<pre class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><img src="https://cdn.eliteprospects-assets.com/cms/w9fR9EgabNNK9PfdEQ8ugdY3JtYXjLfkDTXMyMkm.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /><br /><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Image: Bildbyr&aring;n</span></pre>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">When an <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/nhl">NHL</a> team announces that a player has entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program, the statement is almost always the same: the player will be away indefinitely to receive care. The league and union say nothing more. No timeline, no diagnosis, no details. That privacy is the point.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Since its creation in 1996, the program has served as the league's joint framework for helping players navigate mental health struggles, substance use disorders, and other personal challenges. It exists in the background of every NHL season, rarely discussed until a familiar name disappears from a roster.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">About the NHL Player Assistance Program?</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program is a joint initiative between the National Hockey League and its players' union that provides confidential support to players and their families dealing with mental health issues, substance abuse, and other personal challenges. Participation is voluntary. Players who enter the program continue to receive their salary, and neither the league nor the NHLPA discloses the reason a player has enrolled.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The program also maintains a confidential hotline, giving players and their families direct access to mental health professionals without having to go through their team.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Teams learn of a player's involvement only through their own disclosure to the program, and public announcements are typically limited to the bare fact of entry. This structure was designed deliberately. For a program built on trust, confidentiality isn't a feature; it's the foundation.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Does the Program Cover?</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The program addresses three broad categories: mental health, substance use and addiction, and other personal wellness concerns. A player can enter for anxiety, depression, alcohol dependency, addiction to other substances, or issues that may not fit neatly into any single label. The program has also evolved over the years to better reflect the mental health challenges that receive far more open discussion in professional sport than they did in the 1990s when it launched.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Families are included. A player's relatives can access program resources, an acknowledgment that personal crises don't stop at the locker room door.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">The Four Stages of the NHL Player Assistance Program</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The program operates on a staged structure that reflects the nature of the support a player requires and whether they have remained compliant with their treatment plan.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Stage 1</strong> is the starting point for any player entering the program for the first time. It is entirely voluntary, fully confidential, and carries no financial penalty. A player remains on salary throughout. The goal is evaluation, counseling, and building a treatment plan. Most players who enter the program never progress beyond this stage.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Stage 2</strong> is triggered when a player violates the terms of their Stage 1 treatment plan. At this point, the player is suspended without pay during the active phase of treatment but becomes eligible for reinstatement once that phase concludes.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Stage 3</strong> follows a violation of a Stage 2 treatment plan. It carries a mandatory suspension without pay for a minimum of six months, after which the player can apply for reinstatement. This stage became widely known when <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/108661/valeri-nichushkin">Valeri Nichushkin</a> of the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/57/colorado-avalanche">Colorado Avalanche</a> was placed in Stage 3 in May 2024, midway through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Stage 4</strong> represents the final escalation, reached when a player violates the terms of their Stage 3 plan. Suspension without pay lasts a minimum of one year, and reinstatement to the league is not guaranteed.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">One important note on salary cap implications: a player's contract cap hit remains on the team's books throughout their time in the program. There is no cap relief for the franchise unless the player is placed on long-term injured reserve through a separate mechanism.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Players Who Have Entered the Program</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The list of players who have entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program in recent seasons includes some of the most recognizable names in the game, which has helped bring more public attention to what the program actually does.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/9368/carey-price">Carey Price</a> of the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/64/montreal-canadiens">Montreal Canadiens</a> entered the program in October 2021. When he returned to the team in November, he released a public statement disclosing that he had entered a residential treatment facility for substance use. His openness gave the program a visibility it had rarely had before.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/251476/samuel-girard">Samuel Girard</a> of the Colorado Avalanche entered in November 2023, releasing a statement that named severe anxiety and depression that had gone untreated for too long and led to alcohol abuse. He encouraged others to seek help and returned to game action on New Year's Eve.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/221667/patrik-laine">Patrik Laine</a> of the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/58/columbus-blue-jackets">Columbus Blue Jackets</a> entered in January 2024, citing the need to prioritize his mental health and well-being. He was cleared to return in July of that year, though he never played another game for Columbus.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/34777/yevgeni-kuznetsov">Evgeny Kuznetsov</a> of the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/78/washington-capitals">Washington Capitals</a> entered the program in February 2024, becoming the fourth player announced in the program during that single NHL season.