Sidney Crosby reported to his 22nd NHL training camp this week without the ritual that opened the previous 21, the fitness test. The league has scrapped mandatory fitness testing ahead of the 2026-27 season, and cut the exhibition calendar to four games per club, as part of a series of changes written into the new collective bargaining agreement, The Canadian Press reported on Sept. 15.
The Cole Harbour, N.S., native, now 39 and entering his 22nd season as captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins, told reporters at the recent NHL and NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas that the timing was almost comic. “It’s tough timing after doing it for 21 years,” he said with a laugh. “It’s nicer for the guys coming in, whether you played two years or 15, there was always that little bit of like nervousness. I don’t think that’s a terrible thing. But I can see why it’s something that they wanted to look at.”
Testing varied from team to team, but the cardio sessions on the stationary bike were widely dreaded. Ottawa Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson said the tests had value for tracking year-over-year changes and injury prevention, but not enough to structure an off-season around. “At the same time, I don’t want to be practising for a bike test all summer,” he said. “That’s not gonna help win games or score goals.”
NHL Players’ Association assistant executive director Ron Hainsey, who played more than 1,100 games on the blue line, said two and three-week camps are no longer necessary from a conditioning standpoint because the modern player never really stops. “Our players are on the ice almost 12 months a year now, which is totally foreign to me,” he said. “I can’t wrap my head around it. Whenever I got done (with a season), the stuff went away: ‘I’ll talk to you in August and get myself ready.’ That is just not their process anymore.”
The shortened pre-season clears the way for the schedule to grow from 82 games to 84, which leaves far less runway before the regular season opens Sept. 29. Toronto Maple Leafs centre John Tavares, whose club is one of four starting the season with a new head coach, said the compressed window puts a premium on being ready on day one. “You’re trying to get things off and running as quickly as you can,” Tavares said. “Every team is in a different situation, different scenario, but it’s shorter for everyone. It’ll be interesting just to see how everyone adapts.”
Not everyone sees only upside. Anaheim Ducks centre Leo Carlsson noted that a shorter camp gives younger players fewer chances to make an impression, saying that in his rookie year he would have wanted the longer runway to prove himself. Vegas Golden Knights centre Jack Eichel, coming off a run to the Stanley Cup final and a correspondingly short summer, said a veteran group sometimes uses camp as extra preparation time rather than a formality.
Hainsey pointed out the league has run quick camps without exhibition games before, after the 2012-13 lockout and ahead of the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season, and that nobody was worse for wear. He called the process a well-thought-out, yearlong one, and said the trade of fewer pre-season games for more regular season games is one most people on both sides wanted.
As for whether the end of testing lets anyone hide a lazy summer, players were unanimous that it does not. “You can get all the numbers you want in fitness testing,” Vancouver Canucks winger Brock Boeser said. “But (if) you step on the ice, the coaches are gonna know if you’re in shape or you’re out of shape. There’s some competition that we won’t have, but there’s still the competition on the ice, where it belongs. If you’re not in shape, you’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb.”
Camps across the league opened through the middle of the month. The Montreal Canadiens brought 57 players to the CN Sports Complex in Brossard beginning Sept. 16, with the camp running to Sept. 26 ahead of the club’s opener against the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Sept. 29, the team announced. The Canucks held their on-ice sessions at the South Okanagan Events Centre in Penticton from Sept. 17 to 20.
Sources: TSN / The Canadian Press, NHL.com.
