Players entering the NHL in the 2026-27 season and beyond will be required to wear cut-resistant neck guards as part of the new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHL Players’ Association, league sources told The Athletic.

Players with at least one game played before that season will be grandfathered in and won’t be required to wear the neck guards.

The NHL follows the AHL, which required all players and on-ice officials to wear the protective equipment beginning this past season. The IIHF made neck guards mandatory for all levels of competition — including the Olympics and men’s and women’s world championships — following Adam Johnson’s tragic death in October 2023.

Johnson, 29, was playing for the Nottingham Panthers in England’s Elite Ice Hockey League when his neck was cut by an opponent’s skate blade during a game.

A small percentage of NHL players have adopted the protective equipment since. During the league’s general manager meetings last September, NHL senior executive vice president Colin Campbell revealed that only 55 of 700 skaters (7.7 percent) were wearing the equipment. A higher percentage of players have started wearing cut-resistant undergarments around their wrists and legs.

Los Angeles Kings star Anze Kopitar wore a neck guard for the entire 2024-25 season, as did Pittsburgh’s Erik Karlsson, Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin, and Detroit’s Marco Kasper. Vegas Golden Knights center William Karlsson adopted the apparel late in the season after the team acquired veteran forward Brandon Saad, who also wears the neck guard.

Similar to how the league introduced mandatory helmets in 1979, the neck guards will only be mandatory for players making their NHL debut in the 2026-27 season.

This was first reported by Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli.

(Photo: Brett Carlsen / Getty Images)

With the No. 7 overall pick of the first round of the 2025 National Hockey League (NHL) Draft on Friday at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Calif., the Boston Bruins selected Boston College men’s hockey forward James Hagens from Hauppauge, N.Y.

“I’m so excited,” said Hagens. “I’m so excited to be back in Boston and to be able to have Adam Sandler make the pick, it was special.” 

The rising sophomore also shared what Bruins fans can expect from the prospect when he takes the ice for the organization. 

“Just hard work,” said Hagens. “Someone that will put his soul and body on the line. I love to win and I’m really glad that I’m in Boston.”

For Boston!

James Hagens has been selected 7th overall by the Boston Bruins!#NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/psdvsssJeh

— BC Men’s Hockey (@BC_MHockey) June 28, 2025

Hagens is the 27th first-round pick in program history, good for the second-most first rounders from a single collegiate hockey program in NCAA history.

The lefty skater was touted as the best prospect available in the 2025 NHL Draft prior to his first season in Chestnut Hill, but his draft stock dipped slightly after the 2024-25 season. As one of the best natural scorers and puck controllers in the draft class, Hagens needed some time and development to adjust to the pace and physicality of the collegiate level.

Prior to becoming an Eagle, Hagens played for the U.S. National Team Development Program where he tallied 187 points over two seasons—a tally which ranks fifth in USNTDP history. He appeared in 58 games for the U.S. Under-18 team in 2023-24, registering 39 goals and 63 assists for 102 points, good for seventh-most in a single season.

Hagens additionally broke the IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship scoring record with 22 points—nine goals and 13 assists—leading the U.S. to a silver medal and becoming the tournament Most Valuable Player.

As a freshman for BC last year, Hagens was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team and skated in all 37 games for the Eagles, averaging a point per game. His 11 goals and 26 assists, including a plus-minus rating of plus-21, helped BC make the first round of the NCAA Tournament—the Eagles ultimately fell in the Manchester Regional to Denver, 3-1, which ended their season.

He can now choose to remain with the Eagles for another season or sign an entry-level contract with the Bruins which former BC forward Will Smith decided to do after just one season on the Heights last offseason with the San Jose Sharks.

However, Gauthier (Anaheim Ducks), Ryan Leonard (Washington Capitals), Gabe Perreault (New York Rangers) and Dean Letourneau (Boston Bruins)—all first-round draft picks from BC’s program in the past three years—have taken the alternate path, choosing to remain with Greg Brown for an additional season and compete for a National Championship.

BC has won five National Championships in program history. Its last trophy came in 2012.

LOS ANGELES – Boston College forward James Hagens was selected with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins on Friday night.
 
Hagens is coming off a freshman season with the Eagles in which he posted 37 points on 11 goals and 26 assists in 37 games played. He was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team following the conclusion of the regular season, finishing third among rookies in points (19) and second in assists (14) during league play.
 
