The National Hockey League’s General Managers wrapped up their second day of meetings with some minor rule changes along with some potential changes around Coach’s Challenges for pucks over glass and high sticks.   Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, here’s what the GMs have recommended. 

  • Rule 8.2: If a goalie is forced to leave the game due to injury or by request of the league’s concussion spotters, the backup goaltender will be permitted to warm up. Currently, Rule 8.2 dictates that replacement goaltenders – even for an injury – will not receive any time to warm up during a regular season or playoff game. (Curiously, they are permitted two minutes to warm up during preseason matches.) 
  • Rule 9.6: If a goalie loses his mask and play is blown dead under Rule 9.6, the attacking team gets an offensive zone draw with their choice of dot, no matter where puck is on ice at the time of the stoppage. Note that this does not change the criteria for stopping play, which requires the goaltender’s team to take possession of the puck to secure a stoppage; goaltenders will still be required to potentially play without a mask when the opponent has an ‘immediate and impending’ scoring opportunity.
  • Rule 38: If a penalty is called for Delay of Game for puck over glass under Rule 63.2, teams will now have the ability to challenge the play to determine if the puck was deflected prior to going out of play.  Because of the initial penalty called, a failed challenge will result in the opposing team getting a 5-on-3 power play.

“We talk about it all the time and we discussed that pretty thoroughly [on Monday],” said Colin Campbell, NHL Senior Executive VP of Hockey Operations.  “Should we look at taking the penalty down and adding a penalty, or just taking a penalty down?”

  • Rule 38:  While double-minor high-sticking penalties are already reviewed by the officials, minor penalties will be made eligible for a Coach’s Challenge.  Much like the current review process under Rule 60.3, the officials will have the option of upholding the penalty or eliminating the call. As with the proposed change to delay of game challenges, a failed challenge will result in the original penalty being upheld plus a delay of game, resulting in a two-man advantage for the opponent. 

“There’s always going to be subjectivity in our game, but if we can get calls right that arguably everybody sees what’s wrong, that’s the intention of the coaches challenge,” said Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney, per NHL.com. “When you can determine that it’s black and white, those are the ones that if they are wrong, we should fix. There aren’t a lot of them, but if we can, we should.”

  • Rule 63.2: Adding the goaltender to the list of players who can get a penalty for intentionally dislodging the net under Rule 63.2 (iv). This is a minor clarification, as the rule already states ‘any player’, which, presumably, would already encompass goaltenders. 
  • Rule 72: If a player refuses to play the puck off high-stick or hand-pass, play is stopped and the teams face off at the nearest dot.  Under the new proposal, the non-offending team will get a faceoff one zone better than where the play was whistled down.  A neutral zone infraction will result in a draw in the offender’s defensive zone. 
  • Rule 76.4: The center of a team who iced the puck is immediately tossed for a faceoff violation on the subsequent draw, while the opposing center receives a warning first, per Rule 76.4.  The GMs are looking for both centers to receive a warning before being removed from the dot.  
    • When a team commits an icing infraction, any face-off violation will not result in the center being removed. The center will be warned by the Linesperson that the team has committed their first face-off violation and any subsequent violation will result in a bench minor penalty for delay of game – face-off violation being assessed.

All changes will need to go through the NHL’s Competition Committee for evaluation and NHL Board of Governors for final approval. 

Friedman also reported on a change that will be effective immediately: players will no longer be permitted to have their legs over the bench during play.  The change was prompted by a recent incident that saw a linesman cut by a player’s skate.  Linesman Shandor Alphonso received four stitches after being cut in a similar situation a few seasons back.

 

Thanks to Elliotte for keeping the hockey world up to date on the latest from the GM meetings via X/Twitter.  Be sure to follow him @FriedgeHNIC