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/101250/jakub-vrana">Jakub Vrana</a> of the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/60/detroit-red-wings">Detroit Red Wings</a> entered in October 2022 and missed significant time. His situation drew additional attention when the Red Wings subsequently placed him on waivers, raising questions about how teams navigate roster decisions when a player is working through the program.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/20709/jack-campbell">Jack Campbell</a>, also of the Detroit Red Wings, entered the program at the start of the 2024-25 season, the first player announced in the program that fall.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Why Participation Has Increased</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Five players entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program during the 2023-24 season -- the same number that had participated across the previous three seasons combined. League and union officials framed that increase as a sign of cultural progress rather than systemic crisis: players are more willing to seek help than they once were.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">That framing has a reasonable basis. Professional hockey culture has historically been defined by toughness and silence. Players who struggled with mental health or addiction tended to manage it privately, often poorly. The greater openness around mental health in sport broadly, and the public disclosures from players like Price, Girard, and Laine specifically, have helped normalize asking for help.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Whether the program's structure fully serves players dealing with substance use disorders is a separate and harder question. The staged escalation system creates financial consequences for treatment non-compliance, a design that makes clinical sense as an accountability structure but sits uncomfortably alongside the reality that addiction is rarely linear.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Happens When a Player Returns</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A player cannot simply leave the program when they feel ready. Release must be authorized by the program's representatives. Once cleared, a player typically goes through a conditioning process before rejoining the active roster.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The timeline varies significantly. Some players return within weeks. Others are away for a full season or longer. Carey Price never returned to playing in the NHL. Samuel Girard came back and addressed the public directly on his return. Valeri Nichushkin, after his Stage 3 placement, eventually returned to game action the following season.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">For the players who do come back, the program's confidentiality means the public rarely knows the full picture of what they worked through. That limitation is part of the design. The NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program doesn't exist to generate stories. It exists to help players get through them.</p>

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<pre class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><img src="https://cdn.eliteprospects-assets.com/cms/B91mEHVYCrse1U8tZbkcfmNYSBrhtWzIDkGD7fal.png" alt="" width="1200" height="800" /><br /><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Player Images: Bildbyr&aring;n</span></pre>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Before a scout books a flight, before a college coach picks up the phone, before anyone watches a single minute of footage, they search the player's name. That search almost always leads to Elite Prospects.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Elite Prospects is the world's largest ice hockey database, used daily by scouts, agents, teams, and federations across more than 50 countries. It is the first stop in how the professional hockey world researches players at every level. Most players have a profile there. Most haven't touched it. That gap is one of the most overlooked opportunities in junior hockey development, and fixing it costs nothing.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Hockey Scouts Are Actually Looking For</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Understanding how scouts evaluate players matters because your Elite Prospects profile exists to answer those questions before a scout ever sees you play. The more precisely your profile reflects what scouts are trying to learn, the more useful it becomes as a recruitment tool.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Skating comes first, at every level. Not just top speed, but edgework, transitions, and the ability to perform under pressure without breaking down mechanically. Scouts at the junior and college level will stop evaluating a player early if the skating base isn't there, because it's the one quality that tends to cap a player's ceiling at higher speeds.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Hockey sense is the second major filter. Scouts isolate individual players during shifts, watching movement and decision-making away from the puck: whether a player scans before receiving passes, finds the right support positions in transition, and processes the game at the speed required for the next level. It's also the quality scouts find hardest to project, which means a player who demonstrates it consistently gets remembered.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Compete level is what college recruiters in particular describe as increasingly rare and increasingly valuable. Winning board battles when tired, finishing checks after the puck is gone, backchecking on a dead play: these are the patterns scouts are watching for across multiple shifts, not just highlights. A player who competes the same way in the third period of a 4-1 game as in overtime tells a scout everything about how they'll handle a college or junior schedule.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">For defensemen specifically, the modern evaluation goes well beyond physicality. Gap management, activation timing, first-pass accuracy under pressure, and lateral mobility in zone exits are what scouts are tracking. Body language after a mistake also comes up consistently: a defenseman who sulks or deflects after a turnover gets flagged in ways a forward with the same reaction often doesn't, simply because defensive errors are more exposed.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Character and coachability run through all of it. College coaches in particular are making four-year investments in people, not just players. They talk to your coaches, your teammates' coaches, sometimes your parents. Being known as someone who accepts feedback, works in a team structure, and competes the right way off the puck matters in every conversation a recruiter has about you.