changes to the league’s 3-on-3 overtime format were proposed. The NHL is on pace to have 70 percent of overtime games end before a shootout, which would be a league record.
These all sound good to me. Especially the one where players are half off the bench while the puck is still in play.
Don’t see the need to constantly tweak the game, leave it alone!
I actually wouldn’t mind the “Jailbreak Rule” that PWHL adopted
I saw that during a game a few weeks ago. Cool twist.
Would love to know how they plan on accurately calling goalies dislodging the net. No netminder is ever going to admit to kicking the net off on a hard cross-crease slide. Kinda like how we managed to go 70 years without the goalie “losing” his mask on a play, now it happens every other game, and always just when it becomes fortuitous for the defending team to take a breather.
A stupider less useful set of changes have never before been seen. Hockey is really trying to become a minor sport if these are the brains serving as Fans
1) Fix the Tampa/Vegas loophole. Implement a daily salary cap during the playoffs. You can use LTIR to build a $200 million roster if you like but any given lineup must be cap compliant.
2) Use ONLY full speed replays for offsides. No slow motion. The point wasn’t to parse millimeters and milliseconds, it was to stop the egregious offsides goals. Those can be seen in a full speed real time replays. This will lead to far fewer challenges for offsides and stop the overturning of goals that were in absolutely no way affected by them.
Unfortunately the rules committee can’t fix that they need to wait for the CBA negotiations. It really is a travesty though.
It was brought up on one of the 32 Minor Thoughts podcast episodes, but they really need to fix the unfair competitive advantage teams like the Lightning, Stars, Golden Knights, and Lightning have that they can sign players cheaper as well because of no state income tax.
Normally I wouldn’t care, but these teams also get revenue sharing from franchises like the Rangers, Habs, Leafs, etc which is unfair. If they want money from the big markets they should have to adjust the contracts to factor in what the cost would have been if they want the rev share money or take the advantage and be in their own for funding.
There is no way to perfectly fix that, but factoring in state (or provincial) tax to the AAV would help even that out.
So, salary – state tax = AAV.
Or just say that when they cry poor that they need money tough luck figure it out for yourself. If these teams can afford to exploit LTIR they don’t need money help.
I bet every soccer fan in any league that uses VAR would love your second idea, 66. It looks good to me.
Great call. 100% in agreement with the replay assessment. Replays at game speed, no slow motion ensure that egregious errors are corrected; a certain amount of human error is tolerable and part of the game. This should be done across the professional sporting world.
I’ll add that the powers that be are given 60 secs to overturn. After 60 sec, the call stands.
Get rid of the instigator rule. Make players like Cousins pay for their actions. And I am a Panthers fan.
Time restrict reviews. If it takes more than 2 minutes it’s not conclusive enough for the play to have been that greatly impacted.
No fat chicks. That is the most important rule.