Cages on helmets soon?

Question

With their being focus on head injuries in the NHL, and the growing popularity of face shields, is it long before we see face shields mandatory, and then after that the NHL requiring full face sheilds like in junior hockey?

Answer 1

You never know - they probably said that helmets would never be required for skaters, and Jacques Plante was heavily criticized for wearing a goalie mask.

So, I would not be surprised if full cages were made mandatory at some point, if it was felt that facial injuries were a serious problem. There would probably be a "grandfather" rule, in which players that were drafted before the cages were required could continue playing without them; that is what they did with helmets.

Whether cages are made mandatory or not will comes down to two factors:
a) Do the players need to be protected?
b) Will hiding the players faces reduce the popularity of the sport, and, therefore, revenues?
As long as "b" prevails, as it does now, no, we will not have cages.

Answer 2

lity i got one issue with the vast difference in age of just the regular posters on here your statement not in our lifetime is very open. can you please detail it do you mean your life time or spuds or somewhere in between. personally i think it ill be around in next 15years as owners will want to protect their investment, it will be a cba issue at some point. Plus hate to bring this up but nascar drivers were against the hans device until a big name got serious hurt(and killed) is that what hockey players are requiring for them to get proper safety equipment.

Answer 3

In the AHL, the league requires a half-shield.
That might happen in the NHL, but LITY said, full
shields won't fly.

Answer 4

A visor will probably be phased in like helmets were at some point soon, but the full cages- that'll never happen.

Answer 5

The NHLPA has been adamant against this. I don't think we will see it in our lifetime