The NHL announces controversial rule that will affect every new player going forward
Photo credit: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The NHL's neck guard mandate starts this season, but grandfathering means most current stars are exempt for the rest of their careers.
Beginning with the 2026-27 season, every player making his NHL debut must wear a cut-resistant neck guard under the league's new collective bargaining agreement.
Anyone with at least one game of NHL experience before then can skip it entirely, for the rest of his career.
That means Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin will never be required to wear one.
Ovechkin, who just confirmed a return to the Capitals for 2026-27, will finish his record-breaking career fully exempt.
The rule follows the 2023 death of former NHL forward Adam Johnson, whose neck was cut by a skate blade during a game in England.
The AHL, IIHF, WHL, OHL and QMJHL all mandated neck guards afterward, and the NHL's version is written into the new CBA, which runs through 2030.
The visor precedent nobody wants to repeat
The NHL has run this play before.
Visors became mandatory for incoming players in 2013-14, with veterans grandfathered in exactly the same way neck guards are now.
More than a decade later, players such as Jamie Benn and Zach Bogosian were still skating without visors during the 2024-25 season.
If neck guards follow the same curve, the league could be waiting into the 2030s for full adoption.
Voluntary use is already lagging
Grandfathering assumes players will adopt the gear on their own once it becomes normalized, but the early numbers argue against that.
Only 55 of 708 skaters wore a neck guard voluntarily during the 2024-25 season, per NHL executive Colin Campbell.
That is a low starting point for gear the rest of hockey already treats as standard.
The real story is not that the NHL finally acted, but how many more players skate unprotected before that changes.
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NHL shuts down longtime fan favorite tradition with new rule introduction for the 2026-27 season