Leafs GM Kyle Dubas gives his thoughts on players being forced to fight after a clean hit

With the Leafs in the midst of a 4-game homestand in cold and gloomy Toronto, GM Kyle Dubas is in sunny, beautiful Florida for the NHL's annual GM meetings, discussing a variety of issues with the rest of the league's general managers. One of the issues being discussed relates to players being targeted after landing a clean hit and being forced to fight even when a fight isn't warranted.

We've seen several examples this season of players who have landed good, clean, heavy hits and attempting to just move on and resume play, only to be pursued by a combatant from the opposition looking for retribution. There are obviously two sides to this conundrum. On one side is a player just carrying out a routine play and finishing a check. On the other, there's a teammate who is perhaps sticking up for a star or maybe a smaller player who was banged up on the play. Whichever side you're on, there's no easy answer to what is right and what is wrong. Dubas echoed as much during his media availability from "The Sunshine State".


These meetings are where the GMs vote on rule changes that they might want to implement for the upcoming season. By the sounds of things, this has been a hot topic for GMs and one that doesn't have an easy solution. Sure, you can get rid of the instigator rule, but then you'll have to deal with guys running around trying to actively start fights with unwilling combatants to set up offsetting minors or fighting majors. On the other hand, keeping things the same as they are now doesn't necessarily do anything to address the current headaches either.