This week the RHL held it's Research, Development, and Orientation camp in Mississauga. While all the General manager's had a chance to look at this years biggest prospects, such as Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin, they were not the big news of the week. Even though everyone is curious as to what Jersey they will pull over their head on draft day, the experimentation with the rules were under the spotlight.
There were a lot of potential new rules tested for consideration at this years RDO camp, and while some will never see the light of day, here are a few changes that will make it to the RHL rule book for the upcoming season:
1) Game Winning Goals have been removed and replaced with Hits. This change is in the effort to sway from focusing so much on offensive players, particularly defense men. This rule will definitely raise the value of more truculent players.
2) Divisions have been created and playoff seeds one and two will be awarded to the winner of each division.
3) The top eight teams will now advance to the playoffs rather than the previous six. This will now eliminate any byes that had previously existed. The league is also looking to expand to 14 teams this season.
Some of the ideas rejected were changing save percentage to GAA and adding a shots on goal category. There was also discussion regarding the lack of depth concerning goaltenders, but no changes were made. This years GM in a 14 team league will just have to manage their teams a little more carefully.
If you haven't signed up yet, please hurry as the league will need to see how many teams will be available for sale before expansion begins. Rumours are already surfacing that Rob Atkinson of the defunct Hiawatha Fingers and Matt
Gierasimczuk former GM of the Mighty Perogies both may be offered one of the expansion franchises.
