No more hockey fights: This league plans to ban them going forward

Fighting, which has long been a part of hockey, could soon be a thing of the past in one of Canada’s top junior leagues.

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), which has teams in Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, is planning to ban fighting, a QMJHL spokesperson confirmed in a telephone conversation with Daily Hive.

QMJHL teams recently voted in favour of banning fighting completely. A new rule could be ratified as soon as June, when the league holds its next board of governors meeting, and put in place for next season.

“The QMJHL is planning to have a rule in place that will ban fighting, making it black and white that it is no longer a part of our game,” a QMJHL spokesperson told The Hockey News. “The punishments have not been decided as of yet. We will be looking to have a rule in place in June when the next general annual assembly of the members of the board of governors takes place.”

Along with the OHL and WHL, the QMJHL is one of the top three junior hockey leagues in Canada — a stepping stone to the NHL for many players aged 20 and under.

The QMJHL has cracked down on fighting in recent years, amid political pressure in Quebec. The league instituted a 10-minute misconduct on top of a five-minute major for fighting in 2020.

According to hockeyfights.com, there were only 86 fights in the QMJHL last season, which is down from 188 fights the league recorded in 2018-19. The OHL had 202 fights in 2021-22, while the WHL produced 288 bouts.

Twenty years ago, in 2002-03, the QMJHL recorded a whopping 637 fights.

The OHL has had a three-fight rule since 2016, in which players are suspended for two games for every fight after they’ve dropped the gloves on three occasions in a single season.

The WHL has cracked down on “staged fights” but otherwise has more forgiving punishments than the QMJHL and OHL.

Quebec sports minister Isabelle Charest is demanding that anyone who fights be kicked out of the game and suspended.

“The minister demands that all involved players be expelled from the ongoing game and be suspended for the next,” Charest’s office told The Hockey News. “The minister has the power, under the [Sports Safety Act] to impose regulation for the game. Of course, we’d prefer to reach a consensus with the QMJHL, but if need be, the minister will take action via the legislative power.”

Much has been learned in the last 20 years about the danger of concussions, which are a type of traumatic brain injury.

Former NHL tough guy Enrico Ciccone, who compiled 1,469 penalty minutes with the Minnesota North Stars, Washington Capitals, Tampa Bay Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks, Carolina Hurricanes, Vancouver Canucks, and Montreal Canadiens, wants fighting banned too. Ciccone is now a politician with the Quebec Liberal Party and was re-elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in 2022.

“Well, you know what? If they call me… hypocritical, well that’s all right,” Ciccone said in a 2020 interview with CBC Radio. “Things have changed through the years and society has changed, and we have numbers, we have scientific reports also that [show] us the damage [fighting] can do on your brain.”

“We just want to try to work ahead to make sure that these kids don’t go through what I went through, what a lot of my teammates went through.”

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