Should The NHL Make Ear Guards Mandatory For Players?

When our grandparents watched hockey there definitely were less players wearing helmets because they didn’t became mandatory until 1979. Players before that were grandfathered in, which is why the likes of Craig McTavish was allowed to have his sliver tips flow freely until retiring in 1999. When we were growing up, not all players wore the now common visor to protect their eyes from flying pucks either.

Point is, protective hockey equipment changes over time. We’ve already heard talk that protective socks to protect against skate cuts might be coming. That discussion has seemingly been ongoing since then Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson had his ACL cut in 2013. It was a recent topic of discussion at this year’s general managers meeting as well. The NHL will also institute a new rule mandating players wear helmets in warmups. Players who entered the league prior to 2019-2020 will be grandfathered in and can remain bucket-less.

Could helmet ear guards have prevented John Carlson’s injury earlier this season? Patrick Kane is one of the few players in the NL that still sport them.

Buried in an NHL.com article interviewing Patrick Kane was another interesting safety development. After all the questions you’d expect about Kane acclimating to the New York Rangers, Dan Rosen asked Kane why he wears ear guards as part of his helmet. Rosen mentions that Kane is one of the few players who do so, along with the likes of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The clear plastic ear guards are easy to miss so you might not have ever noticed them. Could this be something that one day the NHL would want to make mandatory for its players, much like helmets and face shields? Maybe it’s a question that will rise in prominence following Washington Capitals defensemen John Carlsons’ graphic injury from taking a puck to the face earlier this season. We won’t pretend to be players safety experts, but “could those ear guards have helped Carlson” should be a question the NHL considers.

Kane’s answer to Rosen’s question came down to it being a personal choice after getting hit in the ear early in his career, by then divisional foe turned All Star Game folk hero John Scott. Kane went on to say a possible reason that him and the Pittsburgh Penguins dynamic center duo continue wearing them might have something to do with “the time we came into the League and what the game was like back then.”

Does that mean the league no longer has as much a need for them as it once did? Is the Department Of Player Safety’s crack downs on hits to the head leading to less situations where ear guards might be needed? Has the game just decreased in physicality that much? We think the answer to that last question is probably no.

Perhaps this is an issue the league will re-visit in the future. If any new safety equipment changes are coming it’s going to be the much talked about Kevlar socks. If Carlson’s gruesome injury didn’t push the conversation for the general managers to at least entertain the idea it’s obviously not on their shortlist of things to do.