QMJHL announces new fighting penalties

Vincent Ethier/QMJHL

SHERBROOKE, QC - Greetings from Sherbrooke, where the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League certainly made some noise around the hockey world on Friday.

As was expected, QMJHL commissioner Mario Cecchini announced additional penalties on fighting in the league. This comes after several months of pressure from the Quebec government to further reduce fighting in the league.

Here are the changes, via a QMJHL news release:

Here are the main points that were approved by the league’s Members:

1. Addition of a game misconduct penalty for any player involved in a fight;
2. Addition of an automatic one-game suspension for any player declared the instigator of a fight;
3. Addition of a minimum two-game automatic suspension for any player identified as the aggressor;
4. In addition to the game misconduct, an automatic one-game suspension will be imposed once a player has reached his second fight, rather than his third.

As those who follow and watch the league know, the amount of fights has dropped drastically over the past decade. It will be interesting to see if this change is all that noticeable given how few fights have occurred in recent seasons.

According to HockeyFights.com, the Charlottetown Islanders led the league in fights last year with 17. The Saint John Sea Dogs had four, tied for the third fewest in the league. The Memorial Cup champion Quebec Remparts had just one.

When the Sea Dogs entered the QMJHL in 2005-06, they had 67 fights that year. 91 the next year.

Saint John had four fights in 2022-23. 15 the year before.

Fighting was leaving with or without today's rule changes. https://t.co/ztKqS5ftj4

— Jamie Tozer (@station_nation) June 9, 2023

The league also announced some rule changes to video replay, which comes after a couple controversial reviews during the playoffs.

"The Members’ Assembly also approved the addition of tablets to penalty boxes, so that officials can review various sequences during the game," reads a QMJHL news release. "New cameras, located above both blue lines, will also be added to provide better angles for quicker decision-making in offside situations."