- The new CBA makes cut-resistant neck protection mandatory for any player making his NHL debut
- Anyone with even one NHL game before this season is grandfathered in and still gets to choose
- Read below for the exact rule, the safety standard it uses and why the AHL got there two years earlier
Every player who makes his NHL debut this season is going to be wearing something the veterans can still leave in the bag.
The league’s new collective bargaining agreement takes effect Sept. 16 and runs through Sept. 15, 2030. Tucked inside it is Rule 9.9, which says any player with zero games of NHL experience has to wear cut-resistant protection on the neck, rated to a minimum A5 cut level under the ANSI/ISEA 105-2016 standard.
Anybody with even one NHL game on his resume before this season is grandfathered in. That guy still gets to decide for himself.
Frank Seravalli had the mandate back in June 2025, when details of the memorandum of understanding started trickling out:
All of this traces back to October 2023, when Adam Johnson died after a skate cut his neck during an EIHL game in England.
Junior hockey moved fast. The OHL, WHL and QMJHL all mandated cut-resistant protection within weeks, and Darren Dreger noted how quickly the OHL got its version into locker rooms:
Then came the American League, which required neck protection for every player and every on-ice official ahead of 2024-25. No grandfather clause, no exceptions:
We asked at the time whether the NHL was the next domino. It took two more years and a new labor deal.
The holdup was the players. A poll on a league-wide mandate came back 78 percent against, and voluntary adoption stayed tiny. The NHL counted 55 of its 708 skaters wearing one in 2024-25, roughly 7.8 percent, and the list has never grown much.
Grandfathering is how the league has always handled equipment. Helmets in 1979, visors in 2013-14, same structure both times. The rule just turns universal as the old guard ages out.
Conor Garland has been the visible exception. The Canucks winger started wearing one in 2023 after watching Connor Bedard’s skate come close to Mark Scheifele’s neck.
Garland was asked whether the league should make everyone wear one, and he wanted no part of that:
“I think personal choice is massive. I think guys are able to make that decision for themselves, same as visors.”
The rookies reporting to training camp this month never get that decision.
