League Committee, Players Association agree on Mandatory Visors – NHL Playoffs Update
In order to ensure the safety of players, the National Hockey League (NHL) competition committee and NHL Players’ Association have come to agree on it being mandatory to wear visors.
For now, the agreement has to go through a further process of completing various formalities and has given the option of current NHL players to choose whether they wish to wear them or not, but new players are reported to not have that option. Instead, new
players will be forced to wear one for the protection of their eyes from hockey sticks and the puck.
“I think the biggest thing is that every player coming into the league has to have previously worn one,” former NHLer Mathieu Schneider said, who is also special assistant to NHLPA executive director, Donald Fehr. “We have 70-plus percent of the guys currently
wearing them in the league. Overall, it's just been a change in attitude.”
Throughout the years, it has come to notice that various players are being injured due to not having adequate protection on the head other than the helmet. It was an eye injury to New York Rangers enforce, Marc Staal, earlier in March that increased the
pressure from various lobby groups to increase the safety standards.
“There are a lot of players that haven't played with it, may not fully understand it, and I think this will give them a better idea of what to expect,” Schneider added. “The question was asked in our survey, but it was a very small percentage of guys that
thought that everyone should have to wear one.”
There should definitely not be any second opinion on whether safety of players should be compromised on seeing the previous injuries that have affected such players.
A poll was also conducted by the players in this regard, while the NHLPA may not disclose the results, it can be determined by the way they agreed to the mandatory visors as to how many may have voted for it. According to Schneider, it was a “clear majority.”
Updates should be expected on this during the offseason as the playoffs enter the final stages.
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