Gary Bettman Imposes Four Major Rule Changes For Next Year
PUBLICATION
James Connelly
September 17, 2023 (2:31 PM)
The NHL has made some major rule changes for the upcoming season in an effort to have the game run more smoothly and safely.
The NHL's New Rules: A Game Where Gary Bettman Makes The Rules
The NHL and hockey as a whole is an ever-evolving sport. New rules are implemented seemingly every year in every league. We have seen the NHL and Gary Bettman update the rulebook with the newest set of rule changes.
Change One: Helmets Are Now Required During Warmups
The first change was the NHL implementing a mandatory helmet policy during warm-ups. It was previously a strong suggestion for players who entered the league after 2019 to wear a helmet during warm-ups but now it is a flat-out requirement. This will not affect the older players in the league but over the course of the next two decades, helmetless warmups will be completely phased out.
The youngest players who will be allowed to not wear a helmet are members of the some of 2018 and a few of the 2019 draft class. Brady Tkachuk, Andrei Svechnikov, Rasmus Dahlin, Jack Hughes, Cole Caufield, and Kaapo Kakko.
Change Two: Making All Of The Illegal Stick Info In One Slot
Previously, illegal stick information came throughout the NHL rule book but now they have it in one space under one rule. This will better define what an illegal stick is and it will be easier for players and referees to understand what is illegal and what is not.
While it is not often a player is caught with an illegal stick, it still happens here and there, and sometimes the players are unsure of what they did wrong.
Change Three: Offsides Gets An Update To Help Offense
During the second period and overtime, a team's bench is near the offensive zone. Now, if a player gets off the ice and onto the bench, they will be deemed as leaving the zone allowing for potentially quicker zone entries.
Here is what the rule reads:
"If, during a delayed off-side, an attacking player in the attacking zone chooses to proceed to his players' bench (which extends into the attacking zone) to be replaced by a teammate, he shall be considered to have cleared the zone when both skates are off the ice, and the Linesperson judges him to have left the playing surface."
Change Four: Coaches Can Now Challenge More Plays
The final and arguably best rule change that is being made is an update to the coach's challenge. Coaches can now challenge a puck going out of play without the refs noticing. This means that if a team were to score a goal after the puck bounces off the protective netting, then a coach can challenge for a missed stoppage in play.
This could be one more step closer to challenging for missed delay of game calls which everybody knows coaches want to challenge as it is up to refs on most of those calls and whether it went off one team or another or even if it hit the glass before going out.
| POLL |
17 SEPTEMBRE | 17 ANSWERS Gary Bettman Imposes Four Major Rule Changes For Next Year Which change is your favorite? |
| Change 1 | 8 | 47.1 % |
| Change 2 | 3 | 17.6 % |
| Change 3 | 2 | 11.8 % |
| Change 4 | 4 | 23.5 % |
| LIST OF POLLS |
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