The NHL/NHLPA competition committee met on Sunday and the two co-chairs, Mathieu Schneider representing the NHLPA and Colin Campbell representing the NHL, proposed two rule changes for the 2017-18 season.

If you were hoping for changes to the playoff format or the offside/goaltender interference goal reviews, you’re going to be majorly disappointed.

NHL / NHLPA COMPETITION COMMITTEE STATEMENT

NASHVILLE (June 5, 2017) — Co-chairs of the NHL/NHLPA Competition Committee – Mathieu Schneider, National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) Special Assistant to the Executive Director, and Colin Campbell, National Hockey League (NHL) Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations – issued the following statement on new rules recommendations after the Competition Committee met yesterday in Nashville:

Rule 87 Time-outs: The Committee recommends a change so that no time-out shall be granted following an icing for the team that committed the icing infraction.

Rule 80.4: The Committee recommends a change so that when a team has a power-play and a player on the team at full strength causes a stoppage of play as the result of striking the puck with a high stick in the offensive zone, the resulting face-off shall be made in the neutral zone on the nearest face-off spot. This makes the rule consistent with the how the face-off is addressed when there is a stoppage under the same circumstances when both teams are at full strength.

The Committee reviewed and discussed many aspects of the rules and how the game is played and was satisfied that no additional changes would be necessary or appropriate at this time.

The new rules recommendations still require approval by the NHLPA’s Executive Board and the NHL’s Board of Governors, at which point the language of the rules will be formalized. The NHLPA was represented by Players David Backes (Boston Bruins), Michael Cammalleri (New Jersey Devils), Cory Schneider via phone (New Jersey Devils) and Daniel Winnik (Washington Capitals), while Ron Hainsey (Pittsburgh Penguins) was unable to attend. The NHL was represented by General Managers Peter Chiarelli (Edmonton Oilers), Jim Nill (Dallas Stars), David Poile (Nashville Predators) and Doug Wilson via phone (San Jose Sharks). NHL coaches Ken Hitchcock (Dallas Stars) and Barry Trotz (Washington Capitals) also participated by phone as non-voting members. The Competition Committee is co-chaired by Schneider and Campbell.

Eliminating timeouts after icing calls could lead to more goals league-wide while the new power-play rule would lessen the impact of playing the puck with a high stick while a team is on the man advatage. Previously, the faceoff would be held in the defensive zone.

Capitals head coach Barry Trotz, who was named to the competition in May, participated via phone.