Engvall received a five minute major and match penalty for intent to injure during the Maple Leafs’ 5-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without the services of Pierre Engvall when they host the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
The forward was suspended for one game by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Friday following an incident in which he received a match penalty for hitting Los Angeles Kings defenseman Sean Durzi in the head with his stick.
“This is not a situation where a player simply loses control of his stick or a situation where an off-balanced player is careless in his attempt to steady himself,” The NHL said when releasing a video about the incident. “This is a directed stick swing that strikes an opponent at a dangerous height with some force. Engvall is responsible for his stick at all times and must exhibit more control in this situation.”
The league noted that Engvall has no history of suspension and took that into account when handing out the supplemental discipline.
Engvall scored his fourth goal of the season against the Kings on Thursday. The 26-year-old has seven points in 27 games. Under the terms of the NHL collective bargaining agreement, Engvall will forfeit $12,162.16. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Earlier in the day, the Leafs practiced at Ford Performance Centre with Engvall taking his regular spot on the third line alongside Alex Kerfoot and David Kampf. Now that it’s certain Engvall is unavailable in addition to Nick Robertson’s shoulder injury on Thursday, it is expected that Joey Anderson will take Engvall’s place in the lineup on Saturday.
“The reality is we kind of sped things up here given the injury situation, but he’s a guy we were looking at calling up soon anyhow regardless of injuries,” Keefe said of Anderson. “Because we feel like with [Calle] Jarnkrok’s [groin] injury there was an opportunity to get him a little more involved. It’s not necessarily just because of anything that happened last night. He’s a guy we’ve wanting to get involved here for a while now.”
Anderson was called up one Friday but unable to attend Leafs practice on Friday as the player was in transit returning from Syracuse where the Toronto Marlies were preparing for a game later that night.
Robertson shoulder injury sustained on Thursday is expected to keep him out for a “significant time”. The team was awaiting the results of an MRI for the forward to determine the severity of the player’s injury.