NHL officials have always been under the microscope. However, things seem to have gotten worse over the last several seasons as blown calls continue to pile up and teams are being wrongly defeated on a more regular basis.
What has the league done about their shoddy officiating? Not much, but that may be about to change. The NHL will be hosting an “NHL Exposure Combine” which will bring in roughly 60 high-level officiating prospects.
Per Darren Dreger of TSN:
They’re going to collect these, literally, from around the world, but yes, they will send invites to certain universities and NCAA colleges for those graduating hockey players who perhaps want to pursue a career as an NHL on-ice official.
They’ll hold the combine in August in Buffalo. There will be considerable physical testing but it’s all part of trying to expand the search and every other year, they’ll do an amateur version.
While it’s not an overhaul of the current officiating mess, the NHL is stepping up their search to find new officials. Think of it as a referee pipeline. With a little bit of luck, maybe the NHL will have some competent officials in the not too distant future.
