Major rule change to ban fighting before players reach NHL!

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has done it. On Friday it was confirmed by several QMJHL insiders, including Mikael Lalancette and Stephane Leroux of RDS, that the league has put a rule in place that would ban fighting.
Last month as talks emerged that the QMJHL admitted it was planning to ban fighting, the office of Quebec sports minister Isabelle Charest said any future fighters should be suspended when the new rule takes effect. On Friday, the exact rules came out and are the following:

“Automatic game misconduct for a fight instead of a major penalty and a 10-minute misconduct.
Automatic one-game suspension for the instigator.
Two-game suspension for an aggressor.”

The ban will take place for the 2023-24 season.

The QMJHL has been one of the more aggressive leagues in the sport for disciplining fighting, including an added 10-minute misconduct to the standard five-minute major that comes with the penalty in 2020. This is going up another level when it comes to this ban.

The move has been promoted by Enrico Ciccone, a Liberal member of Quebec’s national assembly and a former NHL enforcer with 85 fights in 374 NHL games.

Fighting has been on the decline in hockey for a years now, nothing in the rulebook has been done. The QMJHL has seen a decline in fighting from 0.78 fights per game in 2011-12 to 0.07 last season, while in that same span the NHL’s seen a decline from 0.44 to 0.25, reaching a low of 0.15 in 2019-20.

What does it mean for the NHL when young prospects come from the QMJHL into the big league?

Recommended articles:

• Patrick Roy takes a gatorade shower after winning the Memorial Cup!
• Former first round pick details horrific sexual abuse suffered in the QMJHL.
• Patrick Roy at the center of huge saga in QMJHL
• QMJHL to ban fighting permanently
• Fighting in hockey is coming to an end as major league bans it!