Charlottetown Islanders fans can expect to see fewer fights this year

New rules in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League this season may not eliminate fighting altogether, but players will have to think twice before dropping the gloves.

The league has introduced stiffer penalties for fighting that include an automatic ejection from the game. It could also include further sanctions.

Repeat offenders will receive multiple game suspensions.

Fighting in the QMJHL came with 15 minutes in the penalty box — a five minute major and 10-minute misconduct — until the rules changed after last season.

It means fans of the Charlottetown Islanders and other teams in the league can expect to see fewer fights, a trend that has been happening for years. 

"There is a place for it in the game, but I also understand that you have to change with the times, and I think this is an effort to improve player safety and it's awfully hard to argue with that," said Jim Hulton, coach and general manager of the Islanders.

Decrease in fighting

"The decrease in fighting over the last five years has been dramatic. This is just a final step, I guess, to officially push it out within the rule book."

Indeed, statistics show that in 2011-12, nearly half of all QMJHL games had at least one fighting major. Last season, that number was below 13 per cent.

Tanner Doiron, a QMJHL referee from P.E.I., said officials will have to use discretion when it comes to what constitutes a fight, whether there was engagement by both players and whether one player was the instigator.

He said referees examine video before, during and after games to make sure they are getting the calls correct, and expects that to continue with more on the line under the new rules.

"There's a bit more of an emphasis on the fighting situation," he said. "I guess you could say there's more of an emphasis for us, too … to ensure we have clear focus on a fighting situation and understanding what really took place, what really happened. But … I think we're ready for the challenge."

Doiron said referees are using pre-season games to educate themselves on the new rules and how the league expects them to be enforced.

"We're being directed to employ every means necessary under these new rules to stop brawling and stop fighting and kind of use that game misconduct penalty for this purpose. So, it should be interesting."

Hulton said it won't change how he coaches.

He said the team has had "aggressive players that were obviously willing to answer the call if it came about," but they have not employed a traditional enforcer — usually a bigger player whose main role is to protect his teammates, often by fighting — in several years.

"It's less and less of a role and I think that this generation of players are unaccustomed to fighting. So, therefore, it wasn't a major part of our game."

Season starts Sept. 22

The other two major junior hockey leagues in Canada, the Ontario Hockey League and Western Hockey League, are expected to eventually follow the QMJHL's lead.

The penalty for fighting in the National Hockey League is still a five-minute major unless there are circumstances that warrant a misconduct or instigator penalty.

The QMJHL regular season begins Sept. 22. Charlottetown's first home game is Sept. 23 against the Halifax Mooseheads.