The NHL’s visor era is down to its last three holdouts, with Jamie Benn, Ryan O’Reilly and Zach Bogosian now standing as the final links to the league’s old helmet-shield days.
The count shrank again last Wednesday when Ryan Reaves announced his retirement from hockey. He had been one of four players still left who were grandfathered in after the NHL began requiring visors in 2013-14 under NHL Rule 9.7. That rule says “all players who have fewer than 25 games of NHL experience must wear a visor properly affixed to their helmet.”
Since then, the number has kept dropping as those veterans have exited the game. Now the list is down to three.
Benn is the oldest of the group at 37, and he is on his second straight one-year contract with the Stars. Last season, Jim Nill made it clear there was a place for Benn if he wanted it, and until the deal was finalized, there was at least some uncertainty about whether he would return. In the end, Benn came back on a team-friendly agreement for another year.
O’Reilly is in the final season of his four-year contract with the Nashville Predators, while Bogosian is on a one-year deal with the Minnesota Wild. Because all three contracts are expiring, there is a real possibility that all three could be out of the league after this season, which would close the book on a helmet-shield era that has nearly disappeared.
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Stars Fans Just Got An Early Look At One Big Question
Casey DeSmith gave the Stars a useful glimpse of what their goaltending depth can look like in the preseason, turning aside plenty of pressure in a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Blues. Dallas moved to 2-0 in exhibition play, and the game also featured Thomas Harley finding the net for the Stars while Jonatan Berggren broke through late for St. Louis.
For a team that is still sorting through the early questions of October, games like this matter less for the final score than for the picture they start to form. Dallas has two more preseason meetings with the Minnesota Wild before opening the regular season against the Blues, so there is still time for roles to settle and for the Stars to keep evaluating who can handle the heavier lift once the games count. [Read more 🡒]