What We Want

• In September 2025 the NHL said it expects “the highest level of moral integrity,” and that five players’ conduct “certainly did not meet that standard.”1 Then it set their return dates anyway. Nothing written down says what falling short of the league’s own standard costs.

• MLB and the NFL have written policies on domestic violence and sexual assault, and MLB’s also covers child abuse.2,3 The NHL’s collective bargaining agreement has none, so every case is ultimately left to the commissioner, Gary Bettman.4,5

• Published summaries of the new CBA show no conduct policy.6

• A No Sexual Misconduct clause in every player contract in the NHL, AHL and ECHL, agreed with the NHLPA and the PHPA, since player contracts are bargained.7

• The same clause in every executive, coaching and staff contract. No union is involved, so any club can do this today.

• It covers sexual misconduct, domestic violence and child abuse.

• Every confirmed violation draws at least a defined minimum, and the penalty climbs with severity and with each new violation. One incident is decided once: no second penalty for it later. A rule with only one penalty, the maximum, tends to get enforced less: victims, often partners, are less likely to report when any report ends a career, and the people deciding look for reasons the rule doesn’t apply. Mandatory-arrest laws showed the reporting effect: they were followed by more intimate-partner homicides, which the study links to fewer calls.

Real minimum penalties, scaled up for severity and repeat violations, with no second penalty for the same incident.

• Independent investigation, separate from the courts.9 A finding does not depend on a criminal conviction.10

• Investigation reports are published with survivors’ identities protected.11

• A duty to report. Staff who learn of an allegation must report it, and failing to is its own violation. Blackhawks leaders met about an allegation on May 23, 2010 and took no action for three weeks; the NHL fined the team $2 million.12

• Interim safety measures from the day of a report, decided by the independent body, not the club: no-contact orders, separate travel and lodging, reassignment, supervision or paid leave.13,14 Paid measures are protection, not punishment, and can be challenged quickly.

• The person who reported keeps their role, pay and roster spot, and retaliation is its own violation.

• No-contact terms are enforced. A club can’t invite someone under one to team events or celebrations. Former video coach Brad Aldrich attended the Cup parade and the banner raising despite a no-contact term.15

• The club pays for the separation, whatever the outcome, and never charges it back to the person who reported. The independent body sets the pace, so the club can’t rush it to save money, and failing to report costs the club more than the accommodations would.

The accused moves, never the person who reported.

• A published, graduated set of consequences in place of commissioner discretion, with notice and appeal rights for everyone. Ignoring a sanction is its own violation.

• An independent evaluation by domestic and sexual violence specialists before anyone found in violation returns. No couples counseling as treatment.16 The clinical details stay confidential, as the law requires, but the league publishes that the evaluation happened, who did it, what conditions were set, and whether they were met.17,18

• A review of everyone already in the league when the policy starts.

• A duty to disclose past allegations, charges, civil claims and findings. Hiding them is its own violation.

• Any case can reopen when new information comes out, and only then, so there is no second penalty for the same incident.19

• Mandatory, recurring training for every player, coach, executive and staff member on consent and bystander intervention, using programs with evidence behind them. Skipping it is a violation.

• Trauma-informed support for survivors and families.

• A confidential hotline open to players, partners and family members, not only league employees.20

• Every year, each league publishes statistics: reports received by category, time from report to action, findings, sanctions, appeals and evaluations, with case summaries published and survivors’ identities removed. This starts now with the reporting lines that already exist: the NHL’s hotline, run by Deloitte, and the Respect Hockey Culture Center, which the AHL, CHL, ECHL, PWHL and USHL launched in 2023 with an NHL grant.21,22 We found no published report from either on how many reports came in, how many were resolved, or what discipline followed.

• The reasoning behind every discipline and reinstatement decision since Sept. 11, 2025, for players and staff.

• Committees and expert reviews publish their recommendations.

• Independent audits of every club and league office every two years, plus an immediate audit after any staff finding or settlement. The independent body hires the auditor, not the club, and the report is published on a fixed date. Clubs can respond, but they can’t edit or bury it. In 2024 the NHL said it would not release the findings of its own investigation into the 2018 Hockey Canada case until the court process ended.23,24 The trial ended in July 2025. The NHL announced discipline that September without publishing those findings.1

• A joint committee of league and union members plus independent experts, with a survivor at the table.25

• An independent body for staff, since the unions don’t cover them.

• One independent investigating body across the NHL, AHL and ECHL.

• Survivor-informed standards for signing players and hiring staff, applied before the decision, not after.

• A conduct policy, training and duty to report for their own staff.

• A public explanation of any signing or hire the standards cover.

• NHL teams apply their standards to every contract they sign or direct, including AHL deals, tryouts and players sent to affiliates.

If a club defends a signing by pointing to its “standards,” it publishes those standards.