Early in Jamie Benn’s career, the Dallas Stars tried to turn him into a center.
In many ways it made sense. The franchise was in a rough financial position, its ownership situation was shaky, and the Stars were looking for frugal solutions to replace Brad Richards, who had made it abundantly clear he would be leaving Dallas after the 2010-11 season.
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So the Stars tried moving their most promising young forward at the time from wing to center. The experiment lasted two seasons and had middling results — Benn was decent at center but was more effective in his natural position on the wing.
While the move to center didn’t last, it had a lasting impact on the rest of Benn’s career from an appearance standpoint.
Moving to the middle of the ice meant Benn was going to take more faceoffs. All of a sudden, the visor he wore during his NHL rookie season was becoming more and more of a hassle.
“Every time I took faceoffs I had sweat dripping in my visor,” Benn said. “And I said after that, ‘I’ll just take it off.'”
In Benn’s mind, it was both a strategic and cosmetic change.
“Actually I thought it was pretty cool to not wear a visor,” Benn added. “Growing up you wear that cage, then you wear a visor. And when you don’t have to wear a visor, I’m not going to wear one.”
Now in his 10th NHL season, Benn has stuck with that decision he made as a 21-year-old, and he’s one of the select few still taking the ice without a visor.
According to the Canadien Press, only 34 skaters in the league didn’t use a protective shield during the 2017-18 season, meaning 94 percent of the league wore a visor. The numbers for this season haven’t been tracked yet, according to the NHLPA, but the percentage has dropped since a few players, like the Vancouver Canucks’ Erik Gudbranson, elected to add the visor to their helmet this season.
The Stars are actually amongst the NHL leaders when it comes to players electing not to use a visor. In addition to Benn, defensemen Marc Methot and Roman Polak don’t use one. It’s believed that list is second only to the Edmonton Oilers, who currently have four visorless players (Zack Kassian, Kyle Brodziak, Jason Garrison and Milan Lucic).
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For players like Methot and Polak, who are both in their 30s, not wearing a visor was an unwritten rule that they had to follow when they entered the NHL.
“When I came into the league and you were a grinder or a stay-at-home D-man, then you didn’t wear a visor,” Methot said. “That’s crazy to think that was the case, but it was.”
Methot broke into the NHL during the 2006-07 season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. At the time, Polak was a rookie with the St. Louis Blues. Polak said with veterans like Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin, and Dallas Drake leading the way there was no way he was going to protect his face.
“When I got in the league, the way I was playing, the guys basically told me to not wear a visor,” Polak said. “I had lots of older players at that time and they said ‘No one wears visors, basically just don’t wear it.'”
Attitudes about visors have changed in the dozen years since Polak entered the league. Before the 2013-14 season, it became a mandatory piece of equipment with a grandfather rule, similar to the way the NHL made helmets mandatory in 1979. If a player had played 26 NHL games or more before the 2013-14 season, they still have the option to play with or without a visor.
In many ways, the protective covering seems like common sense and many players that previously played sans-visor adopted it. Eye injuries helped push the visor movement. On Nov. 28, 2013, then-Nashville Predators captain Shea Weber took a puck to his face and couldn’t see until the next morning. He has worn a visor ever since.
Ryan Suter, one of Weber’s friends and former teammates, didn’t wear a visor for the first nine years of his career.
“Once I started having more kids, I was like, ‘You know what? I’d like to see my kids grow up,'” Suter said. “Everyone, most of the guys wear ’em now. At first, it was a little tough getting used to, something that I’m used to now.”
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Many of those that still eschew the visor understand the benefit of putting one on. Methot has practiced with one multiple times. Brodziak put one on for a full season with Minnesota in 2011-12.
“The next summer I started skating in the summer without it and I remember thinking, ‘I can’t go back.’ It’s a different feel,” Brodziak told The Athletic’s Daniel Nugent-Bowman. “It’s something I’m so used to that it’s tough to get used to a visor.”
Fog and sweat are common visor complaints, especially when you are used to playing without a windshield. Other players have complained about how the visor pushes against their face and can cause potential cuts when taking a hit.
“It cuts you sometimes, that can get annoying,” said Kings forward Kyle Clifford, who put a visor on after playing without one. “That’s what I noticed. I guess it doesn’t happen too much though, because if it did I’d just take it off. Still might, I guess.”
At the simplest level it comes down to one thing for those choosing to go without a visor: The comfort level trumps the risks of not wearing one.
“Even when I got hit by a puck on my mouth and had 30 stitches I didn’t wear one,” Polak said. “Still they wanted me to put a cage or visor and I said, ‘No, I can’t play with it.’ … I think you’re an adult, you should have your own opinion. If you want to lose an eye, it’s your thing.”
While some players choose to play visorless since they don’t want a second job as a window cleaner between shifts, others continue to play without one because of their role. Kassian looked up to players like Todd Bertuzzi and Darren McCarty. They didn’t wear visors, so why should he?
“The way I played, I just thought it was only right. Some of my idols never wore it. Coming out of junior, you make it to the NHL (and) you’re kinda living your dream,” Kassian said. “You try to model your game after certain people and all the people I modeled my game after didn’t wear a visor. It was one of those things where, coming into the league, if you fought a bit, normally the guys didn’t wear visors. That’s changed drastically now.”
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Lucic added, “It was one of those things when you step into the league and not wear one you’re showing that you’re a willing combatant. It was a sign of toughness when I first came into the league. Now, they don’t even get that option. I tried (to wear one) in three different occasions and in preseason games. I just haven’t been able to figure it out.”
Kassian was one of 16 players to get into at least six fights last season. He’s been in one bout this season, against a visor-wearing Jamie Oleksiak, and notices how rarely he has a clean look at his opponent’s face these days.
“It’s not fair. It’s definitely not fair,” Kassian said. “He’s covering three-quarters of his face with a visor. You’re definitely at a disadvantage there. You try to get the helmet off. But you’re definitely at a disadvantage for sure.”
For what it’s worth, three of last season’s most active fighters (Michael Haley, Cody McLeod, and Chris Thorburn) didn’t wear visors.
With fights playing a reduced role and Father Time having a say, the visor is eventually going to become a fixture across the NHL. Which begs the question, who will be the Craig MacTavish of this era?
When the NHL first instituted the helmet rule in 1979 it took 18 years before the entire league had head protection, an era that was officially christened when MacTavish retired in 1997.
Depending on individual choices and career longevity, we could still be more than a decade away from the visor-less player finally being a thing of the past.
The Canadiens’ Andrew Shaw, now 27, is believed to be the youngest player in the NHL without a visor. Kassian, 27, also has a chance at being the answer to a future trivia question.
But the safest bet is probably Benn or St. Louis Blues center Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly is 27 and has a contract through the 2022-23 season. Benn is older than O’Reilly at 29, but has a contract that runs through the 2024-25 season, and the Stars captain said that at this point, he doesn’t have any plans of ever putting a visor back on.
“He’ll be one of the last guys, if not the last guy,” Methot said. “He’ll be the old Dinosaur in the league without a visor.”
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