Mandatory visors high on NHL’s agenda
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/06/2013 (4506 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TORONTO — Almost three months after New York Rangers defenceman Marc Staal suffered a career-threatening eye injury, mandatory visor use will take centre stage at today’s NHL competition committee meeting.
Hybrid icing and goaltending equipment are also on the agenda while fighting is not expected to be discussed.
A hot topic well before Staal took a puck in the eye, mandating all NHL players to wear visors is something the league office has supported for years. The NHL Players’ Association educates its members on visors but has considered it a matter of individual choice.
That could change based on an internal NHLPA survey taken late this season. The union asked its members to weigh in on making visors mandatory for all players — those entering the league and grandfathering in current ones — or keeping it a choice for everyone. According to the NHLPA, approximately 73 per cent of players wore visors during the 2013 season, up from a Hockey News estimate of 28 per cent in 2001-02.
“My feeling is that I’d like to see them be grandfathered in,” said Detroit Red Wings general manager Ken Holland, who will be one of the NHL’s team officials in the meeting. “The players basically wear visors almost at every league other than the NHL. I certainly understand players that have been playing without them and it’s their way to make a living. In the middle and later in their careers they don’t want to change, but if you grandfather them in, you could slowly through time have all our players wearing visors.”
General managers voted in March to approve the implementation of hybrid icing, which was used experimentally in the American Hockey League during the NHL lockout. Under the hybrid icing rule, players race to an imaginary line across the faceoff dots instead of the goal-line. Players have expressed mixed sentiments on the matter.
— The Canadian Press