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Player-inspired NHL rules changes

Marc08

Registered User
Mar 17, 2006
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Here are the rules that were inspired by NHL incidents:

The Martin Brodeur Rule - Goalie acting as a third defenceman behind the goal line that is not within the trapezoidal area

The Sean Avery Rule - Purpose of improperly interfering with and/or distracting the goaltender as opposed to positioning himself to try to make a play

The Bobby Hull Rule - Amount of curve a blade could legally have

The Rob Ray Rule - Jersey tied-down

The Bill Barber Rule - Diving

The Matt Cooke Rule - Intentional hits to the head

Update
The Danny Briere Rule - Circumventing NHL contracts

The Carl Brewer Rule: Players can't cut the palms out of their gloves.

The Reijo Ruotsalainen rule - player who has played in Europe after NHL season starts will have to go through waivers when signed by NHL team mid-season.

The Scotty Bowman/Don Cherry rule - Sending all players onto the ice after a goal


OK hockey enthusiasts, here are some questions that I like to know:


As for Mike Van Ryn, who found a loophole that states a player drafted off a college team could play one season of major junior hockey and then become a free agent. Is this loophole now closed? if so, what are restrictions?

In the new CBA, are there any mentions that players, who have drafted, are ineligible to gain unrestricted free agent status after leaving school?
 
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The Carl Brewer Rule: Players can't cut the palms out of their gloves.

He used to cut the palms out of his gloves and when standing in front of his net, covering an opposing player, he would hold the opponents stick with his bare hand, while the fingers of his glove would hang down making it appear to the referee that he wasn't holding the stick.
 
Not in the rulebook but rather CBA related Reijo Ruotsalainen rule - player who has played in Europe after NHL season starts will have to go through waivers when signed by NHL team mid-season.
 
You've got the Makarov Rule for Calder winners. Guy came over from Russia and won it as a 31 year old rookie, and it got changed so you had to b 26 or younger after him.
 
The Bob Champoux rule: After Terry Sawchuk is injured during a televised game in the mid-60s, the game is delayed for several minutes while Detroit gets the relief goalie Champoux out of the stands and dressed in his equipment. After this, the NHL made a rule that teams had to have two goalies dressed for each game.

The Brett Hull rule: After the 1999 Cup-winning goal controversy, the league amends the crease rule so that a player being in the crease doesn't invalidate the goal if he's not interfering with the goalie.

The Bowman/Cherry rule: During a playoff game when Montreal scored an early goal against Boston, every Montreal player came off the bench to congratulate the goal scorer. So Cherry sent every Bruin off the bench to support Gerry Cheevers. The referee told the two coaches to stop, and the next season the league ruled there would be a delay of game penalty for players leaving the bench immediately after a goal.

The Gates Orlando rule: After Orlando accidentally high-sticked Charlie Simmer in the eye, Bostom GM Harry Sinden was very vocal about how Orlando wore a visor, and it was a sign of how players with visors were careless with their sticks. So the NHL briefly had a rule that players who wore face shields would get an additional minor penalty in those situations.

I'm not sure which coach it was (Al Arbour maybe?), but the NHL eliminated the few minutes teams would get to take some practice shots to warmup a new goalie who had just entered a game, when it became obvious that the coach was making quick goalie substitutions just to give his team a rest.

I think the rule giving a team a bench minor if a penalized player didn't go straight to the penalty box was aimed at Fred Shero and Dave Schultz.
 
The Jean Beliveau rule: If a team scores on the powerplay, the penalty ends. I believe it was a Beliveau hat trick that spurred this rule.

Edit: I see someone linked an article atributing this to "The Montreal Canadiens."
 
Here are some questions that I like to know:


As for Mike Van Ryn, who found a loophole that states a player drafted off a college team could play one season of major junior hockey and then become a free agent. Is this loophole now closed? if so, what are restrictions?

In the new CBA, are there any mentions that players, who have drafted, are ineligible to gain unrestricted free agent status after leaving school?
 
mbhhofr said:
The Carl Brewer Rule: Players can't cut the palms out of their gloves.... He used to cut the palms out of his gloves and when standing in front of his net, covering an opposing player, he would hold the opponents stick with his bare hand, while the fingers of his glove would hang down making it appear to the referee that he wasn't holding the stick.
Click to expand...

Ya, that was Referee Vern Buffey who caught on to Brewers Shenanigans in that department, though in Brewers defence (pun intended) it wasnt completely by design. According to legend, he simply preferred the feel of his bare hand on his stick, as back in the day with the all leather gloves & palms, depending on the make and quality breaking them in could take time. Some guys simply preferring bear skin on the stick or in the boot of their skate, no socks (Orr & countless 1000's more over the years).

