NHL makes 4 rule changes for next season

The NHL is adopting four new changes to its rules for 2024-25, the league announced Wednesday.

The board of governors, general managers, and competition committee unanimously approved the changes.

Here are the adjustments:

Rule 38.2 (Situations Subject to Coach's Challenge)

• A coach's challenge is now permitted in order to nullify a penalty for puck out of play. This only applies to delay of game infractions when the puck is determined to have gone off a player, stick, the glass, or the boards. It doesn't apply to judgment calls on how the puck left the defensive zone (batted pucks or if a player shoots the puck out of their own zone).
  
  In the case of a failed challenge, the officials will issue an additional two-minute minor on top of the delay of game call.

Rule 63.8 (Line Change Following Dislodged Net)

• There will be a tweak to Rule 63.8 so that the defensive team can't make a line change in the event its goaltender accidentally dislodges the net. The old language regarding this rule applied only to skaters.

Rule 76.4 (Faceoff Procedure - Centers)

• After an icing, the offensive center will now also receive one warning (just like the defensive player) for a faceoff violation.

Rule 75.3 (Unsportsmanlike Conduct - Player Sitting on Boards)

• The referee will now provide the offending team's head coach and players with one warning regarding players sitting on the boards and will also advise the other team. After one warning in a game, the team that drew the warning will be issued a bench minor penalty for future violations.

Back in March, it was reported the competition committee and the board of governors (the owners) would review six proposed rule changes, with an additional one taking immediate effect. The latter was the last of the four tweaks revealed Wednesday.

The other three that will take effect next season were among those proposed in the spring.

Here are the three proposed rule changes that weren't adopted:

• A team could've asked to review a high-sticking penalty if it believed there wasn't an offense committed by its player. Just as in the case of the first amended rule above regarding pucks out of play, the officials would've issued a second minor penalty to the offending team if the call on the ice was upheld upon review.
• In a situation where the goaltender loses his mask and the officials blow a play dead, the opposing team would've gotten an offensive-zone faceoff with its choice of side, regardless of where the puck was at the time of the whistle.
• If players refuse to play the puck after a high stick or a hand pass, the non-offending team would've gotten a faceoff positioned one zone better than where the play occurred. For example, a defensive-zone infraction would've resulted in a neutral-zone draw.

The rules that are changing haven't been added to the official rule book, but the NHL's hockey operations department will finalize that language in the near future.

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