NHL GM Meetings: Potential New Rules Could Hurt the Vancouver Canucks

With the NHL General Manager meetings underway in Boca Raton, Florida, the ideas of how to make the game better (or worse) are flowing. For the first time since the 2004/05 NHL lockout, serious considerations are being made to change certain rules as well as the addition of some new ones.

Continuing on with the theme of the season to date, most of the conversation will be around player safety as we have seen a bump in the amount of star players going down with concussions, most notably Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

This increase in concussions has brought forth concern that the increased speed of the game due to rule changes made post-lockout has a direct correlation with the increased injuries. Not all GMs agree that this is the case, and certain rule changes brought to the table could hurt teams' systems. One team in particular is the Vancouver Canucks.

One of the proposed rule changes is to re-add the center red line back into the game. Have we already forgotten the two-line pass and trap style defense slowed the game down to a snail's pace? There is a reason the Canucks have been so successful in the years following the lockout. The opening up of the neutral zone has been an integral part of the Canucks' offensive successes over the past six seasons.

The Canucks often struggled in the past to break the puck out and get it down into the offensive zone, but when the red line was eliminated from the game and teams could no longer master the trap style defense clogging up the neutral zone, the team was finally able to use its terrific team speed and accurate passing to blow by the opposition to create offensive chances. If the red line were to be reinstated, it could completely ruin the Canucks and head coach Alain Vigneault's offensive system.

Obviously there are some proposed rule changes that would aid all teams, including a hybrid icing system and the elimination of the hand pass in the defensive zone, but the one potential rule change that could hurt the Canucks would be the addition of the red line to the game.

That and the potential removal of the trapezoid behind the goal is a very scary thought for Canucks fans. One would wish Roberto Luongo would stay in the net at all times, but giving him extra freedom to roam could be dangerous.

In order for any potential rule changes to be recommended to Brendan Shanahan and the NHL's competition committee, however, 20 of the 30 NHL GMs must be in favor of the proposed idea. So as of right now, all potential changes are purely hypothetical, but some are very possible.

A slowing down of the game in the neutral zone would not leave the Vancouver Canucks as a listed beneficiary if such a rule alteration were to take place.

John Bain is a Bleacher Report Featured Columnist, Follow him on Twitter: @JohnBainSports