OHL Announces New Rule Changes for 2025-26 Season: Expanded Coach's Challenge and Video Review
The Ontario Hockey League (OHL) Board of Governors has approved six new playing rule changes for the upcoming 2025-26 season. Each weekday, a new rule change will be revealed. The OHL has partnered with Spiideo to enhance in-venue video technology, offering faster incident analysis and seven camera angles league-wide. The first rule change involves an expanded coach's challenge and video review scenarios for the regular season: Rule 38.4 – Expanded Coach’s Challenge/Video Review. Previously, a coach's challenge could only be used to review interference on the goaltender leading to a goal if the team had a timeout left. Starting this season, coach's challenges can be issued in various scenarios without the need for remaining timeouts. An unsuccessful challenge will result in a minor penalty for delaying the game. In the final minute of regulation and overtime, the video goal judge will review scenarios that would typically be subject to a coach's challenge.