The Role of Fighting in Modern Hockey

By: Nathan Ma

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/sports/hockey/nhl-fighting-rangers-capitals.html

The Role of Fighting in Modern Hockey

Come on, do something! I paid good money to see these men fight.

Once seen as an essential part of hockey’s identity as a sport, fighting is now a dying art. In a league that increasingly prioritizing speed and skill, the question of fighting still belonging in the modern game becomes harder and harder to ignore.

Data suggests that it’s vanishing. In the 2003-04 NHL season, there were 789 fights across 1230 games. By the 2022-23 season, the number dropped to just 334 fights, fewer than one every four games. Fewer and fewer fights are occurring throughout the league.

The decline of fighting is also being driven by rule changes. In 2013, the NHL started to require all new players to wear visors. Players who removed their helmets before a fight were hit with another minor penalty. These small rule changes made fighting less attractive to players and moved teams away from designated enforcers. According to data from the Athletic, players fighting more than five times in a season dropped by nearly 75% between 2012 and 2022.

The league also faced concernspressures over player safety. The deaths of former enforcers like Derek Boogaard and Wade Belak created concerns about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease linked to repeated head trauma. A 2017 study found CTE in the brains of three former NHL players posthumously diagnosed with behavioral changes and depression.

Still, not everyone is ready to let it go. In the 2023–24 season, New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe quickly became one of the league’s most prominent fightersfigures. In his first 10 NHL games, he fought five times, igniting debates across sports media about his play style.

Fighting also remains regional. In North American pro leagues like the NHL and AHL, players receive five-minute majors for fighting but are rarely ejected. On the other hand, international tournaments like the Olympics and most European leagues enforce automatic ejections and suspensions for the same conduct.

What’s left is a gray area. Fighting isn’t gone, but it’s no longer the norm. Players who can’t contribute beyond dropping the gloves no longer have job security. Even so, coaches and teammates still defend occasional fights as a way to protect stars or energize the bench.

In the modern NHL, fighting is no longer a pillar of the game, becoming a shadow of the past.

https://www.hockeyfights.com/stats/teams/23/fights/2023

https://theathletic.com/4254364/2023/03/07/nhl-fighting-decline

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28503574

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/mar/05/matt-rempe-fights-new-york-rangers-hockey-nhl

https://www.iihf.com/en/statichub/4713/iihf-rule-book