Don’t expect any major NHL rule changes in 2025-26

As the NHL General Managers’ meetings come to a close, many are wondering what changes might come out of them.

One of the heavy talking points going into this week’s discussions would be any alteration of the rule regarding goaltender interference, especially as many fans, and even players, have called for clarity on what is or isn’t interference with the masked men.

Also, with negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHLPA beginning soon, some wonder what rule changes might come of that after this week’s meetings.

However, on Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli tells Tyler Yaremchuk that there might not be many seismic changes in the NHL rulebook next year.

Frank Seravalli: Not expecting any rule changes at all. We spent a long time talking about coach’s challenge and goaltender interference. I posted yesterday on Daily Faceoff a handy checklist to keep in mind when your team has a goalie interference challenge … I think that was helpful, just to provide some clarity. It was a check on the compass heading of the NHL Situation Room and the guys that make these decisions. They took their 54 most difficult calls of the season. They played all 54 videos and had the general managers vote on them. 52 of the 54 were in agreement with the call that was made. So, that shows them that they’re on the right path in terms of the decisions that they’re making and that we’re not likely to see any changes from it. There’s no other real rule that I think stands out.

One possibility is if this collective bargaining agreement negotiation wraps up by the summer, I think you could see cut-resistant clothing neckguards being mandatory as that was a big topic of conversation as well to GM meetings, but it’s going to be up to the players to agree to that in the CBA bargaining. I’m not sold that that’s going to be the case because they’ve resisted it to this point, even though the GMs and the league clearly want that to happen.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…