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">How Your Elite Prospects Profile Works as a Scouting Tool</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A verified Elite Prospects profile functions as your permanent hockey resume, accessible to every scout, coach, and agent who searches your name anywhere in the world. Here's what verifying your profile actually unlocks and why each feature matters to someone evaluating you.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Verifying Your Profile</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Verification is free and takes only a few minutes. Navigate to your player page on Elite Prospects and click "Claim Profile," or go directly to <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/verified">eliteprospects.com/verified</a> and search your name. Upload a photo ID, and in most cases the verification is granted instantly. If there's a name discrepancy, a manual review typically resolves it within a few hours.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The verified badge tells anyone who pulls up your profile that the information is accurate and maintained by you personally. In a database of hundreds of thousands of players, that distinction signals seriousness. An unclaimed profile with outdated data reads as a player who isn't engaged with their own development. A verified, complete profile reads as a player who treats their career professionally.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Video Gallery</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Adding video is one of the highest-impact things a verified player can do. Scouts and college coaches increasingly do video pre-screening before committing time to travel. A player whose EP profile includes organized footage, ideally a mix of game clips and skills video, gives evaluators a direct path to watch them without relying on a highlight reel sent by email or a YouTube link that may or may not work.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Keep the footage current and representative of your actual game. A scout who watches three shifts of honest, compete-level hockey learns more than they do from a polished compilation of five career highlight goals.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Contact Information and Social Media</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A recruiter who wants to reach out needs a direct path. Adding your contact details and social media links to your verified profile removes friction from the process. Coaches who find your profile after hearing your name mentioned in a network call should be able to act on that immediately.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Fitness Results</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Physical testing data matters to programs evaluating whether a player can handle the demands of the next level. Adding fitness results to your profile gives scouts and college coaches context they would otherwise have to request or estimate. For players who have strong testing numbers, this is a straightforward way to differentiate.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Education and Academic Background</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">College recruitment is a parallel process to hockey scouting, and academic eligibility shapes the options available to any player pursuing the NCAA path. Documenting your education background on your EP profile gives college coaches immediate context on whether you fit their program's academic requirements, before any conversation starts.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Contract and Eligibility Status</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">One of the most practical questions scouts and agents have when researching a player is whether they're available. Adding your contract and eligibility information directly to your profile answers that question without requiring a phone call. For players in leagues where eligibility windows matter, keeping this information current is worth treating as a routine update.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Referrals</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The hockey world runs on reputation and relationships. A recruiter evaluating a player they've never seen will call coaches and scouts they trust before spending time traveling. The referrals section on your EP profile allows coaches, development staff, and others who know your game to add credibility directly to your page. Think of it as the digital equivalent of a reference letter, visible to every professional who searches you.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Injury Record</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">An accurate injury history removes uncertainty from the evaluation process. Scouts and agents who are seriously interested in a player want to understand availability and durability. Providing that information proactively, rather than having it surface in a conversation at the wrong moment, positions you as transparent and professional.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Billeting, Housing, and Compensation Preferences</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">For players entering the junior market, adding billeting and compensation preferences streamlines conversations with organizations that are actively recruiting. It also signals that you understand how the process works, which itself reads as maturity to organizations evaluating character alongside skill.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">The Search Reality</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Elite Prospects ranks in search results for player names across the hockey world. When a college coach in Michigan hears your name mentioned after a tournament in Alberta and searches it that evening, your EP profile is likely what comes up first. What they find in that moment, accurate career stats, verified identity, video, contact information, and current eligibility status, shapes whether the next step is a phone call or a crossed-off name.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Most players at the junior level are not using their EP profile to its potential. Verifying and completing yours is one of the few steps in the recruitment process that is entirely within your control, costs nothing, and creates a permanent asset that works on your behalf every time a scout opens a browser.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/verified">Verify your Elite Prospects profile here</a>. It's free and takes minutes.</p>

Elite Prospects is where hockey scouts look up players. Here's how to use your EP profile to get noticed by scouts and college recruiters.

