The NHL's Department of Player Safety announced a two-game ban for Minnesota's Ryan Hartman for slew-footing Alex DeBrincat
On Monday evening, the NHL's Department of Player Safety announced a two-game suspension to Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman for a slew foot against Detroit Red Wings winger Alex DeBrincat in Sunday's game.
In the explanatory video accompanying the suspension, the Department of Player Safety said that the deliberate nature of the sweeping motion that Hartman used to take out DeBrincat's legs from behind, along with Hartman's history of related incidents that required disciplinary action, contributed to this play being deemed suspension-worthy. Per the DPS video, Hartman has been suspended twice and fined six more times in his NHL career.
The NHL's Department of Player Safety is seldom predictable in its meting out of justice, and, in most cases, it tends toward leniency. Just this weekend, New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba swung his stick straight into the face of Boston Bruins forward Trent Frederic and received a fine and no suspension.
As such, even as Hartman's play is clearly dangerous (DeBrincat doesn't even have the puck and Hartman's use of his own skate to sweep out DeBrincat's from behind is an obvious slew foot, which the league itself acknowledges), it's something of a surprise to see him held out of action. Nonetheless, that he has a previous history of disciplinary action for similar misdeeds suggests fundamental issues with the NHL's handling of player safety.
While I'm surprised to see the NHL hand out a suspension here (and I suspect it's Hartman's history that forced the league's hand), I am inclined to believe that two-games is—in keeping with league tradition—on the lenient side.
The slew foot is an obviously dangerous play, and one for which the league should have zero tolerance. Fortunately, DeBrincat isn't injured on this play, but, especially because he doesn't have the puck, it's hard to read Hartman's trip as anything other than an attempt to injure his opponent. There is no practical benefit to taking out DeBrincat in this sequence, and the means by which Hartman goes about doing so is a fundamentally dangerous one.
This dynamic forces us to a confused conclusion. There's a part of me that wants to credit the league for issuing a suspension at all, but that credit is more a reflection of the way the NHL has lowered expectations when it comes to taking issues of player safety seriously.
I am very reluctant to accuse a player of intentionally trying to injure another, and I don't mean to suggest that Hartman's actions were pre-meditated or intended to ruin DeBrincat's career, but the simple fact is that this was a reckless play for which injury was by far the most likely outcome.
With that in mind, two games seems generous to Hartman on behalf of the Department of Player Safety.
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