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OHL Notebook: Ownership change approved, new rules implemented

The OHL's Board of Governors officially approved the sale of the Sudbury Wolves while also implementing some new rules
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The Ontario Hockey League’s annual Board of Governors meeting wrapped up this week and an ownership transfer was on the agenda as well as some rule changes.

The league officially approved the sale of the Sudbury Wolves by the Burgess family to Dario Zulich.

The sale was agreed to in late July and was made official by a vote by the OHL’s board this week.

“The Burgess and Edwards Family have been the longest serving owners in the OHL having owned the storied Sudbury Wolves for 30 years. I want to thank them for their dedication to the interests and support of their players, the league and the fans in Sudbury,” OHL Commissioner David Branch said in a prepared statement.

In a statement Zulich said he was “grateful to the board of governors of the Ontario Hockey League for its approval of the ownership transfer of the Sudbury Wolves, enabling me to purchase the Wolves from the Burgess and Edwards families. I am looking forward to the final step in the process, which will officially close the sale and purchase on a date to be determined prior to the start of the Wolves preseason.”

The Wolves made some other news this week as the team dealt veteran forward Matt Schmalz to the Owen Sound Attack for 19-year-old forward Liam Dunda. Schmalz spent parts of four seasons with the Wolves.

In other news from the meetings, the league has announced some rule changes.

The league has implemented a ‘blindside hit rule’ which will see penalties assessed for players who “check opponents from the blindside.”

Referees will have the discretion to assess a minor penalty, a major penalty plus a game misconduct or a match penalty for blindside hits, which will be then subject to review and, if necessary, supplementary discipline.

The league has also announced that its fighting rule has been changed as it lowers the number of fights that would lead to supplementary discipline from 10 to three per season. Players who exceed three fights will be subject to an automatic two-game suspension for each fight that exceeds the threshold.

The number of fights does not include fights in which the player is instigated upon.

“As the number one development league in the world for the NHL and CIS, the OHL continually challenges ourselves to improve the on-ice environment and evolve the game for the benefit of the most important people in our game, our players,” Branch said in a statement.

Since the initial adoption of the rule prior to the 2012-13 season, fighting has decreased by 49.5% and the league has not issued a suspension for a player surpassing the 10-fight threshold.

The league has also adopted the NHL’s hybrid icing rule.

The rule was implemented by the NHL prior to the 2013-14 season with the intent of reducing collisions between players racing to force or negate an icing call.

The rule allows linesmen to blow the play dead for an automatic icing if, at his discretion, the puck will cross the goal line and the defending player is not behind in the race for the puck at the faceoff dot in the defensive zone. If the attacking player is leading, the play will be allowed to continue.

Training camps around the OHL are set to open later this month with the exhibition schedule kicking off on Sept. 2 with the regular season opening on Sept. 21.


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Brad Coccimiglio

About the Author: Brad Coccimiglio

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Sports Journalism program, Brad Coccimiglio’s work has appeared in The Hockey News as well as online at FoxSports.com in addition to regular freelance work with SooToday before joining the team full time.
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