The MHL, the KHL’s junior hockey league, will introduce a new rule during the 2024-25 season to try and fix 3-on-3 overtime. How the format change plays out could not only impact the KHL, but decision making in the NHL in future seasons.
“Players (in the MHL) are not allowed to skate with the puck back to their half of the ice in OT,” the KHL wrote on X. “A minor penalty shall be imposed upon the team starting the second violation of the rule.”
The league also posted this video explainer.
The KHL, and the rest of its associated leagues, first instituted 3-on-3 overtime midseason during the 2016-17 campaign, following the NHL adopting the format in 2015.
Three-on-three overtime was wildly entertaining at first but in recent years, teams have begun endlessly reloading and ragging the puck into their own end to gain favorable matchups and come into the offensive zone with speed.
“It’s become a puck possession game now. Winning the opening draw is a big thing,” Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill said to ESPN. “Coaches are very good and players are good, and they’re finding different ways to do things. We just want to make sure that excitement’s still there.”
While advanced statistics for the KHL are not available, the NHL has seen a huge slowdown in offense in three-on-three overtime per RMNB’s Peter Hassett.
[T]here has been an eight-percent drop in shot-attempt pace since the new overtime was adopted. The goal rate is down by almost ten percent from [the 2022-23 season’s] high-water mark, meaning more games are going to the shootout
NHL general managers discussed instituting a similar rule to what the MHL is introducing — penalizing teams from ragging the puck back into their end of the ice — as well as a shot clock to increase offense and have fewer games decided in the shootout. But as of now, the league has not coalesced around an idea yet.
