NHL fitness testing a thing of the past for NHL and NHLPA

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“Camp’s a little shorter, with less preseason games, so I think the PA did an awesome job with the NHL getting that new CBA done,” Scheifele said.

Published Sep 20, 2025 • 4 minute read

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Winnipeg Jets centre Mark Scheifele in action against the Dallas Stars. Photo by Gareth Patterson/The Associated Press /Winnipeg SunArticle content

How about one more beep test time for old time’s sake.

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“We had one last shot at them, so we really went hard at them this year,” Jets head coach Scott Arniel said about the final training camp fitness test.

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League-wide fitness assessments, once considered a staple activity at NHL training camps, is no longer permitted due to a change in the league’s collective bargaining agreement, ratified by the NHL and NHLPA back in July.

“I’m actually very happy there’s no more fitness testing,” Jets forward Mark Scheifele said. “Camp is a little shorter, less preseason games, so I think the PA did an awesome job with the NHL getting that new CBA done, and obviously we just want to continue to grow this game and make so many people see how amazing this game is and grow it to the level that we believe it’s at.”

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The four-year deal between the parties takes effect on Sept. 16 of next year.

Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff recalled the cavalier attitude some players from decades ago had towards off-season conditioning.

“I remember my training camps with the Islanders, and when you walked into the dressing room it was like, ‘Wow these guys are serious. They have got a bike,’” Cheveldayoff said. “It is interesting how things have evolved.”

Cheveldayoff was selected 16th overall by the Islanders in the 1988 entry draft.

“The players today, they’re athletes 12 months of the year,” Arniel said. “They’re not coming to camp to get into shape. So, I’m hoping that continues.”

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Scheifele says the elimination of fitness testing won’t affect the off-season habits of the players.

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“Nowadays, it’s so much about training, it’s so much about being on the ice in the summer and coming into camp being kind of at your peak,” he said. “So, I can’t see guys now just slacking all summer because there’s no fitness testing. I always say, once you get on the ice for the first practice you can kind of see who’s struggling a little bit or who’s not.”

Teammate Kyle Connor agreed,

“Whether there’s testing or not, it’s not going to change guys’ motivation coming in to try and be the best player that they can be,” Connor said. “I don’t think there’s really going to be much of a huge difference.”

The Jets leading scorer in the regular season went on to say that injury concerns were a consideration in having the testing removed.

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“The only thing I’d really say is, in our minds, it takes away completely the chance of getting an injury in one of those situations,” Connor said.

The duration of training camps will be reduced from 21 days to 13 days. Exhibition games will also be reduced from a maximum of eight to a maximum of four. Players with 100 or more NHL games experience can only play a maximum of two pre-season games.

The head coach did take minor issue with some of the player-led initiatives in the agreement.

“Training camp is about getting your structure and your systems in place, your personnel, figuring out who they are, but the biggest thing, the conditioning gets you up into high gear,” Arniel said. “We can’t try to get in shape as the season starts. We don’t have the time. We don’t have the practice time. I’m hoping that next year, it’s the same mentality that you come into camp.”

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The coach believes last season’s training camp set the stage for the team’s ferocious start, on the way to the franchise’s first Presidents’ Trophy as the regular season champ. The Jets opened with an eight-game win streak. The club won 15 of 16 games before losing games to Tampa and Florida in mid-November.

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“Just look at what we did last year coming out of the gate,” Arniel said. “We eliminated teams in the first month and a half and because of that great start, because of that I felt our team was in great shape.”

Cheveldayoff says another benefit in testing is setting base performance levels for injured players on the mend. For the record, the team’s GM is OK with the removal of fitness testing as a conditioning tool.

“I think fitness testing has been misconstrued a little bit,” Cheveldayoff said. “The benefits of fitness testing can be having base levels in coming back from injuries and stuff like that. Those are going to be things where, as an organization, you want to put the players in the best situation to succeed in coming back off injuries and stuff like that. The medical staff, the training staff, they’re going to have to figure out how to measure the power in the hip flexor, so that when a guy is coming back, you know that.”

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