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NHL makes visors mandatory for new players

marcstaalbleedinggetty

Starting in 2013-14, the NHL will force players to wear visors for the first time ever.

That was the news out of Tuesday’s NHL-NHLPA Competition Committee meeting, in which mandatory visor use was grandfathered in.

(TSN’s Darren Dreger reports the cutoff is for any player that’s played 26 or more NHL regular-season or playoff games. Any player with less will have to wear one.)

According to NHLPA special assistant Mathieu Schneider, there was a “clear majority” among union members supporting the initiative, though he refrained from giving a specific number.

In March, Schneider said the PA rejected the idea of mandatory visors.

Visor use has been a hot topic throughout this season, and reached a boiling point when Rangers defenseman Marc Staal was struck in the eye with a puck.

Staal, who was not wearing a visor, missed the remainder of the regular season and all but one of New York’s playoff games with cloudy vision.

He, along with brothers Eric and Jordan, have since donned visors.

Staal also said he should’ve been wearing one at the time of the injury, and acknowledged that he voted in favor of mandatory visor usagewithout a grandfather clause -- when the NHLPA polled its members earlier this year.

Note: Related to the new initiative, it appears the penalty for starting a fight with a visor will be changed, as per to NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell.

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