Day One of the NHL’s annual General Managers meetings got underway at the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa in Manalapan, Fla on Monday. The day included working group sessions and an opening presser by NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly.
David Poile And A Quiet First Day
The first day of the GM meetings is historically slow with regards to big news items. “I really find that, as the caretakers of the game,” Nashville Predators’ David Poile started after the first three-hour meeting of three scheduled for the week, “we’re more tweaking the game and there’s not those big, huge topics at the moment.”
This was Poile’s 41st season at the helm of an NHL team. He first served for 15 years as GM of the Washington Capitals, and he’s in the process of finishing his 26th year with the Predators. This is his last meeting as a GM, having announced his retirement at the end of February.
Sale Of The Sens
Deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the first round of bids on the sale of the Ottawa Senators has been received. “They’re being evaluated”.
Rule Changes Discussed
The 32 GMs broke out into four groups of eight to discuss a wide range of topics. They will reconvene in a larger group setting Tuesday to go over their findings to determine if they want to take further action. That could be a rule change recommendation, a need for the NHL to emphasize to the officials to enforce the rules are already in place, or to leave well enough alone.
It was also reported that discussions included a potential expansion of video review pertaining to ensuring a high-sticking call or puck-over-glass penalty is merited, They also talked about what could be done to curb fighting after clean hits.
“They can call the instigator penalty, the question is are they calling the instigator as much as they could,” Daly said. “We saw some stats today before we broke out into the groups that 89 percent of the defending-a-teammate fights are fights after clean hits, and 42 percent of those are penalized either with an instigator or some other penalty. It could be unsportsmanlike conduct. It could be a roughing. It depends exactly what the incident requires. The question is are we addressing these plays appropriately? Do we want less of that in the game? If so, how do we get there?
“I’m not going to say it’s a concern because we’ll find out tomorrow whether it really is a concern. But a high percentage of the fights in our league come as retaliation to clean hits.”
Equipment Requirements
The NHL would like to get to a point where cut-resistant equipment is mandated for all new players entering the league, according to deputy commissioner Bill Daly. Talks are ongoing with the NHLPA on that issue.
According to Sportsnet, there was discussion about meeting with the NHLPA to potentially grandfather in cut-resistant equipment as mandatory following a surge in horrifying incidents—from the one earlier this season involving Evander Kane’s wrist to the one late last week involving Tyler Seguin’s knee—as well.
San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier said he thinks players will resist mandatory cut resistant materials at first because of the comfort level they have wearing other undergarments.
“But hopefully they can get comfortable wearing it and it can help prevent some injuries,” Grier said.