QMJHL to ban fighting permanently

The QMJHL announced plans yesterday to outright ban fighting starting in the 2023-24 season.

"The QMJHL is planning to have a rule in place that will ban fighting, making it black and white that it is no longer a part of our game," the spokesperson for the league commented to The Hockey News yesterday. "The punishments have not been decided as of yet. We will be looking to have a rule in place in June when the next general annual assembly of the members of the board of governors takes place."

Currently the league issues a 5 minute major and a game misconduct penalty for fighting. I suspect that if the league is serious about banning fighting, then it'll likely tack on automatic suspension to any fighting majors in the future. For what it's worth, fighting is on a major decline across the entire sport, not sure in the QMJHL. Just 10 years ago in 2012-13 there were 0.78 fights per game in the QMJHL, this season there have been 0.07 fights per game.