How to Use EP to Get Noticed by Hockey Scouts

How to Use Elite Prospects to Get Noticed by Hockey Scouts

<pre class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold"><img src="https://cdn.eliteprospects-assets.com/cms/uRPSSIXdMnvhIZhWSwv5K56Czh66p3Gb612panM8.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="859" /><br /><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Image: Bildbyr&aring;n</span></pre>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Are Waivers in the NHL?</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Every franchise in professional hockey eventually faces a moment of brutal arithmetic: too many players, not enough roster spots. When a team needs to send a player to the minors or simply move him off the active roster, the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/nhl">NHL</a>'s waiver system gets involved. It is a mechanism most casual fans only notice when a recognizable name quietly vanishes from a lineup. But understanding how it actually works reveals something far more interesting: a hidden marketplace where careers end, begin, and occasionally get saved.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Waivers are, at their core, a mandatory notification process. Before a team can assign a player to the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/ahl">American Hockey League</a> or any other minor league, they must first place that player on waivers, effectively offering every other NHL team the chance to claim him at no cost. The claiming team assumes the player's existing contract in full. If nobody claims him within 24 hours, he "clears waivers" and can be sent down freely. If a team does claim him, he is gone, often without the original team having any say in the matter.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The priority order for claims runs in reverse of the current NHL standings, meaning the worst teams get first access. It is a competitive-balance mechanism designed to stop bottom-feeders from getting even worse by watching talent pile up in the AHL while contenders hoard depth.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Who Has to Clear Waivers?</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Not every player is subject to waivers, and this is where the rule gets nuanced.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A player must clear waivers before being assigned to the minors once he meets certain thresholds based on age and professional experience. Players who are 18 or 19 years old need zero NHL games before becoming waiver-exempt for two seasons. Players who are 20 to 23 years old at the start of the season require 160 AHL games before losing that exempt status. Once a skater has appeared in a set number of NHL games, generally around 400 depending on the signing age of his first NHL contract, he becomes permanently waiver-eligible and cannot be sent down without going through the process.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">These thresholds are defined in the NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement and have evolved through successive labor negotiations. The practical takeaway is simple: veteran players cannot be quietly demoted to protect a cap slot or manage ice time without first being exposed to every other team in the league.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Does Clearing Waivers Mean?</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">When a player "clears waivers," it means the 24-hour window passed and no team submitted a claim. The player's current team retains his rights and can assign him to the minors or handle his contract as originally intended.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Clearing waivers is not inherently a verdict on a player's ability. Many players clear simply because other teams have their own roster constraints, lack the cap space to absorb the salary, or have no immediate need at that position. What it confirms is that no general manager saw an urgent enough opportunity to press the button. That is a data point, not a definitive judgment on what a player is worth.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Happens When a Team Makes a Claim?</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The more consequential scenario is when a claim does happen. One team's difficult roster decision becomes another team's upgrade. Throughout NHL history, there are cases that demonstrate exactly how a waiver claim can redirect a career.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Michael Grabner</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Few waiver claims in modern NHL history have produced the immediate return that <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/8494/michael-grabner">Michael Grabner</a> gave the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/67/new-york-islanders">New York Islanders</a> in October 2010. A former first-round pick by the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/77/vancouver-canucks">Vancouver Canucks</a>, Grabner had been traded to the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/62/florida-panthers">Florida Panthers</a> that summer but failed to make the team out of camp. Florida placed him on waivers intending to send him to the AHL. The Islanders claimed him on his 23rd birthday. He finished his rookie season with 34 goals and 52 points, led all NHL rookies in goals, and earned a Calder Trophy nomination. New York signed him to a five-year extension worth $15 million shortly after. Florida, for their part, got nothing. The waiver claim cost the Islanders only the assumption of a modest entry-level contract. It produced one of the better rookie seasons the franchise has seen.