That it had provided the further benefit of "cheating" a tad was just an offshoot, happenstance, and one Brewer decided to employ quite liberally until finally being shutdown. Something he'd done since his Junior days, one year being handed a pair of gloves that appeared to have been retrieved from a grave on King William Island containing one of the poor souls who expired during the Sir John Franklin Expedition to the Northwest Passage in Eighteen Hundred and Forty Five. In near mint condition.

Why waste em' mbh? A slash here, a snip there, good to go.
 
Others

Clint Benedict rule that allowed goalies to flop to make a save.

Ted Lindsay elbowing penalty.

Punch Imlach rule that created the faceoff interference penalty.

Roger Nielson rules in Junior the OHA. Goalie could not leave his stick in the crease when being replaced by a 6th attacker. Perpetual penalty rule. Down two players due to penalties with less than two minutes left in a game. Extra penalties did not change the manpower disadvantage so team would commit fouls to slow the game and get advantages.
 
mbhhofr said:
The Carl Brewer Rule: Players can't cut the palms out of their gloves.

He used to cut the palms out of his gloves and when standing in front of his net, covering an opposing player, he would hold the opponents stick with his bare hand, while the fingers of his glove would hang down making it appear to the referee that he wasn't holding the stick.
Click to expand...

Slats Sather was still doing this in 69-70, when he was my favorite Rangers player. It was mentioned in a newspaper story about a game where he was caught.

The Gary Smith rule: Goalies can't carry the puck past center ice.
 
Another one for Roger Neilson - goalies HAVE to be the ones in net for a penalty shot, not a defenseman. Neilson used this once as the element of surprise. The rule was adjusted.

It didn't happen right away, but Jacques Plante with the mask in 1959. It is true the last goalie to go maskless in the NHL is Andy Brown in 1974 but the rule today is that if a goalie's mask falls off the whistle is blown.

Mark Howe is probably the singular reason the NHL stopped using the long pipes to keep the net in place after his injury. Now the nets come off much easier.

I really can't track down a singular reason why the NHL implemented the helmet rule for all new players starting in 1979-'80. I know that Larry Robinson and Don Cherry were two prominent names that claimed head injuries would skyrocket with a mandatory helmet rule and..........well, the proof is in the pudding. But I don't know what happened specifically in 1979 for the league to look at it.
 
Big Phil said:
I really can't track down a singular reason why the NHL implemented the helmet rule for all new players starting in 1979-'80. I know that Larry Robinson and Don Cherry were two prominent names that claimed head injuries would skyrocket with a mandatory helmet rule and..........well, the proof is in the pudding. But I don't know what happened specifically in 1979 for the league to look at it.
Click to expand...

I dont think there was any single incident in 77-79 that really tipped the scales Phil. That had already occurred in 67-68 when Bill Masterton of Minnesota got hit by Larry Cahan & Ron Harris of Oakland, went flying, head cracks on the ice & died after something like 30+ hours of Emergency Surgery.

By the time Ziegler introduced that "new rule" with a Grandfather Clause (Craig MacTavish was the last guy to play without a lid in 97 I believe) in 79 over 70% of the leagues players were wearing them anyway as theyd been mandated in the early & mid 60's at almost every level so they grew up with it.

Most leagues also have rules as to the proper wearing of helmets, the IIHF etc, but not the NHL (though wasnt there something brought in about that a year or so ago; that the straps had to be done up properly or am I imagining it?). Just that the things be CSA & US Safety approved & stickered. You cant wear a metal face piece in the NHL either, a cage, not unless its to protect an injury. Goalie masks & helmets are of course an entirely different animal....
 
Killion said:
I dont think there was any single incident in 77-79 that really tipped the scales Phil. That had already occurred in 67-68 when Bill Masterton of Minnesota got hit by Larry Cahan & Ron Harris of Oakland, went flying, head cracks on the ice & died after something like 30+ hours of Emergency Surgery.

By the time Ziegler introduced that "new rule" with a Grandfather Clause (Craig MacTavish was the last guy to play without a lid in 97 I believe) in 79 over 70% of the leagues players were wearing them anyway as theyd been mandated in the early & mid 60's at almost every level so they grew up with it.

Most leagues also have rules as to the proper wearing of helmets, the IIHF etc, but not the NHL (though wasnt there something brought in about that a year or so ago; that the straps had to be done up properly or am I imagining it?). Just that the things be CSA & US Safety approved & stickered. You cant wear a metal face piece in the NHL either, a cage, not unless its to protect an injury. Goalie masks & helmets are of course an entirely different animal....
Click to expand...

When the Masterton incident happened in 1968 it changed very little in the NHL. Players were helmetless for the most part anyway and continued to be. You are right about the grassroots level though since helmets were starting to become mandatory with kids. I guess the fact that most players were wearing helmets anyway that were entering the league by 1979 sort of made sense to grandfather the rule in.
 
