About 2 weeks from now, a bunch of prospects that will be available in next summer’s draft will participate in an orientation camp in Toronto .  This camp will feature 4 sessions in which the NHL will test out some unique rule changes, and of course scouts will get a chance to look at some players in action. There’s a nice article about it on NHL.com, about the entire event. I’d like to make a few predictions of how each rule change would impact the game. Some things are pretty obvious, because we’ve heard of them and seen them at different levels. Anyway, here goes: Hybrid icing rule : There’s no explanation in the article I linked you to, but I read somewhere that in the case when a defenseman will obviously beat out a forward to touch up for icing, the refs will just blow play dead and save a few seconds.  I like this because it saves on wasted time, while doesn’t cut out those exciting mad dashes when two guys are racing neck and neck to a potentially iced puck.  No line change for offside : This isn’t as bad as no line change for an icing, because the teams isn’t penned into their own zone. However, this will prevent teams from taking intentional offsides after a long shift in the offensive zone.  A lost face-off could lead to a quick transition against tired bodies. Still, that situation isn’t extremely common, so I think this will have minal impact

Follow this link: NHL R&D Camp Predictions