Rule 33

Rule 33. Delayed Penalties

If a third player of any team shall be penalized while two players of the same team are serving penalties, the penalty time of the third player shall not commence until the penalty time of one of the two players already penalized has elapsed. Nevertheless, the third player penalized must at once proceed to the penalty bench but may be replaced by a substitute until such time as the penalty time of the penalized player shall commence.

When any team shall have three players serving penalties at the same time and because of the delayed penalty rule, a substitute for the third offender is on the ice, none of the three penalized players on the penalty bench may return to the ice until play has stopped. When play has been stopped, the player whose full penalty has expired may return to the play. Provided however that the Penalty Timekeeper shall permit the return to the ice in the order of expiry of their penalties, of a player or players when, by reason of the expiration of their penalties, the penalized team is entitled to have more than four players on the ice.

In the case of delayed penalties, the Referee shall instruct the Penalty Timekeeper that penalized players whose penalties have expired shall only be allowed to return to the ice when there is a stoppage of play. When the penalties of two players of the same team will expire at the same time, the Captain of that team will designate to the Referee which of such players will return to the ice first and the Referee will instruct the Penalty Timekeeper accordingly. When a major and a minor penalty are imposed at the same time on players of the same team, the Penalty Timekeeper shall record the minor as being the first of such penalties.


	All graphics, HTML files and other information has been created by Jason Poirrier, 1997. Some images and official rule excerpts have been used from nhl.com without permission.