NHL Reportedly Makes Neck Guards Mandatory for New Players as Part of CBA Rule Change

Players entering the NHL will be required to wear neck guards starting with the 2026-27 season, according to The Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli.

Any player with one game played before the 2026-27 campaign will be grandfathered in and therefore not required to wear a neck guard, Seravalli added.

The new rule is part of the four-year extension of the collective bargaining agreement announced Friday by the NHL and the NHL Players' Association, per Seravalli.

Other hockey organizations including the AHL, IIHF, USA Hockey and National Federation of State High School Associations have previously mandated the use of neck guards.

A push for increased neck protection took place in the wake of the death of former NHL player Adam Johnson, who died in 2023 after his neck was cut by a skate blade during a game between the Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers in the United Kingdom's Elite Ice Hockey League.

The widespread use of neck guards has yet to make it to the NHL, however. League executive Colin Campbell said last November during the NHL annual meeting that 55 out of 708 skaters were wearing neck guards during the 2024-25 season, per Seravalli.

Campbell did note that more than 100 players were wearing cut-resistant material over their wrists, and more were wearing the material over their ankles, according to Seravalli.

The neck guard requirement won't be the first time a safety measure was installed in the AHL before making it up to the NHL.

The AHL mandated protective visors ahead of the 2006-07 season. The NHL followed suit by making eye protection mandatory for new players ahead of the 2013-14 campaign.

Given that the only NHL players who can compete without a visor had to have already played in at least 25 games by the end of the 2012-13 season, only a few players— most notably including Dallas Stars captain Jamie Benn and Minnesota Wild defenseman Zach Bogosian— were skating without eye protection during the 2024-25 campaign.

The new rule being grandfathered in means that a similar transformation could take place in the league with respect to neck guards over the next ten years.