In game one of the PWHL finals, there was a moment where Ottawa Charge forward Katerina Mrazova struggled to stand and get herself off the ice.
She was the latest victim of Minnesota Frost rookie Britta Curl-Salemme. On the play, Curl-Salemme can be seen quickly turning into Mrazova and lunging toward her with her knee out. The knee-on-knee collision sent Mrazova to the ice, and in what has become a pattern with Curl, you could also see her extend her left arm through the hit.
While it's a split second play, Curl-Salemme's path of approach, body positioning, and follow through created a dangerous collision for Mrazova. In short, it's a play the PWHL Player Safety Committee should review, but shouldn't have needed to.
Had the PWHL Player Safety Committee provided subsequent discipline effectively to Curl-Salemme during round one of the PWHL playoffs, she would either still be suspended, or might be thinking twice about the type of contact she delivers to opponents.
In round one, Curl-Salemme received a lenient one-game suspension for after delivering "a high and forceful check on opponent Renata Fast, making the head the main point of contact on a play where such contact to the head was avoidable."
It wasn't Curl-Salemme's first incident of the season. In fact, it was her third suspension for illegal head contact of the year, in only her 29th game played. It's an issue with a repeat offender, who is only a rookie in the league, that could lead to significant and career altering injuries due to the league's inaction.
Looking At The NHL's Repeat Offender Rules
In other leagues, including the NHL, supplementary discipline typically increases with each given offense. In the NHL "Players who repeatedly violate League Playing Rules will be more severely punished for each new violation."
According to the NHL, "A Player is considered a repeat offender for 18 months following his most recent incident that resulted in a suspension."
Curl-Salemme was suspended three times for illegal head contact this season, one with a high stick, and two through hits, each receiving a one-game suspension. It's possible the fact that the most recent hit occurred during the playoffs resulted in a reduced penalty, but that decision would neither be fair to Toronto, who was eliminated, nor safe for players. It risks the PWHL moving toward the long-time habits of men's hockey where a "win at all costs" mentality has allowed injury, death, abuse, and assault to fester.
It's unfathomable that the NHL, a league that has repeatedly denied CTE and brain injuries from repeated head trauma, could be taking player safety and head injury safety more seriously than the PWHL. It goes on both sides of the coin as well. With Curl-Salemme's game one suspension, Renata Fast was visibly shaken up by the hit. Despite the assessed major penalty for head contact, Fast was permitted to return to the ice immediately without entering concussion protocol. It was a failure to protect the health and safety of players on multiple fronts.
The lack of increase severity of punishment however, has allowed the risk to players to continue beyond that instant, that game, and that series, into another. In the case of Mrazova, a player who will almost certainly be exposed in the forthcoming PWHL expansion process, it could have ended her playing career and crushed her future earning potential.
Within the rules, Curl-Salemme is a highly effective and powerful player, but the rate at which Curl-Salemme is being allowed to re-offend is equally alarming along with the lack of subsequent and increasing discipline. Receiving three separate suspensions in a 29-game period is the equivalent of 8.48 suspensions in an 82 game NHL season. For context, in 2022, Brad Marchand broke the dubious record for most individual suspensions in NHL history when he received a six-game suspension for high sticking and roughing Pittsburgh netminder Tristan Jarry. It was Marchand's eighth career suspension, passing Chris Pronger, who he was previously tied with at seven.
It means Curl-Salemme would be on pace to be the all-time suspension leader in one NHL season. With her third suspension, Curl-Salemme is already the PWHL's all-time leader in the category. It's a bit of a false equivalency comparing the length of seasons, rules, and styles of hockey. The issue is, if Curl-Salemme was in the NHL, she wouldn't get to 82 games. By now, she'd be serving a significantly longer suspension. And under the NHL rules, any suspension she received for the duration of next season would also be considered "repeat offending."
What are the PWHL's rules for repeat offenders?
The PWHL's collective bargaining agreement has no reference to supplementary discipline nor increasing suspensions. The PWHL rulebook does reference multiple game misconducts. In the PWHL rulebook, it does refer to subsequent suspensions and increasing punishment. Under the "Stick Infractions Category" and "Physical Infractions Category" the PWHL rulebook reads that a subsequent game misconduct "before playing in 12 consecutive Regular Season Games without such penalty, shall be suspended automatically for the next Regular Season League game of their Team. For each subsequent game misconduct penalty, the automatic suspension shall be increased by one game."
Shockingly, illegal checks to the head, as defined in Rule 48 of the PWHL rulebook, and high sticking, are not included in either category. It's a gap in the PWHL's rulebook related to head contact and possible long term brain injuries that leaves players open to risk.
Similarly, the league's 12 consecutive game span ends at the regular season, and does not, according to the PWHL rulebook, extend into the playoffs.
In essence, the PWHL lacks subsequent discipline rules related to dangerous head contact, and to be considered a repeat offender for any action, it must occur within 12 games of the first, a mark that is wiped clear in the playoffs when a differing timeline is initiated.
Still, the PWHL's Player Safety Committee has the discretion to implement any length of suspension they choose, and the fact that the season is 30 games, not 82, should not be a determinant for the severity of punishment, only the action itself should be. This is what it means to protect players, and to act with the long term safety and health of players in mind.
In the case of Britta Curl-Salemme, the league has failed their players, and in the future, steeper punishment for another repeat should not only be demanded by players, but written into the PWHL's rulebook before the puck can drop on another season, and before another player is hurt.