Big Phil said:
When the Masterton incident happened in 1968 it changed very little in the NHL. Players were helmetless for the most part anyway and continued to be. You are right about the grassroots level though since helmets were starting to become mandatory with kids. I guess the fact that most players were wearing helmets anyway that were entering the league by 1979 sort of made sense to grandfather the rule in.
Click to expand...

Plus you have the Ted Green incident and by 1979, North American had had plenty of exposure to the European/Russian game and I believe they all wore helmets.
 
On June 13, 1985, the NHL board of governors voted 17–4 in favour of amending a penalty rule. Previously, coincidental minor penalties would result in 4-on-4 play. The amendment allowed teams to substitute another player to keep the play 5-on-5. It was seen by many as a shot at trying to slow down the high-flying Edmonton Oilers. Wayne Gretzky was quoted as saying, "I think the NHL is making a big mistake. I think the NHL should be more concerned with butt-ending, spearing, and three-hour hockey games than getting rid of 4-on-4 situations." It wasn't until 1993, with the Oiler dynasty a thing of the past, that the NHL reverted back to the original 4-on-4 rules.
 
Not really a player, but since we have Cherry/Bowman-inspired rules, Roger Neilson inspired a lot of them, including but not limited to: putting too many men on the ice repeatedly (among other things) in the last minute of the game while on a 5-on-3, which resulted in a rule change so that doing so would result in a penalty shot (not sure if that's an NHL rule, but it's definitely an OHL rule) and keeping the goalie's stick on the goal line when the goalie was pulled.
 
Leafsdude7 said:
...putting too many men on the ice repeatedly (among other things) in the last minute of the game while on a 5-on-3, which resulted in a rule change so that doing so would result in a penalty shot (not sure if that's an NHL rule, but it's definitely an OHL rule)...
Click to expand...

Ya, thats an interesting one, and something he started pulling in Peterborough. Down 3 players against 5 in the final 2 minutes of a game, realizing he couldnt face any more penalties but wanting to slow down the action on the ice, every 10 seconds he sent another player out, illegally of course, forcing the ref to blow the whistle, stop play, hold a face-off. Neilson did this repeatedly as you mentioned, along with another nifty trick; throwing whatever onto the ice from the bench also causing stoppages in play, the rules changed thereafter. And so to end-run that little annoyance whenever he could, get plants seated in the building who would deliberately throw things on the ice when signalled to do so; goalies also instructed to dislodge the net from its moorings; doors on his bench that mysteriously wouldnt shut, the hinge busted.... hey, if you didnt do it, cant bust ya for it huh? :naughty:
 
Killion said:
I dont think there was any single incident in 77-79 that really tipped the scales Phil. That had already occurred in 67-68 when Bill Masterton of Minnesota got hit by Larry Cahan & Ron Harris of Oakland, went flying, head cracks on the ice & died after something like 30+ hours of Emergency Surgery.

In February 1978, there was an unfortunate incident involving Buffalo's Rick Martin taking an awkward fall and suffering convulsions as a result. Alan Eagleson already had his eye on making the helmet mandatory and with the new president, John Ziegler, this episode most likely made such an idea even more politically correct, thus the law in 1979. I have an article from 1983 about the issue where ones like Ed Westfall, Barry Beck, Phil Esposito, and the late Fred Shero expressed their dislike of the grandfather law and how they thought it encouraged more stickwork and related garbage in the game even by that time. It is also interesting to read through online news archives and elsewhere to read comments from Don Cherry, Brad Park, and many others expressing similar sentiments and in a way haunting to see how they have been proved so right on this front even more so now. In today's drive by media atmosphere, do you think these people would be still able to speak in such a way?
Click to expand...
 
The Bill Durnan rule: Goalies can not be captains or assistants. Due to him constantly delaying stoppages to discuss things with referees.

Another less famous Roger Neilson rule; in overtime in the regular season, a team which pulls the goalie can not put the goalie back in on the fly. The loser point is not awarded if a team has the goalie out. When the loser point was first instituted he would pull the goalie and put him back in if the other team got close (it was an exhibition game too).
 
mbhhofr said:
The Carl Brewer Rule: Players can't cut the palms out of their gloves.

He used to cut the palms out of his gloves and when standing in front of his net, covering an opposing player, he would hold the opponents stick with his bare hand, while the fingers of his glove would hang down making it appear to the referee that he wasn't holding the stick.
Click to expand...

What year was this instituted? Because I clearly remember an article in the local NY newspaper about Ranger Glen "Slats" Sather being caught with having the palms cut out of his glove so he could grab opposing sweaters. This was the 69-70 or 70-71 season if I'm recalling right.

EDIT: Oops, already commented on this earlier!!
 
SealsFan said:
What year was this instituted? Because I clearly remember an article in the local NY newspaper about Ranger Glen "Slats" Sather being caught with having the palms cut out of his glove so he could grab opposing sweaters. This was the 69-70 or 70-71 season if I'm recalling right.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure of the exact year the rule was put in, but it was in the early 1960's.
 
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