Ryan Hartman has caught a break from National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman.
The Minnesota Wild forward appealed his 10-game suspension for an attack on Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stutzle, and Bettman announced Monday that it had been reduced to eight games.
He will be eligible to suit up on March 4 against Seattle and Hartman won’t seek another appeal to an independent arbitrator in an attempt to get the ban reduced even more.
The 30-year-old Hartman was suspended three games last season for throwing his stick at the officials. Bettman stated in his 13-page decision that he didn’t feel that Hartman deserved seven more games than his last suspension for this incident.
“As I have stated in prior opinions, one true and fundamental test of effective discipline is whether the discipline is of sufficient strength and impact that it has the effect of deterring the player being disciplined from repeating the same or similar conduct in the future,” Bettman said.
He added that Hartman needs to learn from this.
“In light of his prior suspension of three games, I believe that a suspension of eight games should be sufficient to serve as an appropriate ‘wake-up call’ to (Harman), causing him to re-evaluate his conduct on the ice and make positive changes to his game,” said Bettman.
Hartman was assessed a match penalty and thrown out of the game for intent to injure after he jumped Stutzle in the faceoff circle at the end of the second period of a Feb. 1 game with the Senators leading 3-0.
Hartman drove Stutzle’s face into the ice.
Stutzle had blood above his left eye and required five stitches to close the cut. The two had exchanged pleasantries earlier in the second when Stutzle was given a slashing minor on Hartman and he received a diving penalty.
Hartman had already been suspended five times in his career.
“It’s a frustrating game, we’ve got blood flowing,” Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said after the club’s 6-0 loss. “You take shots at us, and Stutzle’s going to do his thing. But we’ve got to be smarter.
“We just kind of got into that game and it hurt us. So, just got to be smarter all around and just got to be better next game.”
The Senators put the Wild in their place with three goals on the ensuing power play after the match penalty was called. Jake Sanderson, Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson scored with the man advantage to make it 6-0 and it was game over.
“I find it significant that neither the NHLPA or DPS (department of player safety) were able to find a single prior incident that was actually a close comparable to this one,” Bettman said. “There are thousands of faceoffs every season and the fact that no prior incident has involved conduct of this nature confirms my conclusion that this was not simply an accident, but rather intentional conduct on the part of (Harman).”