Competition Committee makes several rule change recommendations, including expanded replay

A bit of non-Cup Final news for you tonight: the NHL’s PR arm announced tonight a slew of new rule proposals, fresh out of a meeting of the NHL/NHLPA Competition Committee.

From the league, the proposals include (all of this language is directly quoted from the press release):

• Expanded Review/Challenge: The Committee recommends changes to the Coach’s Challenge and expanded video review, including as it relates to a Referee’s ability to review some of his own calls on the ice.
• Helmets Off During Play: The Committee recommends work on a rule construct for implementation next season that would reasonably require a player to leave the ice in the event his helmet comes off during play.
• Goalies Unnecessarily Freezing Puck: The Committee recommends that the defensive team not be permitted a line change when a goalie freezes the puck on any shot from outside the center red line. The offensive team will have the choice of which end zone dot the face-off will take place.
• Face-off Procedure Changes/Line Changes: The Committee recommends: i) that following an icing, the offensive team will have the choice of which end zone dot the face-off will take place. ii) To begin a power-play, the offensive team will have the choice of which end-zone dot the face-off will take place. iii) That no line change be permitted for the defending team if, in the judgement of the Official, the actions of a skater of the defensive team caused the stoppage by unintentionally knocking the net off. The offensive team will have the choice of which end-zone dot the face-off will take place.
• Puck Out of Bounds: The Committee recommends that when the attacking team is responsible for the puck going out of play in the attacking zone, all face-offs will be conducted at one of the two face-off dots in the attacking zone.

There was a last proposal around regular-season tie-breakers as well, but there were no specifics to what those changes would be.

Pretty interesting, all around. You have to think the expanded replay would allow for things like high-sticking calls, tripping calls, hits to the head, etc.

It could slow the game down a bit, but would be pretty limited if coaches still only had one challenge.

The next step here is approval by the NHLPA Executive Board and the NHL’s Board of Governors, which isn’t exactly a slam dunk.

Your thoughts?