Dallas Stars Head Coach Peter DeBoer Says Team Held Optional Practice on December 26 in Apparent Violation of Collective Bargaining Agreement

Update #2 at 12:58pm CST: Pete DeBoer answered questions about this after practice today. DeBoer said the practice on the 26th was “Optional, yeah. Voluntary ice.” DeBoer also said he is aware the NHL is looking into it.

“I’m assuming if the League’s looking into it, I made a mistake somewhere there,” said DeBoer. “We’ll see what that investigation comes up with.”

Update #1 at 12:23pm CST: Per a Stars spokesperson, the team is conducting an internal investigation into the matter and is fully cooperating with the NHL.

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During morning skate on December 27, Stars Head Coach Pete DeBoer was talking about the young players on the team’s roster. In doing so, he mentioned that they had held an optional practice the day before, on December 26. Here’s what he said:

“I was at the rink yesterday—we had an optional—and of course the young guys all show up for the optionals, which they’re supposed to do,” said DeBoer with a laugh. “But as I started walking in, you know, up front you’ve got Bourque and Bäck and Stankoven and Wyatt Johnston’s still a young guy, and on the back end you’ve got Bichsel, and Lundkvist and Harley are still young guys, so, you know, we’ve incorporated a lot of young players into this lineup over the last couple years.”

You can listen to the audio clip as well right here:

I would have linked to the video the Stars usually post of DeBoer’s press availability, but it appears to have been taken down from the Stars’ website as well as the “Stars Daily Dish” section of Victory Plus.

The notion that younger players are expected to show up for optional practices if they’re healthy is not a new one, of course. But the problem with DeBoer’s statement is that he admits the Stars held a team practice, optional or not, on December 26. And according to section 16.5(b) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA, that day is supposed to be an off-day “for all purposes, including travel.” Here’s the full text of that section, which you can read for yourself at this link:

(b) December 24, Christmas Day, and December 26 shall be off-days for all
purposes, including travel, and no Club may request a Player’s consent to practice on such days
for any reason, provided, however, if December 26 falls on a Saturday and the League has
scheduled NHL Games on such date, December 23 may be substituted as an off-day for all
purposes, including travel, instead of December 26.

-Section 16.5(b) of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA

In fact, that same section of the CBA is why the Minnesota Wild were forced to get up early on Friday to fly down to Dallas rather than fly out the night before and stay at a hotel. The team could not have traveled at any point on December 26, lest they incur a fine from the NHL for violating the CBA. The Stars, however, appear to have held an optional practice on that day. And any team activity—let alone one which the head coach states plainly that younger players are “supposed to” attend—is a pretty clear violation of that section.

I reached out to the Stars about DeBoer’s comment, and they said they are looking into the situation and will provide a further update when they have more information.

If indeed they practiced the day after Christmas as DeBoer said they did, the Stars wouldn’t be the first NHL team to cross this line. The Toronto Maple Leafs violated that section two years ago when they flew out the evening of December 26th for a game against the St. Louis Blues. The Leafs were fined $100,000 by the league for that travel The Philadelphia Flyers were also fined for a similar situation back in 2015.

Hockey culture is built around the mentality of always putting in extra work and showing up early. That’s all well and good when it comes to individual initiative and effort. But for a team’s head coach to admit that young players were supposed to show up to practice on a day the player’s union negotiated as an off day is likely to incur similar repercussions to Toronto and Philadelphia’s violations.

One would expect the NHLPA not to take such a violation lightly, particularly with official negotiations soon to begin for the next agreement.