NHL to Introduce Rule Changes for 2024-25 Season

With the start of a new NHL season also comes some new rules/modifications to some existing rules.

Over the summer, the NHL announced four changes to the rule book that were unanimously approved by the Board of Governors, General Managers and the NHL/NHLPA Competition Committee.

Here’s what those are:

38.2 (Situations Subject to Coach’s Challenge)

The league is expanding coach’s challenges to also include reviewing when a penalty is called for a puck out of play.

Before coach’s were only allowed to challenge for goaltender interference, offsides and missed stoppages.

While some may think these additional reviews may slow the game down, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour is for the change.

“I’m in favor of reviewing every penalty, which should be done because they have the technology,” Brind’Amour said. “I just don’t know why we should be reviewing it. Go look at it, don’t put it on me to make the call. That I don’t like. But let’s clap for the fact that we’re actually now reviewing high sticks to the face, sort of, I think some sort of hitting that they think is too much. Like you see the good refs, they’ll just call a five-minute because they can review that. Hey, smart. So they’re getting it right, whatever the call is. Now this, is it going to help? It might.”

Brind’Amour even had more ideas on how to prevent reviews from slowing the game down too much.

“They do a lot of reviews, so maybe it slows the game down a little, but you’re getting it right. Every time you do one of these reviews, take your commercial that you allotted for and now you don’t have those three minutes where we do these stoppages in the middle of the game where we sit around. Now we’ve already taken them and you got all the calls right. Seems smart. Like I said, 20 years from now, we’ll be reviewing all the calls.”

Rule 63.8 (Line Change Following Dislodged Net)

If a team’s goaltender is determined to have dislodged the net, whether intentional or accidental, the defending team will not be allowed to make a line change.

Rule 76.4 (Face-Off Procedure)

Following an icing, the offensive center will now also receive a warning for a face-off violation rather than being immediately kicked out of the dot. Before only the defensive center was given a warning.

Rule 75.3 (Unsportsmanlike Conduct)

Players can now be issued an unsportsmanlike penalty if a player is sitting with one leg hovering on or over the boards while awaiting a line change.

Officials will give one warning per game and whether or not the initial warning was given to Team A or Team B (both teams will be made aware when the warning has been given), the next player to do it will be given an unsportsmanlike penalty.

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