Unanimous approval from the Board of Governors is still required before the change can be put in place.
"First and foremost, the players want consistency in the application of the rule, and therefore support this proposed change in order to help accomplish that goal," said Mathieu Schneider, NHLPA Special Assistant to the Executive Director.
Botched goaltender interference reviews have been an ongoing subject matter throughout the 2017-18 season, but it appears the league is taking the necessary means to get it fixed before the postseason begins.
Malkin dives at the rebound, slides into Price, and the puck goes in off Malkin's calf. Body-bowling is a surprisingly effective strategy. pic.twitter.com/YQHfqqG3TS
The NHL's biggest headache reared its head once more on the same day the league committed to addressing it.
The topic of goaltender interference was front and center when Evgeni Malkin's first-period goal on Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens was upheld despite a coach's challenge from Claude Julien.
The NHL's general managers officially recommended a change to the goaltender interference review process Wednesday, proposing that hockey operations should have the final call rather than the on-ice officials.
The next step was for the NHLPA to agree to it, and the union did so Wednesday evening. It now needs to be approved by the league's Board of Governors before it can be implemented.
If Seattle is granted the next NHL franchise, the Vegas Golden Knights aren't expected to lose a player or receive a cut of the expansion fee.
There's no reason to expect Vegas would be put in a position to lose a player, as they won't be getting a share of the $650-million fee Oak View Group would pay if their application is accepted, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.
That was part of the agreement between the NHL and Golden Knights owner Bill Foley when he was awarded the 31st club, per the report. The other 30 teams would get $21.67 million each from Seattle after receiving $16.67 million when Vegas entered the league.
Commissioner Gary Bettman told GMs last month that any potential future Seattle expansion draft would operate under the same conditions as the one Vegas completed last June.
An expansion draft is unlikely to take place before June 2020.
As NHL teams are officially eliminated from Stanley Cup contention, Katie Brown takes a look back at the highs and lows of their season, along with the biggest questions ahead of 2018-19. Up next, the Buffalo Sabres.
The Good
High draft pick. While the Sabres' 2017-18 performance fell well short of even the low expectations for improvement, they’re guaranteed a high draft pick once again; Buffalo has picked in the top 10 in the past four drafts. And if the Sabres win the lottery, they can take defenseman Rasmus Dahlin, the no-doubt No. 1 selection who could be a building block along with Jack Eichel.
Adding Dahlin to a defense corps that includes Marco Scandella and Rasmus Ristolainen would suddenly make a mediocre unit look a whole lot better.
Eichel's progress. Ankle injuries cost Eichel a large portion of this season, but he's still put up 54 points in 57 games (0.94 points per game) and his team-high 32 assists have already matched his career best.
Eichel is without a doubt the Sabres' franchise player, and the cornerstone that general manager Jason Botterill should build around.
Young, rising talent. Drafted second overall in 2014, Sam Reinhart leads a pack of talented, young players ready to take over in Buffalo. The 22-year-old center is third on the team in scoring with 42 points (19 goals, 23 assists). Meanwhile, goalie Linus Ullmark played 20 games with the big club in 2015-16 and could be ready to take over next season after an impressive campaign in Rochester.
Botterill's progress. As part of the Penguins' front office, Botterill had a hand in the team's success for the better part of the last decade. He specialized in mining talent from the minors, something the Sabres desperately need to do if they want to surround their best players with complementary pieces. Most of their current key players have come via trades or high draft picks, and there's a noticeable lack of organizational depth.
Botterrill hasn’t been shy about expressing his displeasure with this year’s group, referring to it as "a team that's just not working." His only move at the trade deadline was sending Evander Kane to San Jose, but he's got an opportunity to make a lot of improvements once the offseason begins.
End of the Kane era. Kane was shipped off to the Sharks at the deadline in a trade that returned a conditional first-round pick in 2019, a conditional fourth-rounder in 2020, and forward prospect Dan O'Regan - and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Hopes were high when former Sabres GM Tim Murray initially acquired Kane in a 2015 blockbuster trade with Winnipeg, but things soured quickly.
