On Thursday, the American Hockey League Board of Governors announced its official rule changes for the 2016-17 season. The new rules cover various aspects of the sport, spanning from no longer allowing timeouts after icing calls to determining which jerseys the home teams should be wearing and when.
One of the most notable new rules the AHL implemented, though, is directed towards fighting and the players who instigate. The new rule essentially states that any player that has fought in 10 fights in a given season will be suspended for one game. He will also be suspended for one game after his 11th, 12th and 13th fight. Any fight after that is worth a two-game suspension.
Typically, testing new rules falls on the minor leagues of a given sport before they get implemented into the top league, as we’ve seen with the the 3-on-3 overtime rule or the shootout rule implementation. If this new fighting rule provides the desired result, then we are sure to see it reach the NHL, as they’re making a point to combat concussions in the NHL.
If the NHL were to adopt this rule, it would certainly diminish a role in hockey that has already become scarce: the enforcer.
Players like the nine-year Colorado Avalanche veteran Cody McLeod will have to adjust their styles, be more conscious as to the number of fights they pick, or simply find themselves out of the sport as a whole. For McLeod, who has lead the NHL in fights each of the last two seasons (19 fights in 2014-15 and 12 fights in 2015-16), the potential new rule is alarming and could have an impact on his career sooner rather than later.
In each of the two most recent seasons where McLeod led the league in scraps, he also played all 82 games each year. Under the AHL’s, and perhaps soon to be NHL’s, new rule the Avalanche’s assistant captain would have been suspended three games in 2015-16 and 16 games in 2014-15.
The rule changes are looking to diminish the frequency of fights in the league to promote a safer game, but reality is, fighting has already decreased significantly in recent years. While Cody McLeod’s 12 fights this past season earned him the most in the league, McLeod was only eighth in the NHL in fights in 2013-14 with the same amount.
The traditionalist hockey fan hates to see moves that are slowly phasing out fighting, but much like the NFL, changes must be made to protect the players’ wellbeing and the monetary future of the sport.
If and when the NHL adopts this fighting rule, the enforcer, the pregame fight and the traditional tough guy will go the way of the dodo bird.
And fights like this will be left to live out their days on YouTube…
