Lose a Coach’s Challenge? Stiffer penalties could be on the way

As the NHL General Manager meetings continue, many potential rule changes are on the horizon.

Yet, there is an ongoing debate on what plays can be reviewed, including puck-over-the-glass penalties and “friendly-fire” high-sticking penalties. This would be a change from the league’s current strategy of limiting the number of video reviews to keep the game in good flow.

That has brought up the discussion of Coach’s Challenge, and whether or not teams should receive larger consequences for making a challenge on a play that stands. One of the recommendations for challenging a puck-over-the-glass or high-sticking penalty is, if the play stands, the opposition will receive a 5-on-3 power play, instead of what was going to be a one-man advantage.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton talk about the possibility of stiffer penalties for failed Coach’s Challenges.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ve been someone who usually’s against adding more reviews to the game. If they’re gonna do it, I like having this big of a downside to it. If you’re going to challenge, it better be so egregious, and so obvious to you, that you know you’re going to get it right. If you’re wrong, you’re putting your team down two men instead of one. I hate more challenges, I love that they added a bigger punishment for it.

Carter Hutton: There has to be that happy medium of, if we’re gonna add something, it needs to be at a cost. The last thing we want to do is slow the game down. It already is a big commitment for fans…it’s going to be tough on these video coaches if you have to make a quick decision, but it’s the ones that are blatant. We need to streamline things to make sure it goes quick.

You can watch the full segment, and entire episode here…