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Ilya Bryzgalov</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">If Stralman is the slow-burn version of a waiver claim paying off, <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/8524/ilya-bryzgalov">Ilya Bryzgalov</a> is the instant kind. In November 2007, the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/24/anaheim-ducks">Anaheim Ducks</a> placed him on waivers after failing to find a trade partner. They had re-signed Jean-S&eacute;bastien Gigu&egrave;re and added Jonas Hiller, and Bryzgalov simply had no path to playing time. The <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/9/phoenix-coyotes">Phoenix Coyotes</a> claimed him. That same evening, he made 27 saves in a 1-0 shutout win over the Los Angeles Kings. Phoenix signed him to a three-year extension almost immediately. He went on to win 26 games that season, then 26 again the next, and eventually 36 in 2010-11 as the Coyotes reached the playoffs for the first time in years. From there, his negotiating rights were traded to Philadelphia for draft picks. A waiver claim with zero asset cost had turned into a franchise-defining player and a future trade asset. Anaheim, for their part, watched all of it happen for nothing.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">David Backes</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/11435/david-backes">David Backes</a> situation illustrates a different side of the waiver system, specifically how it handles a veteran player at the end of a contract cycle that no longer fits. After a decorated career as captain of the St. Louis Blues, Backes signed a five-year deal with Boston in 2016. The fit never fully materialized, and by January 2020 the Bruins placed him on waivers to assign him to the AHL. He cleared. It was a brutal public moment for a player who had been one of the better power forwards in the league for most of the previous decade. His story is a reminder that the waiver process carries no sentiment. It reflects where a player stands in the present tense, not where he has been.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Why Teams Sometimes Let Good Players Go</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">It happens more often than fans expect: a player clears waivers or gets claimed and subsequently outperforms what his previous team had anticipated. Cap constraints are the most common explanation. A team may genuinely value a player but cannot carry his salary without jeopardizing other roster construction decisions. Waiving him is not an assessment of his quality. It is mathematics.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Roster logjams are another factor. When a franchise has significant depth at a specific position, a player who is fully capable of contributing at the NHL level may simply be blocked by the contracts above him. A claiming team with an actual hole at that position gives that player the opportunity the original organization could not offer.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Fit matters too. Hockey is a chemistry-driven sport, and a player who never quite connected with one system or coaching staff can look completely different under different circumstances. The waiver wire functions, in that sense, as an accidental matchmaking service. The price of admission is zero. The cost, occasionally, is watching a player you underestimated succeed somewhere else.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">What Waivers Are Not</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A persistent misconception is that placing a player on waivers means the team actively wants to lose him. That is not always the case. Teams sometimes put players on waivers hoping they clear, with the sole intention of completing a different roster or cap move. When an unexpected claim comes in, it can genuinely catch the organization off guard.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">There is also a distinction between standard waivers and unconditional waivers. Standard waivers allow another team to claim the player and assume the contract. Unconditional waivers are used to terminate a contract outright, with no claiming process involved. When a team places a veteran on unconditional waivers, the intent is to release him entirely, either as part of a buyout or simply a parting of ways.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Following the Waiver Wire</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">For fans who want to track moves in real time, the NHL's official transaction feed publishes waiver placements and claims daily. Paying attention to who gets placed on waivers, especially around roster freeze deadlines, the trade deadline, and early in the regular season, provides a useful window into how front offices are actually thinking.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A contending team suddenly waiving a veteran forward says something about their confidence in younger options. A rebuilding team making a claim on an experienced player says something about their short-term intentions. The waiver wire does not have the visibility of a trade deadline deal, no press conferences, no pick packages to dissect, no retention negotiations playing out publicly. But the quiet 24-hour window where rosters shift and careers pivot is one of the more honest reflections of how the NHL actually operates. It rewards the teams, and the fans, who are paying attention.</p>

