NHL mulls rule changes, eyes more offense in OT
-
Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
TORONTO — The NHL is considering rule changes to create more offense in overtime games.
At their meeting Tuesday in Toronto, the league’s general managers discussed potential tweaks to the 3-on-3 overtime period. The NHL’s current format sees teams tied after regulation play five minutes of 3-on-3 sudden-death hockey. If the score remains tied after that, the game is decided in a shootout.
“The purpose of overtime is to end the game [before the shootout], and we need to make sure that continues to progress,” Arizona Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong said.
Colin Campbell, the NHL vice president of hockey operations, said the league still supports the 3-on-3 format and hasn’t discussed any major overhauls to overtime.
“We haven’t gotten to whether it should be longer or whether we should get rid of the shootout,” he said. “We don’t mind the format.”
The GMs instead focused on how to create more scoring chances during the 3-on-3 overtime, which has become more meticulous and less chaotic in its nine years of existence.
Their biggest gripe: Players possess the puck for too long outside the attacking zone.
The GMs discussed different concepts for overtime rule tweaks, much of it focused on players circling back into their own zone with the puck to regroup before rushing up the ice.
“It’s become a puck possession game now. Winning the opening draw is a big thing,” Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill said. “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.”
The GMs discussed a variety of concepts to juice that excitement, including restricting a team from skating back into its own zone, almost creating a “half-court” version of 3-on-3 overtime. There also has been talk about putting a timer on players to ensure that they clear their defensive zone quickly instead of “regrouping” there.
“Unintended consequences are always considered with these things,” Campbell said. “We could put a shot clock in there, but we don’t want to stop playing [for violations]. We don’t want to have more faceoffs.”
There are GMs who believe allowing players to regroup in their own zone ends up creating better chances than it prevents.
“You could argue both sides,” Armstrong said. “Does the possession create no shots or does it create more? Because the regroups can create more offense off the rush.”
The GMs have been instructed to ask their coaches and players for ideas on overtime rule changes. Those suggestions will be presented at the March NHL GM meeting as part of a larger study, where suggestions on rule changes could be formally made.
“They’re going to make a presentation in March about the numbers, shots on goal and changes in possession,” said Edmonton Oilers GM Ken Holland, who championed the 3-on-3 overtime format change. “I think it’s still entertaining, it’s maybe not quite as entertaining.”
Among the other topics at the meetings were player protection from skate blade cuts, making the NHL draft “decentralized” in the future, and expansion of cross-checking rules to include “boxout” plays in front of the crease.
-
Pete Thamel
-
Eli Lederman
Close
Eli Lederman
ESPN Staff Writer
- Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
Julian Lewis, the No. 2 player and quarterback in the 2025 class, decommitted from USC on Sunday, sources told ESPN, sealing a seismic development for one of the nation’s top prospects in the closing weeks of the recruiting cycle.
Lewis’ decommitment, which had been expected, comes the day after the 6-foot-1, 195-pound quarterback took an unofficial visit to Georgia for the game against Tennessee. He also visited Colorado on Oct. 26 and expressed interest in Indiana throughout his recruitment.
The plan remains for Lewis to commit in the upcoming weeks and enroll early in school, according to sources. He’s the top uncommitted player in the class of 2025 and his choice looms as one of the biggest stories of the early signing period with Colorado, Georgia and Indiana expected to contend for his signature before the signing period opens Dec. 4.
Sources also told ESPN on Sunday that four-star Texas A&M quarterback pledge Husan Longstreet, No. 47 in the 2025 ESPN 300, has flipped his pledge to USC in the wake of Lewis’ departure from the Trojans’ incoming class.
USC quarterbacks coach Luke Huard attended Longstreet’s playoff game at Corona Centennial High School in California on Friday night, and ESPN’s No. 4 pocket passer visited the Trojans during their game against Nebraska on Saturday.
Lewis had been verbally committed to the Trojans since Aug. 22, 2023. Yet questions had swirled over his recruitment from the summer into the fall and all the way through to his decommitment from USC on Sunday.
Lewis’ move marks the latest blow to a USC class that has now lost six commitments from the 2025 ESPN 300 in this cycle.
That list of high-profile departures from Lincoln Riley’s incoming class includes five-star defenders Justus Terry and Isaiah Gibson, and Lewis’ exit stands as USC’s third recruiting loss in the past seven days following the flips of defensive lineman Hayden Lowe (Miami) and cornerback Shamar Arnoux (Auburn).
The Trojans sat ninth in ESPN’s latest class rankings for the 2025 cycle prior to Lewis’ decommitment.
With the move, Lewis instantly regains status as the one of nation’s most sought-after uncommitted prospects. He first entered that realm in 2022 when he burst onto the national scene with 4,118 yards and 48 touchdowns while leading Carrollton to the Georgia 7A state title game in his freshman season.
That debut campaign earned Lewis a place as the No. 1 prospect in the 2026 class before he reclassified into the 2025 cycle earlier this year, several months after his commitment to USC last August.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway