The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has suspended Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman for ten games for roughing Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stützle. Hartman was a repeat offender and as a result of his suspension will forfeit $487,804.88 in salary. The money from the fine will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
The incident occurred in a 6-0 blowout on Saturday night that saw Ottawa dominate Minnesota. Near the end of the second period of the game, Hartman took a faceoff against Stützle and immediately jumped on Stützle after the puck hit the ice and drove him straight down, face-first into the ice. Stützle suffered a facial injury on the play and was bleeding from a cut above his eye when he left the ice. Hartman was given a match penalty on the play for attempting to injure Stützle, which put the play under automatic review. He was offered an in-person hearing earlier today.
The suspension is the fifth of Hartman’s career, which certainly played into the length of the suspension. He has also been fined an additional seven times. The DOPS described Hartman’s actions on the play as intentional, inherently dangerous and unacceptable. Hartman and Stützle had an incident earlier in the game when Stützle was given a two-minute penalty for slashing Hartman, which may or may not have played into Hartman’s actions.
Hartman’s last suspension occurred last April against the Vegas Golden Knights when he threw his stick on the ice from the bench toward an official after an overtime loss against the Vegas Golden Knights. Overall, Hartman has received four suspensions in less than two years.
Hartman now will have 48 hours to decide if he wants to appeal the suspension. His first appeal would be to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. The second appeal would be to an independent arbitrator.
Apparently, The sight of blood makes uncle Gary queasy, If you weren’t around for 80s hockey, Like I was, You missed the golden era of the NHL, As far as I’m concerned.
Stupid comment. What he did has no place in hockey.
Very stupid comment. We don’t ever need an era come back where teams loaded up on guys with seasonal statlines of 1-3-4-275, ever frigging again. You want to see non-stop mayhem and blood, hit YouTube and check out UFC videos to your heart’s content.
What do you expect from a guy who uses Kesler as his name here. Kelser was a gutless puke too.
Hartman tries to injure skilled players not noted for their toughness. Thats not 80’s hockey. Thats not anything to be proud off.
alright grandpa, lets get you back in bed.
Uncle Gary gets queasy at the sight of blood, I miss the 80s NHL.
Its really tough to tell if Hartman isnt being honest about losing his balance. That was my first thought before they brought it up.
He does have a history, though, so hes not coming from a position of strength.
Hopefully Stutzle is ok long-term. Such an electric player, love watching him.
Was a dive by Ottawa, you can clearly see him fall and knock his helmet off which caused the blood
@itsme, he clearly kicks Stuetzle’s leg out from under him to put Timmy off balance and then pushed him down and drove his head into the ice. It’s a filthy play and the penalty is deserving of the action. I am no Minnesota or Ottawa fan nor against either team. Hartman got pissy because Stuetzle gave him a little love slash in the corner/behind the net earlier in the game and thought this was fair retribution. In today’s game, he deserves every second of it.
@I wander off
Hartman clearly kicks Stuetzle’s right leg out from under him and uses his forearm to drive Tim’s head into the ice. There was little to no intent to play the puck on the play by Hartman. Not a fan of either team, nor against either. It was a dirty and dangerous play and he deserves every minute of his punishment.
@wreckage
I dont agree that its clear. I’ve been playing hockey my whole life and balance can be a weird thing on ice.
I’m not saying it wasnt intentional, just that I dont think its an obvious case.
Hartman has been suspended 5 times before in his career. He’s not some beer league bum who lost his balance lol.
A dive during a faceoff? Where do you come up with this stuff?
Beer league all-star to you, buddy!
He should be banned permanently. He is a criminal abuser with violent tendencies and no self control.
barely touched the guy for christ sake
Completely warranted.
shocked thought six max. Totally deserved seriously he did not lose his balance.
4 games less than the Wilson suspension.
But the WWE has signed up Hartman to be a villain during his suspension. :D
Was a Olympic gold medal winning dive by the Ottawa player.
@Never Remember stop being such a soy boy, Suspension was deserved, i only see a dirty hit nothing criminal, you should dust that sand out of your kitty
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! WOMP WOMP WHAT AN IDIOT!!!
Minnesota is in a tight race to make the playoffs in the Western Conference. In the game against Ottawa they were down 3-0 as the second period came to a close. On the ensuing five minute power play the Sens scored three goals, putting the game out of reach for the Wild. And now Hartman’s going to miss ten games, not helping his team any. GM Guerin should be working the phones to get rid of this guy.
One could argue Hartman being off the team for 10 games is helping his team lol
that was one of the stupidest plays i have ever seen lol
So I see some people claiming that Hartman lost his balance, or that Stutzle took a dive, thing like that.
Am I to believe that even if either or both of those things were true, you are using that to justify forcefully driving a players head into the ice? It wasn’t ok for Bertuzzi and it’s not ok for Hartman.
Also, these “80s hockey” comments. Seriously?! While I agree that the game has been softened significantly (and too much, in my opinion), that also does not justify the BS that Hartman pulled here.