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<pre class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><img src="https://cdn.eliteprospects-assets.com/cms/UjcYsDQzOp5HoP3c2cLOziNYUwmtGh4QQQ5cgSKj.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="807" /><br /><span style="font-size: 8pt;">Image: Bildbyr&aring;n</span></pre>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The rulebook is dense. The calls happen fast. And the difference between a clean play and two minutes in the box can come down to inches, intent, or the angle of a referee standing 20 feet away.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Understanding penalties in hockey is fundamental, whether you are watching your first game or your five hundredth. They dictate pace. They determine power plays. They swing series. This is the complete breakdown: every penalty type, how it works, what it costs, and what the numbers tell us about how the game has changed.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">How NHL Penalties Work</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Every penalty results in one of two outcomes: a player leaves the ice, or the penalized team loses a skater. The severity of the infraction determines which type of penalty is assessed and for how long.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Power play opportunities are the most direct consequence. When a team takes a minor, the opposition gains a man advantage until either the clock runs out or they score. The clock does not stop for a goal during a major penalty, making sustained five-minute advantages among the most punishing situations in the sport.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><a href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/league/nhl">NHL</a> referees operate under a two-official system, with two linesmen handling offsides, icing, and face-offs. Referees carry the primary responsibility for calling penalties, though linesmen can report misconduct and flag dangerous behavior between whistles.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Since the 2019-20 season, referees are required to use on-ice video review for all major non-fighting penalties, either confirming the call or reducing it to a minor. It is an important check, particularly on borderline boarding and charging situations where the initial real-time read is imperfect.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Minor Penalties: Two Minutes, Potential Power Play</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Minor penalties are the most common infractions in hockey. The penalized player sits for two minutes, and if the opposing team scores during that time, the player is released early. Two minors assessed to the same player at the same time become a double minor: four minutes in the box, with the same early-release rule applying after each goal.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Tripping</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Any action using a stick, knee, foot, arm, hand, or elbow to cause an opponent to fall. The most routine call in hockey, and one where the intent matters far less than the result.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Hooking</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Using the stick to impede the progress of an opponent, typically by applying the blade or shaft to their body or stick. Post-lockout enforcement of this call fundamentally changed the speed of the game.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">High-Sticking</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Carrying the stick above shoulder height in a way that causes contact. If the contact results in injury or blood, it escalates to a double minor regardless of intent. The rule does not care whether the contact was accidental.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Boarding</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Violently checking an opponent into the boards. The line between a legal board and a penalty comes down to force, angle, and the vulnerability of the opponent at the moment of contact. It escalates to a major when injury results.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">The Remaining Minor Penalties</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Holding:</strong> Using a hand or arm to grab and restrain an opponent. Often called in the neutral zone when a defender cannot maintain pace with an opposing skater.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Interference:</strong> Impeding a player who does not have possession of the puck. Also applies to deliberately knocking the puck out of the air with a glove in the offensive zone, and to obstructing a goaltender in the crease.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Cross-checking:</strong> Delivering a check with both hands on the stick, the shaft extended between them. Assessed as a minor or major depending on force and location of contact.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Slashing:</strong> A sharp blow with the stick against an opponent's body or stick. The distinction between a slash and an acceptable hockey play remains one of the sport's more contentious grey areas.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Roughing:</strong> Physical altercation that falls short of a fight. Usually assessed after scrums following whistles when a player takes an extra swing.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Elbowing:</strong> Delivering a check with the elbow as the primary point of contact. The threshold for this call versus incidental contact has tightened significantly under modern player safety standards.