National Hockey League referees have received a tech upgrade to help them manage the game on the ice: smartwatches.
The league has deployed smartwatches to its officials, who will get real-time notification of game situations of the game clock. They’ll receive haptic feedback to count down the final seconds of penalties and the end of each period, allowing them to keep their eyes on the play.
“The watch doesn’t distract you,” said Stephen Walkom, long-time NHL referee and current NHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations. “It actually informs you.”
Walkom spent nearly two decades on ice as a National Hockey League referee (1990-2004, 2009-2013), working over 1000 games and four Stanley Cup Finals.
“You were always searching to find the clock, and every rink’s just a little bit different. While you were doing that, you were taking your eyes off the ice,” Walkom added, as reported by ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski. “In the stadium games, it was even harder. You’re staring off into space looking for a clock and a guy gets hooked on a breakaway. For us, this is a dependable, durable and useful tool to keep us safe and focused on the game.”
The devices will be synced up to the official clock to ensure accuracy and consistency on all timing. Instead of using the scoreboard, they’ll tie in directly to the NHL’s OASIS feed that includes real-time data on the game clock, penalty times, player positions, puck movement, and more.
According to The Athletic, officials will be notified when there are ten minutes, three minutes, two minutes and one minute remaining in a period, and when there are ten seconds, three seconds, two seconds,and one second remaining in a penalty.
NHL Officials’ smartwatch app. Courtesy NHL.
The league’s officials have been wearing them throughout the 2024-25 season, but Saturday’s Stadium Series matchup between the Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets will be the first time they’ll be used at an outdoor game, with the officiating crew of Kendrick Nicholson, Francis Charron, Travis Gawryletz, and Jesse Marquis all sporting their new gear.
“The environment changes every time the officials go out onto the ice,” said David Lehanski, the NHL’s executive vice president of business development and innovation. “Obviously there’s a bigger change [at the Stadium Series].”
Without an overhead scoreboard at center ice and arena clocks positioned father away from the ice than normal, the officials’ watches will give them a huge advantage when it comes to clock awareness.
“In that building,” Walkom mused, “you’d be spinning like a top on the ice looking for a clock.”
Instead, the officials need look no further than their wrists.
“We had a really high-level objective: It was an interest to figure out, how can we help the officials keep their eyes on the ice more?” said Dave Lehanski, NHL EVP of Business Development and Innovation.
While improved situational awareness is helpful, the league identified specific opportunities around safety, including ensuring officials were aware – and in the right position – when a player came out of the penalty box to avoid a potential collision.
“Penalties was probably our first thing that we were concerned about, because we had so many near-misses at the penalty box with players,” said Walkom. “As an official, you don’t want to get in the way of the puck and you don’t want to get in the way of the players. You get so dialed in when you’re working a game that you forget when they’re coming out of the box. You can either stop stop a player from playing defense, or you can prevent offense from occurring.”
The NHL reports that more than 90% of officials have already worn the new smart watches this season, with the only holdouts waiting for changes to their watch bands. The referees and linespersons also gave their feedback on the process and on the types of notifications they might receive.
“When we were testing the the Apple Watch with the officials for the first time, all our architects and developers are in the penalty box watching,” said Andres de Corral, VP of digital services and solutions at Presidio, who developed the officials’ app. “They all have their watch notifications going off left and right, and one of the officials comes over and says, ‘Why are you sending me all this stuff?’ We said, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, you just told me that the puck went into the goal. I just saw it visually. Why are you notifying me? There’s certain things that I really am concerned about. If the puck goes in or not is not one of them,’ he explained.”
“It was this just constant iterative process of customizing and tweaking what the officials really needed, to have an impact on player and official safety.”
This may just be the start for how the NHL officials use their new smart watches. The league may consider additional notifications, including when the puck goes out of play or when it’s tipped by a high stick.
“You could have a time where you measure every player on normal heights of the shoulder and you get a notification when that particular player touches the puck with a stick above their normal height to the shoulder,” Walkom told ESPN. “You get it instantly. It’s not a judgment call.”
The NHL is repotedly considering additional ways to leverage the devices to improve communication between the on-ice officials as well as between the officating crew and the Toronto-based Situation Room.
“The officials are very important to uphold the integrity of the game, because you’ve got two teams out there that that want to win every night,” Walkom said. “You get in the way of winning by by doing what you do, but you don’t want to get in the way for no reason.”
“Anything that helps you to avoid getting in the way and allows you to get good sight lines to do your job is a benefit.”
