It Comes After Many Canadian Players Of Ice Hockey Reveal Their Stories Of Sexual Abuse And Assault

The organization Hockey Canada, who manage Canadian NHL teams and the Canadian National Hockey Team for the Olympics, have made a new series of rules in order to prevent and punish those responsible for sexually abusing players.

It comes after years of high profile sexual assault allegations made by players against Hockey Canada staff, including that of Kyle Beach of the US based NHL team the Chicago Blackhawks.

Beach alleged that a former video coach violated him during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, a settlement has been made between Kyle Beach and the video coach in question.

Despite the amount of players coming forward since the late 2010s, sexual assault within Canadian Hockey isn't anything new.

In 1996, Sheldon Kennedy accused his former Canadian Junior Hockey League coach Graham James of sexually abusing him during the 1980s.

James was sentenced to five years in prison and was forced to be registered as a sex offender for life.

Hockey Canada has stated that: "We realize that their is improvement needed to address the concerns made by Canadian hockey players, young and old.

We will implement a zero tolerance policy on homosexual sexual harassment in the men's and women's leagues.

Also we'll update our current guidelines on sexual harassment and abuse to reflect this change".

The NHL and America's AHL hockey division have too updated their policies concerning homosexual sexual harassment and abuse, amid a series of regulations put in place to protect players from racism and homophobia.