NHL general managers have developed the framework for a new rule punishing hits to the head.

The league's 30 general managers wrapped up three days of meetings in Florida with a new rule that allows referees to assess a minor or major penalty for blind-side hits that target the head.

The penalty is subject to approval from the competition committee in the summer and has not yet been given a specific name. The committee includes four NHL players.

The GMs will forward the following recommendation to the competition committee: "A lateral, back pressure or blind-side hit to an opponent where the head is targeted and/or the principal point of — is not permitted."

"This will never alleviate the problem because whenever you have a contact sport, injuries can take place," said Lou Lamoriello, the general manager of the New Jersey Devils. "It's the same thing like quarterbacks in football — they're still going to get hit, but it's when they're getting hit and how they're getting hit and that's exactly what my analogy is with this.

"We're putting in preventative medicine, and in my opinion it will go through and the players won't have a problem with this at all."

The most recent incident of a hit to the head occurred on Sunday when Boston centre Marc Savard was taken off on a stretcher after following through on a shot.

Matt Cooke of the Pittsburgh Penguins could face NHL discipline for the play, although no penalty was called for the infraction.

Legal now, won't be next year

Colin Campbell said it would be too difficult to adopt the rule on hits to the head this season because players and officials need to be educated about it.

"We're we are going is taking a completely legal hit now, with the shoulder, and saying from a certain aspect in the future, next year, that's going to be an illegal hit if delivered to the head," Campbell said. "Part two of that, which is a huge statement in the game, we're shifting some of the responsibility from the player getting hit to the player delivering the hit, which was never part of the game.

"You grew up you always had to have your head up, you'd get crap from your dad if you got hit when you were watching your pass. But now there's some responsibility on the guy delivering the hit."

Campbell ultimately decided not to suspend Cooke for the Savard hit.

The general managers also agreed to send to the competition committee a proposal suggesting a tiebreaking format for the playoffs, favouring regulation and overtime wins, and removing shootout wins from the total.