The annual General Managers (“GMs”) meeting for NHL GMs occurred in March 2023, and several issues were brought to the forefront. One of the main topics that was discussed on Day 1 of the meetings was fights that occur immediately after clean hits.[1] The 32 GMs broke out into 4 groups of 8 to discuss the topics on the agenda. All 4 of the breakout groups had concerns over fights that arise out of hits that are determined to be clean and how to regulate against them.
This season, there have been 271 total fights in the NHL. Of those 271 fights, 100 have been incidents of players defending a teammate after a hit, and 89 of them came after a clean hit. In response to these fights, only 21 instigator penalties have been called. The instigator penalty currently consists of a two-minute minor, a five-minute major, and a ten-minute misconduct. If a player receives three instigator penalties in a season, he is automatically suspended for one game.
NHL referees currently have little flexibility on how to police these types of fights. NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, “[t]hey can call the instigator penalty, the question is are they calling the instigator as much as they could. We saw some stats today before we broke out into the groups that 89 percent of the defending-a-teammate fights are fights after clean hits, and 42 percent of those are penalized either with an instigator or some other penalty. It could be unsportsmanlike conduct. It could be a roughing. It depends exactly what the incident requires. The question is are we addressing these plays appropriately? Do we want less of that in the game? If so, how do we get there?”
The breakout groups also discussed potential changes to the instigator rule, specifically increasing the punishment of the instigator penalty. Los Angeles Kings GM Rob Blake said his breakout group discussed potentially increasing the instigator penalty to a double minor or a major penalty in order to deter these types of fights. However, some wonder if the reason the instigator penalty is not called that often is because it already carries 17 penalty minutes and the possibility of a suspension for a three-time offender.
Craig Button had an interesting take regarding fights after clean hits. He stated that the one who fights the player who made the hit should receive the instigator penalty, while the player who was forced into to fight should not receive any penalty.[2] While this seems interesting, it would likely be very difficult to implement in practice. It would make the five-minute major penalty a more ambiguous and subjective call, which could lead to it not being enforced as it was meant to be. The job of an NHL referee is already incredibly difficult, and changing this rule could potentially open referees to more criticism and scrutiny based on the subjective nature of this type of call.
Some GMs believe that the issue of fights after clean hits is very tough to solve. Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said, “if there’s a clean hit against anyone on your team and your team doesn’t do anything about it, you get heavily criticized for it. If you do something about it, you take a penalty, and you get criticized for that. I think people use your reaction to clean hits to judge whether your team is tough or not. And that’s the hard part is we can talk about the rules and everything, but there’s also the noise that comes after because people are looking for indicators of what your team is about.”[3] There is weight to the idea that sending a message to your opponent by showing that you will not be pushed around has been a part of NHL hockey since the beginning. However, as the game continues to change and evolve, the question is whether these types of fights are a part of the game, or an act that exists to threaten player safety.
Changing the instigator penalty would require a change in the rule book, which would need the approval of all 32 GMs, the joint NHL/NHLPA Competition Committee, and the NHL’s Board of Governors. Will the NHL attempt to regulate these types of fights for player safety reasons by changing the rule? Or could the NHL request that referees enforce the instigator penalty more heavily, where it is appropriate? If these types of incidents were to happen in the playoffs, where the game gets noticeably more physical, will it push the NHL to make a more drastic ruling regarding these types of fights? It will be interesting to see whether this issue is discussed more heavily as the season winds down and whether there will be a potential rule change in place for next season, but for now, sticking up for a teammate will be at the forefront of the NHL game.
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[1] https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-general-managers-gather-for-day-1-of-meetings/c-342189176
[2] https://www.markerzone.com/news/index.php?no=217980
[3] https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/35859270/fight-etiquette-player-safety-hot-topics-gms-meet
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