The NHL's Department of Player Safety has elected not to give Minnesota Wild forward Yakov Trenin any form of supplemental discipline after injuring Vancouver Canucks Derek Forbort on Saturday night. The incident occurred in the third period of Saturday's game when Trenin and Forbort dropped the gloves and started fighting. Once the fight was over, Trenin threw an additional punch at Forbort's head, who was lying on the ice, which led the Wild center to receive an "Aggressor" penalty, injuring the Canucks defender.
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For those not familiar, as per the NHL rule 46.2, "the aggressor in an altercation shall be the player who continues to throw punches in an attempt to inflict punishment on his opponent who is in a defenseless position or who is an unwilling combatant. A player must be deemed the aggressor when he has clearly won the fight but he continues throwing and landing punches in a further attempt to inflict punishment and/or injury on his opponent who is no longer in a position to defend himself. A player who is deemed to be the aggressor of an altercation shall be assessed a major penalty for fighting and a game misconduct. A player who is deemed to be the aggressor of an altercation will have this recorded as an aggressor of an altercation for statistical and suspension purposes. A player who is deemed to be both the instigator and aggressor of an altercation shall be assessed an instigating minor penalty, a major penalty for fighting, a ten-minute misconduct (instigator) and a game misconduct penalty (aggressor)."
Post-game, Forbort's teammates and coach made it clear what they thought of the play. Marcus Pettersson said, "I think it was one of the dirty things I've seen.", while Quinn Hughes said, "They said it was a five, so apparently it was pretty dirty, and I don't know what he was doing, you know, the circus act after getting kicked out, but I think obviously there's got to be a level respect." As for Rick Tocchet, he agreed with Pettersson's assessment but was unable to give an update about Forbort after the game.
The incident even received a response from Forbort's agent, Ben Hankinson. On "X", Hankinson wrote, "No respect—cheap shot while Forbort was down on the ice. Dirty play!" As mentioned, Forbort was injured on the play, leaving the game against the Wild after the fight had concluded.
The issue with this incident is that the NHL's Department of Player Safety did not feel that this play deserved any form of supplemental discipline. It is another in a very long list of plays that many around the hockey world have felt deserved either a fine or suspension, yet went unpunished. In this case, it is hard to understand the department's decision, as not only was Trenin given an "Aggressor" penalty, but the play also led to an injury.
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