Earlier this year, the Long Island native played a key role for the United States winning a gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Championship for the second-straight year, finishing tied for third in scoring for the tournament with nine points on five goals and four assists, including scoring in the gold medal game.
 
He is the 27th first round draft pick in program history, second-most in NCAA history. This marks the 30th straight year in which Boston College has had a draft pick, the longest such streak in college hockey history.

June 27, 2025

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To Know How College Hockey Does Today, We Need to Know Who’s Playing in the NCAA

by Adam Wodon/Managing Editor (@chn-adam-wodon)

LOS ANGELES — As this year’s NHL Draft begins in Los Angeles, most of the NCAA-related talk in relation has been about a player not even here.

Gavin McKenna — the projected No. 1 overall in next year’s draft — is not in Los Angeles, and no one’s yet sure if he’s going to play in the NCAA this coming season. But it’s presumed he will, and it’s presumed he will get some major money — relatively — to do so.

In the past, of course, it wouldn’t even have been an option. Unlike Macklin Celebrini, another highly-touted player who came to the NCAA in his draft year, McKenna chose to go to Major Junior first. For someone like Celebrini, just a couple years ago, that would’ve ruled out playing in the NCAA. Celebrini went on to have a standout season at Boston University, before getting drafted No. 1 by San Jose and playing in the NHL this past season.

But with the change in rules, opening the door for Major Junior players to then play in the NCAA, it’s not only within the realm of possiblity to play college hockey for McKenna, but it seems like something he’s actively seeking to do.

Combine that with the money now available for NCAA teams to directly pay their players, and it makes for a lot of interesting chatter. Where is he going to play? How much is he going to get? The answers are all over the map, though the consensus is that Michigan State is offering in the $200,000 range, while Penn State, the other likely landing spot, is offering more.

Meanwhile, there’s a 2025 NHL Draft to deal with. On that score, current or incoming NCAA players are not expected to make as big of a splash as some of the recent years. 

Then again, who is an NCAA player? We don’t know. As many as five current Major Junior players projected to be first-round picks tonight, could go to an NCAA school this coming year. A player like Michael Misa, a projected top-three pick, has been reportedly interested in a number of schools, and perhaps also Penn State, after his brother committed there last month. However, at the draft, after being selected No. 2 overall by San Jose, Misa seemed to rule out playing NCAA hockey next year. “My goal is to make the NHL next season, so that’s where my head is at,” Misa said.

As for the ones who do know, James Hagens of Boston College was at one time thought of as a No. 1 overall pick. His draft status has slipped a bit, but he still figures to go in the Top 10.

If he winds up being the only one, however, that would be a dropoff from recent drafts. Last season, Celebrini and Artyom Levshunov went 1-2 overall. In 2023, Adam Fantilli went No. 3, with Will Smith and Ryan Leonard also in the top 10. In 2022, Logan Cooley was No. 3, and in 2021, four of the top five NHL picks went to, or were already at, Michigan.

Still there are plenty of NCAA-connected players projected to go in the first round. That number has increased since the door to Major Junior players opened, with guys like Jackson Smith (Penn State) and Cole Reschny (North Dakota) among the Canadian Major Junior players to commit to NCAA schools in the last couple months.

All in all, like a lot of things in the NCAA right now, it’s the wild west. So hang in there.

The NBA and TNT Sports are parting ways again.

TNT Sports will no longer operate NBA TV and NBA.com as of October 1, CEO Luis Silberwasser said in a Friday memo obtained by Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. NBA TV, which will continue to air live games next season, had been run by TNT Sports since 2008.

While TNT’s settlement with the NBA requires it to create content for the NBA’s digital platforms, it is unclear whether there will be any TNT-produced content on NBA TV beyond the end of the current agreement.

The decision is not a surprise, as early reporting that TNT would continue running NBA TV and NBA.com as part of its settlement was immediately walked back. While Silberwasser said Friday that TNT had been in negotiations to continue running NBA TV, it is not clear whether the league was ever receptive.

With NBA TV originating from TNT’s Atlanta studios, the league-owned channel had for all intents and purposes become a part of the TNT Sports family. Most, if not all, of its on-air regulars held other roles on TNT programming — whether the now-concluded NBA package, the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, or in the case of hosts and play-by-play voices, any number of properties outside of basketball.

Prior to the TNT agreement, the network operated out of the league’s Secaucus, N.J., studios.

McCarthy initially reported that MLB Network has held early talks to potentially operate NBA TV, but that was retracted in a later update. The league instead intends to take production in-house.