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Charging:</strong> Taking two or more strides before delivering a body check, or applying excessive speed or jumping regardless of stride count. Many open-ice hits that were considered clean a decade ago now carry charging risk, particularly at elevated speed.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Delay of Game:</strong> Covers a range of infractions including shooting the puck out of play from the defensive zone, deliberately displacing the net, and faceoff violations. Starting in 2024-25, coaches can challenge a puck-over-glass delay of game call via video review. A failed challenge results in an additional minor.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Too Many Men on the Ice:</strong> A bench minor assessed when a team has more skaters on the ice than permitted during play. The penalty is assessed to the bench, not to an individual.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Diving/Embellishment:</strong> A minor penalty, or a coincidental minor when the opponent is also penalized, assessed to a player who exaggerates or fabricates contact to draw a call.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Unsportsmanlike Conduct:</strong> A broad category covering verbal abuse of officials, obscene gestures, and various inappropriate behaviors. As of 2024-25, it also covers players sitting on the boards with their skates exposed during play, a safety measure introduced after a linesman was cut by a skate blade.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Double Minors: Four Minutes</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A double minor is a pair of two-minute penalties served back to back. The most common scenario is a high-sticking infraction that draws blood. Each two-minute segment can be cut short by a power play goal, which is why teams that draw blood are often rewarded with some of the most dangerous extended man advantages in the game.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Major Penalties: Five Minutes, No Early Release</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Major penalties carry a flat five minutes regardless of how many times the opposing team scores. The power play does not expire. That sustained advantage is why a major for boarding or spearing is so damaging, and why a coincidental fighting major, which cancels out on both sides, lands very differently in the standings than a unilateral major.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Fighting</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Both players receive a major. If one player is judged to have instigated the fight, that player receives an additional minor and misconduct. A player who instigates a fight in the final five minutes of regulation or in overtime receives an automatic one-game suspension.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Checking from Behind</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Pushing or checking an opponent from behind into the boards. Automatic major and game misconduct in most situations. One of the more commonly reviewed calls under the current video review system, particularly when the penalized player argues the opponent turned at the last moment.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">Spearing</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Poking an opponent with the tip of the stick blade in a jabbing motion. Always a major, often a game misconduct, and routinely reviewed by the Department of Player Safety for supplemental discipline regardless of injury outcome.</p>
<h3 class="text-text-100 mt-2 -mb-1 text-base font-bold">The Remaining Major Penalties</h3>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Butt-ending:</strong> Jabbing an opponent with the end of the stick handle. Like spearing, it almost always draws supplemental review regardless of whether an injury occurred.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Charging with injury:</strong> Charging assessed as a major when the opponent is injured on the play. The same two-stride read applies; the injury outcome is what elevates the call.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]"><strong>Cross-checking to the head:</strong> A cross-check that makes direct contact with the head or neck. Automatic major in most situations and a near-certain referral to Player Safety.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Misconduct and Game Misconduct Penalties</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A misconduct penalty results in a ten-minute sit but does not create a power play. The player who committed the infraction serves the full ten minutes while a teammate serves any accompanying minor on the ice. Misconduct is most often tacked onto other penalties as additional punishment for behavior after the initial infraction.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A game misconduct is an ejection. The offending player is done for the night, and a teammate serves any associated time. Under NHL rules, a player who receives two misconduct penalties in a single game is automatically assessed a game misconduct. Any player dismissed twice for stick infractions, boarding, or checking from behind, or three times for any reason during the same regular season, receives an automatic one-game suspension.