Will Auston Matthews Become The Poster Boy For NHL Player Safety Reform?

Will Auston Matthews become the poster boy for NHL player safety reform?

It's a question that could get answered at this week's GM meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., where Radko Gudas' five-game suspension for a season-ending hit on the Toronto Maple Leafs captain will surely be a topic of discussion.

On Friday, Matthews' player agent, Judd Moldaver, said the Player Safety Department should be "suspended" for not handing out a more severe penalty to the Anaheim Ducks defenseman. Two days later, Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid weighed in on the issue by suggesting that the department could benefit from having its process reviewed.

"If every time there's a suspension, everybody complains about it, why don't we take a look at the process and figure out if there's a better way to make sure both parties are happy?" McDavid told reporters on Saturday. "It seems like there's a lot of frustration there."

McDavid and Matthews share the same player agent, so it's natural McDavid would have Matthews' back. But McDavid's comments were more than that. This was one superstar realizing the power he wields and adding his influence at a time when GMs were set to talk about the state of the game.

For the NHL, this is now impossible to ignore.

Not only did Matthews have his season ended by a knee-on-knee hit, but the player who delivered the hit was also the same player who weeks earlier had ended Sidney Crosby's Olympics with a similar knee-on-knee hit. Add in McDavid's comments and the fact that Matthews plays in the biggest hockey market in the world, and you have a perfect storm of controversy.

"I think player safety has done their best," McDavid told reporters. "It's not an easy thing to do. With that being said, I think there is reason to take a look at how the whole process works."

McDavid's comments come from a player who is frequently targeted and who has spent time on the injured list following questionable hits. As a rookie, he broke his left clavicle after being shoved off-balance into the boards. In 2019, McDavid crashed feet-first into the goal post on another hit, this time suffering major tears to his knee.

McDavid had to see a bit of himself in Matthews when Gudas stuck his leg out and sent the Leafs captain crumbling to the ice in pain.

Yes, injuries happen. And hits — even the illegal ones — are often unavoidable. At the same time, the lack of deterrence is why so many have spoken out following Gudas' latest suspension.

Had the NHL handed out a 10-game suspension to Gudas, then this would have gone away. But according to the NHLPA, kneeing suspensions tend to be shorter than other infractions, such as hits to the head. In the past 15 years, the league has only levied one ban that was greater than five games.

Maybe that needs to change. Maybe this is the defining moment where it will change.

"In light of the obvious severity of the play, I am disappointed and shocked the league would allow such a ruling," Moldaver said in a statement to reporters. "A phone hearing and five games is laughable and preposterous. While the process is set in our CBA, that this was the discipline is reckless and ridiculous."

Back in the 1990s, players simply had to deal with the hooking and holding that had become a part of the league. It wasn't until Mario Lemieux called the NHL "a garbage league" and then refused to help market the sport after growing frustrated with the lack of obstruction calls that the league started to take notice.

"My back is more important than hockey right now," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1994. "My family is more important, my little girl. And (retirement) is something I'm going to sit down this summer and think about seriously. Certainly, it doesn't help the back when you're pulled from behind or tackled from behind and grabbed to the ice. That's part of the game now. They (officials) just let it go."

Ten years later, the league finally cracked down on obstruction penalties when it came out of the 2004-05 lockout, ushering in a new generation of players who were smaller, faster and more skilled. By then, of course, Lemieux was at the tail end of his career.

Hopefully, for Matthews and McDavid, the league doesn't wait 10 more years before making a similar change to how it handles suspensions.

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