Opinion: NHL Player Safety Should Hand Out Longer Suspensions

Let’s start this column off by being completely honest – the NHL’s Department of Player Safety will never please everyone on every play they judge to be worthy of supplemental discipline. Fans and players on one side will cry out for heavy punishments, while others will believe the DPS did them wrong by punishing their team’s player in the first place. Someone will always be displeased by discipline rulings, and that’s never going to change.

But after the slap on the wrist handed out to Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo Thursday, it is clear the DPS needs to change. Current DPS head and former NHL enforcer George Parros isn’t solely to blame for the weak penalty Pietrangelo received – a one-game suspension after he viciously swung his stick at Edmonton superstar Leon Draisaitl – but the punishment that comes out of his office is not sufficient to deter NHL players from acting so recklessly this post-season.

What happens if Pietrangelo’s stick-swinging attack on Draisaitl put the Oilers forward on the sidelines with a broken wrist? The injury would be considered by DPS, but it would also hear from the other side. And what should be a severe punishment will turn into a game or two of suspension. It’s indefensible, and it needs to change as soon as the playoffs conclude.

At one point years ago, bear-hugging the opposition was not only tolerated but actively encouraged. Around the same time, players could take their stick, hook it into the stomach area of their opponent, and waterski behind them as they tried to move the puck up the ice. Players back then – and now – never got enough justice for opponents who viciously tore into them, so they took retribution into their own hands. That’s the culture Parros grew up in, so it’s of little surprise to see him give a small punishment to Pietrangelo.

What hockey needs is an impartial voice and a gatekeeper with the best interests of the game in mind. Ideally, that would be a person well-versed in the game but not a former NHL-level player. This off-ice official would not be beholden to the players out there now. They would call a spade a spade and impose severe punishments – suspensions going into the double-digits for repeat offenders.

This isn’t all about Pietrangelo. Edmonton’s Evander Kane has also been prominently reckless with his cross-checking and over-the-top aggressiveness. Kane earned the wrath of Golden Knights players when he cross-checked Pietrangelo in the face. It was not a hockey play, as the whistle had been blown well before Kane went after Pietrangelo. And this wasn’t Kane’s first reckless act in the Oilers’ series against Vegas. He also gut-punched Edmonton’s Keegan Kolesar as the Vegas forward laid on the ice. Kane received no suspensions for his actions.

This is not normal. In no other sport is this type of behavior tolerated. In 2006, NBA star Carmelo Anthony got a 15-game suspension for punching an opponent during a game. In that same year, NBA veterans J.R. Smith and Nate Robinson were handed 10-game suspensions for fighting each other. In 2012, Lakers star Metta Sandiford-Artest, then known as Metta World Peace, received a seven-game suspension for elbowing Oklahoma’s James Harden in the head.

A seven-game suspension is nearly 10 percent of the season, And that’s a good start. Repeat offenders ought to have that punishment doubled. You can almost guarantee this behavior would change in a hurry. And all that information begs the question, what would an NHL player with little to no prior history have to do to be suspended for seven to 15 games at the moment? It feels like something especially egregious would need to happen for the DPS to be the adult in the room and hand down a suspension that would deter these extreme acts from ever happening again. 

Enforce the rulebook, no matter who winds up sitting out a bunch of games. If you do that, most players will figure out how to play without this nonsense and adjust accordingly.

Retired NHL players can and should have some input in the Department of Player Safety to provide context of the speed of the game and other aspects of the nature of hockey. But an official with no ties to any franchise or player should be the person with the final word on suspensions. They should have no political links to any NHL team on top of standing up to outside forces and can lead the game into a more sportsmanlike existence.

Hockey is a beautiful sport that doesn’t need fighting or retaliatory cheap shots to get fans to buy tickets. Nobody comes to the ticket window after a game with no fights and asks for a refund. We’re all here to see skill and, yes, physicality within the limits as well. It’s well past time for hockey’s gatekeepers to make the bold moves needed to keep all players from being seriously injured and needing care for the rest of their lives.