Report: NHL GMs ‘warm’ to idea of video-assisted review for officials

If there hasn’t been enough video review in the game today, just wait.

According to insider Frank Seravalli, NHL executive vice president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell stated that, during a meeting among the league’s general managers on Tuesday, a discussion of video-assisted review took place. The idea is that there will be direct communication to on-ice officials to amend penalties, most notably friendly-fire high-sticking.

Per Seravalli, Campbell said reception from the GMs was “warm.” There is a potential vote coming up in March, with any rule changes being implemented for the 2027-28 season.

Any potential rule change would also have to be approved by the NHL Players’ Association.

According to responses on social media, fans seem to be in favor of the idea of righting any wrongs by referees. The one concern would be what the video review process would be like and, more or less, how long it would take. These days, if there is a call that officials feel like they messed up on, the second ref would come over to discuss the play before making a decision to reverse the call. If there were VAR put in place for penalties, many around the game hope that it can be a quick fix, rather than a long, drawn-out review that we sometimes see for potential offsides or goalie interference penalties.

There certainly would be positives in helping out the refs, who can sometimes miss infractions in real time, especially with how fast the game is played these days.