Kane did produce, recording 68 goals and 118 points in 196 games, but he was in the news one too many times for his off-ice behavior. His trade signaled Botterill's commitment to making the necessary moves for an overall culture change and more individual accountability.
The Bad
The team's record. The Sabres - who had just 16 points at the end of November and never recovered - are set to finish with the worst home mark in the league, sitting at 11-21-5 with just four matchups remaining. They're also going to miss the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season, the second-longest drought in the NHL behind Arizona.
The issues are at both ends of the ice. Buffalo is on pace to finish as the third-worst defensive team and the worst offensive club in the league this season.
Injuries. For the last couple seasons, the Sabres have seemingly been plagued by endless ailments - and this year was no exception. With 10 games remaining, the team ranks third in man-games lost to injury. For a team that's trying to rebuild for the second time in three years, that kind of attrition has made it difficult to even reach mediocrity.
Another rebuilding year. In 2014-15, the tanking was intentional, at least. And things seemed promising when Botterill and coach Phil Housley were hired last summer. But it became evident early on that things weren’t going to end well and now Buffalo is back in the draft lottery again. Sure, rebuilds don't happen overnight, but it seems like the Sabres take three steps back every time they take one forward. The situation should improve, however, especially if they land Dahlin in the draft and work some magic during free agency.
The Questions
Who stays and who goes? Botterill moved Kane at the deadline, but couldn’t do much else. It’s setting up to be a busy offseason, with 14 contracts expiring this summer, including seven unrestricted free agents. Eichel should really be the only untouchable player on the roster, while Botterill has had a whole season to evaluate who fits best in his plans.
Will Casey Mittelstadt leave Minnesota? Buffalo’s top prospect hasn't signed yet, but Minnesota's failure to make the NCAA Frozen Four could help lead the 19-year-old center to bolt for the NHL next season. Drafted eighth overall in 2017, Mittelstadt could follow the same path as Clayton Keller and Tyson Jost, who both moved on to play professionally after their freshman years of college.
In his first year with the Gophers, Mittelstadt was second in scoring with 30 points in 34 games, and was a standout during the world juniors in Buffalo, where he was named tournament MVP.
Per the CBA, bringing Mittelstadt on board before the end of the 2017-18 season for even one game would burn a year of his entry-level contract due to his November birthday, so the Sabres will most likely sign him during the offseason. However, Mittelstadt could still return to Minnesota.
Is Housley a good coach? The Sabres were such a mess this season that it's hard to accurately gauge Housley's capabilities. What will he be able to do with a better roster and a clearer organizational direction under Botterill? We may just find out next season.
Matthews last played Feb. 22 versus the New York Islanders, when he was sandwiched on a hit from Cal Clutterbuck, knocking him out of the Leafs' lineup for the third time this season.
Marody, 21, was drafted in the sixth-round in 2015 by the Flyers, and he recorded 14 goals and 32 assists in 47 games for the University of Michigan this season, good for the Big Ten scoring title.
The pick going to Philadelphia originally belonged to New Jersey, and was acquired as part of the recent Patrick Maroon trade.
TORONTO - The degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), though it has monopolized the conversation, is not the be-all, end-all outcome athletes who suffer repeated blows to the head should fear.
On Tuesday, members of a panel debating the circumstances and consequences of brain damage in hockey advocated a simpler message: Concussions,whether they cause CTE or not,are inherently harmful and debilitating.
Dr. Brian Levine, a neuropsychologist leading a study tracking the brain health of retired professional hockey players, wants to steer the public conversation, at least in part, toward the treatment of concussion symptoms and psychiatric disorders and away from the "hopelessness" of living with an incurable degenerative condition.
"We already knew, before CTE was discovered in professional athletes, that concussions were bad. And multiple concussions were worse," Levine said at an annual conference hosted by The Rotman Research Institute at Toronto's Baycrest Health Sciences.
