Minnesota Wild forward could be facing second suspension of season

Wild forward Ryan Hartman has already been suspended once this season and a second may be coming his way.  The league announced that will have a phone hearing with the Department of Player Safety on Monday for unsportsmanlike conduct at the end of Saturday’s overtime loss to Vegas.

After Jonathan Marchessault scored with 90 seconds left in overtime into the empty net (meaning Minnesota didn’t receive a point despite losing in extra time), Hartman was yelling from the bench and reportedly threw his stick in the officials’ direction.  Hartman was given a ten-minute misconduct for abusive language on the play.

As Michael Russo of The Athletic points out (subscription link), Hartman’s reported actions fall within the parameters of Rule 40.4 which would constitute an automatic three-game suspension at a minimum.  The full wording of that rule is as follows:

"Any player who, by his actions, physically demeans an official or physically threatens an official by (but not limited to) throwing a stick or any other piece of equipment or object at or in the general direction of an official, shooting the puck at or in the general direction of an official, spitting at or in the general direction of an official," the rulebook state, "or who deliberately applies physical force to an official solely for the purpose of getting free of such an official during or immediately following an altercation shall be suspended for not less than three (3) games.

It’s unclear if the hearing intends to determine if there is sufficient evidence to give Hartman a three-game ban or if they won’t apply that interpretation.

Hartman has been suspended three times in his career and fined on seven other occasions.  If a suspension is levied, he will be considered as a repeat offender which carries a higher level of forfeited salary.  For a repeat offender, the divisor in the calculation is 82 while for those who aren’t, the divisor is the number of days in the season.  For example, the hypothetical three-game suspension under that rule would cost a repeat offender 3/82 of their AAV while a non-repeat offender would lose 3/192 of their AAV.