QMJHL unveils it's new, stricter, rules around fighting.
We have heard rumblings of changes to fighting in the QMJHL, and now the league has made it official.
For quite some time now we have heard that there will be significant changes made to the rules around fighting in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and on Saturday we finally got an official confirmation from the league itself.
The league has unveiled a new set of rules that can only be described as a stricter set of sanctions around fighting in their league, rules that are clearly designed to punish those who drop the gloves and to discourage the practice as a whole.
In total the league announced 4 new rules via their official website, and they are as follows:
1. Addition of a game misconduct penalty for any player involved in a fight;
2. Addition of an automatic one-game suspension for any player declared the instigator of a fight;
3. Addition of a minimum two-game automatic suspension for any player identified as the aggressor;
4. In addition to the game misconduct, an automatic one-game suspension will be imposed once a player has reached his second fight, rather than his third.
The shift has been something of a controversial one due to the involvement of the Quebec government in this process. The provincial government provided the QMJHL with an infusion of cash during the pandemic but with that came conditions surrounding decreasing fighting in the league.
It is of course far too early to tell what kind of impact this will have on the league and it's players in the long term, or what reverberations from this could make their way to the NHL one day. One thing is clear, there are players who are vehemently opposed to these types of changes including Edmonton Oilers forward Evander Kane who recently spoke of the necessity of fighting in the sport of hockey after a dirty play from Detroit Red Wings forward Joe Veleno at the World Championship of hockey.
"This is why fighting in Hockey is needed, it discourages ideas like this and helps police the game effectively," wrote Kane back in May. "Disgusting play to watch. Especially after my injury this year. Embarrassing"
While these changes will only impact the QMJHL moving forward, the rest of the hockey world will be watching closely.