"There needs to be perspective that CTE is a very important condition. It's something important to study; it's something I'm studying in my lab. But it's not the only pathology, and it's not the only thing that can go wrong. And, in fact, many other things that can happen from concussions can be treated."
Levine referenced former NHL enforcer Todd Ewen, who died in 2015 at age 49, reportedly of a self-inflicted gunshot. Ewen was said to have suffered from memory loss and depression, but he did not have CTE, which has been linked to concussions and can only be diagnosed posthumously.
"Head injury and concussion is very complicated," said Levine, whose longitudinal study at Rotman has found the NHL alumni involved to be mostly free of significant brain impairment on objective tests, yet reporting high levels of emotional and behavioral issues. "Some people will develop CTE. We don't know who or when or how or what that even means in terms of how it will affect their lives. It's very important; we need to learn that. We already know enough about why concussion is bad for you.
" ... Steve Montador had 19 concussions - that's bad. He ended up getting diagnosed with CTE but someone else might have a similar dose and not develop CTE, but they might have lots and lots of problems. So it shouldn't be just about whether someone has CTE."
Among those joining Levine on the panel at the Sheraton Centre Hotel was hockey icon Ken Dryden, a fierce critic of the NHL's handling of head hits and author of "Game Change: The Life and Death of Steve Montador and the Future of Hockey."
A 10-year NHL veteran, Montador was 35 when he died in 2015 of an undisclosed cause. His history of concussions, and battle with depression and substance abuse, was the focus of a recent installment of HBO's "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel," examining the NHL's stance on concussions and CTE.
"He was living with significant depression. He was living with real problems of memory," said Dryden, a six-time Stanley Cup champion. " ... Whether he was discovered to have had CTE or not, it was a lousy life the last few years. His life had been affected."
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has continued to deny a link between concussions and CTE. Meanwhile, a U.S. District Court judge in Minneapolis is currently deciding whether hundreds of former players suing the league over concussions can move forward with their case as a class action.
Dryden wants to "close the gap" between concussion research and decision-making in hockey by narrowing the focus to issues like preventing all hits to the head, which he says are "undeniably" harmful to players.
Levine holds a similarly straightforward viewpoint on brain injury and its lasting impact.
"When you have a significant head injury, let's say from a motor vehicle accident, single blow, serious head injury, over time you lose brain cells," Levine said. "Brain cells die, your brain shrinks - that's bad. If you have multiple concussions, that's a little bit different, then you're getting lots of hits, more hits. Maybe each individual hit isn't as bad as a serious motor vehicle accident, but that also causes brain tissue volume loss.
"So you're losing brain cells. And you're also causing all sorts of other biological consequences: a cascade of neurochemical reactions, hormonal changes, pituitary changes ... it's a complex injury that has multiple dimensions to it.
"One of them is tau (protein) in the brain, which is found in CTE, but it's not the only thing."
Now that the New York Rangers have cashed in on their expendable assets through multiple deals at the trade deadline, general manager Jeff Gorton has begun planning the next stage of the rebuild that he and team president Glen Sather publicly promised in February.
After trading away Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh, Michael Grabner, and Nick Holden, the Rangers now possess seven picks in the first three rounds of the 2018 draft, including three in the first round alone.
With multiple high-value picks at his disposal, Gorton told Craig Custance of The Athletic that he's open to trading one of the first-rounders, particularly if a young player who's ready to make an impact becomes available.
"At the point we're at, we're looking to get as many good players as we can," Gorton said. "We're trying to rebuild. It's hard to say no to anything. We have to keep our options open and I think we'll do that."
At last year's draft, the Rangers swung a deal to nab an extra first-rounder, the seventh overall pick, which they used to select Lias Andersson. Now, with a few promising youngsters already in the fold, Gorton wouldn't mind adding a little experience, too.
"They can't all be 18 (years old)," he said. "You need different age groups to build your team."
