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The NHL's general managers are recommending additional sanctions for participants in "staged" fights.

At the end of the second day of their annual meetings on Tuesday, the GMs' recommended that players who fight by appointment will receive a 10-minute misconduct penalty in addition to a five-minute major penalty for fighting. The biggest targets for this measure are players who meet at a faceoff and agree to fight. While NHL referees will be granted wide discretion to decide what is a staged fight, almost all fights at faceoffs will result in the additional misconduct penalties.

The recommendation will be passed along to the league's competition committee for its approval and then it will go to the board of governors for official approval. It is expected the rule will be in place for next season.

A proposal by the NHL Players' Association for a new rule banning flagrant hits to the head was not put forward by the GMs.

"Right now, our managers do not have the appetite to call shoulder hits to the head," NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell said. "When someone targets the head, they want supplemental discipline [suspensions] to apply."

The GMs also recommended that the referees call the instigator penalty more aggressively, especially on players who wear visors and start fights. There is a rule that says players who wear visors and instigate a fight should receive an additional two-minute penalty plus the two-minute instigating penalty and a fighting major but it is rarely called.

No recommendations about ensuring helmets remain fastened during fights were made. Campbell said it was decided the issue needs further study.

Statistics compiled by the league showed that so far this season, 108 fights - 21.6 per cent of the total - occurred at faceoffs. This is often when a coach sends an enforcer out for a faceoff and the opposing coach responds by sending out his own enforcer.

However, there are general managers such as Brian Burke of the Toronto Maple Leafs who argue that not all fights at faceoffs are staged. Burke says it could result from something that happened earlier in the game.

Campbell said the referees can use some discretion on this but any fight that starts at a faceoff at the beginning of a period will not be tolerated. Referees can also issue the penalties if two players decide to skate up and down the ice for 30 seconds or so and then fight.

The rule change was also prompted by a rise in fights that start after one player makes a clean hit on another. It was long a tradition in hockey that if someone flattened a star player, one of the star's teammates would challenge him to a fight. But the league has noticed the practice has spread to include just about anyone subject to a clean body check.

"Where have we got to on this?" Campbell said, adding that frontier justice is getting out of hand. "Let the on-ice officials do their jobs. Let supplemental discipline do its job."

At no time was a ban on fighting suggested by any of the general managers.

"We re-iterated what the players' union told us [on Monday]," Minnesota Wild GM Doug Risebrough said. "We are all comfortable with where fighting is at in our game.

"What we are looking at are good tweaks to the rules."