By Jeff D'Andrea

WHL to allow kicked-in pucks and hybrid icing

Sep 22, 2016 | 10:00 AM

The dreaded debate of what a “distinct kicking motion” actually is just got a lot less heated this year in the Western Hockey League.

To avoid the confusion, the league will essentially allow pucks to be kicked into goals—provided they are outside of the crease.

“What we’ve tried to do is clarify it and make it as easy as possible for all parties to understand,” Richard Doerksen, WHL’s vice-president of hockey said in a conference call Wednesday. “Basically, if the puck is outside of the crease and it goes off an attacker’s skate or lower leg area, regardless if there was a distinct kicking motion or not, it is a good goal. If the puck is still in the crease, than our previous application would continue to apply.”

To avoid players thrashing around willy-nilly taking advantage of the new scoring opportunity, the league has put limits on kicked goals. The skate cannot be more than “12-14 inches off the ice” and it must come off of the attacker’s “skate or leg, no higher than the knee.”

Hybrid icing

Freedom and Flexibility

How App-Based Work Creates Economic Opportunity

Dec 12, 2025

Riderville

Now for the Hard Part

Dec 10, 2025

Seniors Scene

Christmas is Coming

Dec 09, 2025

After being implemented by the NHL and IIHF, hybrid icing will be a rule in the WHL moving forward.

Instead of an automatic call, icing will now happen when the defender is winning the race for the puck as it crosses the red line. The idea being, this new rule could prevent collisions on the end boards.

Although they are moving forward with the hybrid icing, Doerksen does anticipate some growing pains with the rule change—especially with the large turnover of both linesmen and referees the league is going through this season.

“It really asks our front linesmen to make some key decisions in the spur of the moment. With the number of young linesmen coming into our league and not having used hybrid icing before, they’re kind of learning on the job,” Doerksen said. “We’re cautioning our teams and just trying to make everyone aware that we’ll have some situations where perhaps a judgement isn’t correct, but we hope through in-game learning it will come quite quickly for us.”

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea