NHL to adopt penalty for removing visor in fight

The NHL will implement a minor penalty for players that remove their visors prior to fighting, according to Sportsnet’s Mark Spector.

NHL will adopt a minor penalty for any players taking visors off prior to fighting.

— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 20, 2013

Still, if 2 fighters doff helmets, its coincidental minors. Still likely to happen, with visors mandatory now.

— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 20, 2013

On Wednesday while at meetings in Boston, NHL general managers endorsed the recommendation that the league grandfather in a mandatory visor rule for the start of next season.

The decision to make visors mandatory was made by the NHL’s competition committee in early June. Former NHL defenceman and special assistant to NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, Mathieu Schneider, said then that a “clear majority” of players polled supported the rule change.

The league’s board of governors will hold a vote June 27 and if they vote in support of the rule change, all rookies will be required to wear visors in the NHL moving forward.

And, obviously, the old "instigating with a visor" penalty will be removed from NHL rule book.

— Mark Spector (@SportsnetSpec) June 20, 2013

Currently, under section 46.6 of the official NHL rulebook: “If a player penalized as an instigator of an altercation is wearing a face shield (including a goalkeeper), he shall be assessed an additional unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.”