Taylor Girard received the longest suspension in PWHL history for leaving the bench to join a post game altercation. As Karine Hains writes, while the length of the suspension is no issue, the financial consequences and lack of protection in the CBA should spark outrage.
On Monday, the PWHL Player Safety Committee announced that New York Sirens’ forward Taylor Girard had been suspended for four games for leaving her team’s bench to join in an ongoing altercation. By now, you’ve probably seen the footage; tempers were running high in the Sirens’ duel with the Montreal Victoire. The New York outfit had just beaten the Montreal side 2-1 after a controversial call, which saw a potential Marie-Philip Poulin goal being waived off.
After the final buzzer, tensions were high, and Victoire defender Maggie Flaherty got involved in a pushing/shoving/hitting match with Sirens’ Kristýna Kaltounková, the first pick at the 2025 draft. Seeing that from the bench, Girard jumped on the ice and skated straight for Flaherty, hitting her to protect her team’s top pick and co-leading scorer, who is also the league’s co-rookie scoring leader.
Now, the rules of the PWHL are crystal clear, leaving your team’s bench to join an altercation on the ice leads to an automatic four-game suspension. There’s no leeway there, and it’s not overly severe when you think about it. Hockey being a contact sport, it is prone to cause physical altercations. In fact, in the NHL, bench clearing brawls were becoming such an issue that before the 1987-88 season, a new rule was enacted: the first player to leave their bench to join in an altercation would receive a 10-game suspension, their coach would receive a 5-game suspension, and the team a $10,000 fine.
Back then, the NHL season had 80 regular-season games, meaning the 10-game suspension amounted to 12.5% of the season. This year, each PWHL team is playing 30 games, meaning that Girard will miss 13% of the season. In case you are wondering, the NHL’s rule from 1987 still stands, and it carries a fine, as stated in Rule 70.10 of the NHL Official Rules 2025-26.
However, under the NHL Players’ Collective Bargaining Agreement, Section 18.7, a maximum allowable fine to be calculated on a case-by-case basis is stipulated.
In a nutshell, it can be up to 50% of the player’s salary (excluding bonuses) divided by the number of days in the regular season. Still, it cannot exceed $15,000 for the first fine or $20,000 in subsequent fines in 12 months according to the 2025 Memorandum of Understanding. As you can imagine, $15,000 or even $20,000 do not mean much to players who earn millions of dollars. This season the NHL average salary is roughly $3.5 million.
What about in the PWHL, though? What are the fines like? Well, the CBA states that a fine will be calculated by multiplying the player’s full salary by a fraction, which will consist of the number of games missed divided by the number of games in the season. So, in this particular season, suppose Girard is earning $50,000; the four-game suspension would cost her $50,000 x 4/30 = $6,667. In other words, that one infraction would cause her to surrender 13.3% of her salary for the year, and need I remind you that said salary is not in the seven figures…in fact, it’s not a six figure salary.
Before you ask, no, there is no maximum allowable fine under the PWHL CBA. It does, however, state: “ […] provided, however, that the foregoing calculation shall not result in the reduction of a Player’s base Salary in an amount greater than such base salary.”
That’s something, I guess; they won’t force a player to pay to play in the league. That’s mighty big of them. Ever since the inception of the PWHL, I’ve discussed the CBA with colleagues, and there are quite a few examples of balls being dropped, but this, to me, is by far the worst.
If Maurice Richard’s suspension led to public outrage and a riot in 1955 because the idol of a people wouldn’t be able to finish the season and win the scoring race, this should at least spark public outrage and not just in one market, but in every PWHL fan. Not because Girard broke the rules, or because she will miss four games, but because of the unjust impact on Girard’s salary in a league where players have spent decades fighting for fair compensation.
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