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Match Penalties: Ejection for Intent to Injure</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A match penalty is the most severe on-ice sanction available to a referee. It requires a finding that a player deliberately attempted to injure an opponent. The player is ejected, a teammate serves five minutes shorthanded, and the case is automatically referred to the Department of Player Safety for supplemental discipline review. Outcomes range from a fine to a multi-game suspension depending on the nature of the act, the player's disciplinary history, and whether an injury occurred.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Penalty Shots</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">A penalty shot is awarded when a player is fouled from behind on a clear breakaway, eliminating what would have been a clean scoring chance. The shooter skates in alone against the goaltender. Penalty shots can also be awarded for covering the puck in the crease as a non-goaltender, deliberately displacing the net shorthanded in the final two minutes, or throwing a stick in the offensive zone to stop a puck or player.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">How the Numbers Have Changed</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The volume of penalties called in the NHL has fallen dramatically over the past two decades. It is one of the most significant structural shifts in the modern game, and one that many casual fans have not fully registered.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">In 2005-06, the first season back after the lockout, the league averaged 5.85 power play opportunities per team per game, a spike driven by the league's aggressive crackdown on obstruction and hooking. That figure is now hovering around 2.7, among the lowest averages since the league began tracking the stat in the late 1970s. That is not a rounding error. It is a complete transformation.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Fighting has followed the same trajectory. The 2003-04 season saw 789 total fights league-wide. By 2014-15, that figure had dropped to 0.32 fights per game, a decline that has continued steadily since. The enforcer role has been phased out almost entirely, and with it, the major penalty volume that once padded player totals. A player with 200 penalty minutes in a season was not unusual in the 1990s. It is nearly unheard of today.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Yet the power plays that do get called have become significantly more dangerous. Conversion rates climbed to 22.42 percent in 2022-23, the highest in decades, and have remained elevated since. Fewer opportunities, but every one costs more.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Who Takes the Most Penalties</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Among the most penalized players in the current NHL era, <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/108648/nikita-zadorov">Nikita Zadorov</a> and <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/201473/brady-tkachuk">Brady Tkachuk</a> consistently rank near the top of the penalty minutes leaderboard. In 2024-25, Zadorov led the NHL with 145 penalty minutes, while Tkachuk ranked fourth at 123. Both are physical players whose style depends on aggression, contact, and occasionally crossing the line. Their totals would have placed them in the middle of the pack in the enforcer era. Today, they sit at the very top.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">On the supplemental discipline side, <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/90345/ryan-hartman">Ryan Hartman</a> of the <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/63/minnesota-wild">Minnesota Wild</a> was one of the more prominent cases of 2024-25. According to NHL.com, he received a ten-game suspension in February after Player Safety found he had intentionally driven Tim Stutzle's head into the ice during a faceoff. Commissioner Bettman reduced the suspension to eight games on appeal. The case was representative of the broader trend: the league has tightened its standard on dangerous and deliberate acts, and the threshold for supplemental action has lowered meaningfully compared to even five years ago.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Supplemental Discipline: Beyond the Penalty Box</h2>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">The Department of Player Safety handles discipline for incidents that may warrant punishment beyond the in-game call. Factors include the nature of the act, whether the opponent was in a vulnerable position, the injury outcome, and the offending player's history.</p>
<p class="font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]">Repeat offenders face elevated suspension lengths. A player suspended within the prior 18 months is treated as a repeat offender under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which alters how lost salary is calculated and signals that prior deterrence has not worked.</p>
<h2 class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold">Explore Player Penalty Data</h2>
<p class="text-text-100 mt-3 -mb-1 text-[1.125rem] font-bold"><a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com">Elite Prospects</a> tracks penalty minutes across every major professional and amateur league in the world. The full <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.eliteprospects.com/stats">NHL statistics database</a>, updated through the current season, lets you sort by total penalty minutes, penalty minutes per game, and major penalties across any league or season. Every player profile includes a complete career penalty breakdown, from junior hockey through the pros.</p>

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