After a knee-on-knee collision that ultimately ended Auston Matthews‘ season, supplemental discipline was widely expected for Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas. After a phone hearing today, the Department of Player Safety announced (video link) that the blueliner has received a five-game suspension. That is the maximum suspension for a phone hearing.
The incident occurred in the second period of Thursday’s game. The initial call was five-and-a-game for kneeing which was upheld after video review. In the Player Safety ruling, it was noted that Gudas, though trying to make a legal body check, was in full control on the play. That puts the onus on him to deliver a legal check, which he did not do by leading with his knee, resulting in a “forceful, dangerous, and direct knee-on-knee collision.”
This is the fifth suspension for Gudas in his career, but the first since 2019 when he received a five-game ban for high-sticking. As a result of the time between suspensions, he is not considered a repeat offender for the purpose of forfeited salary. He loses five days’ worth of salary (5/192) as opposed to five games’ worth (5/82) of salary. As a result, he will lose $104,166.65, which goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. With these five games, Gudas will now have been suspended for a total of 26 games in his career. It’s the third-longest suspension he has received, following a 10-game ban in 2017 for slashing and a six-game suspension in 2016 for a late high hit.
It’s fair to say that Matthews’ agent, Judd Moldaver of The-Team (formerly Wasserman), is not a fan of the ruling. Asked for comment by reporters, including Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link), Moldaver released the following statement:
In light of the obvious severity of the play, I am disappointed and shocked the league would allow such a ruling. A phone hearing and 5 games is laughable and preposterous.
While the process is set in our CBA, that this was the discipline is reckless and ridiculous.
This decision results in a further loss of confidence in the disciplinary process for all players.
Players and fans deserve better. The Player Safety Department should be suspended.
Meanwhile, the loss of Gudas is noteworthy for Anaheim. The captain is a regular on their back end, taking a regular turn on the penalty kill. With John Carlson still working his way back from a lower-body injury, the Ducks will have to dip a little deeper into their defensive depth for the time being, heading into a back-to-back road set this weekend.
The hit was unintentional. How an unintentional hit can get you 5 games is likely because this is a Toronto league.
Ever listen to the NHL Channel on Sirius? It’s basically the maple leafs channel.
If things had been reversed, Matthew’s knee on Gudas, no suspension at all, no misconduct at all, maybe no penalty at all.
Hope you feel the same if a Leaf gets a five game suspension for taking out Carlsson for the season and part of the next. I would like to hear your definition of unintentional. Certainly not leading with an outstretched knee and aiming for the others knee.
I’m dumber because I read this comment
This is one of Wilf’s burners. Pay him no mind.
@game. Haha. You’re kidding right? The leafs get shafted when it comes to suspensions. Both for and against. And irrespective of your feelings, this should’ve been a 10 game + suspension for a repeat offender. And you can speculate all you want about what would’ve been, but this is still a joke of a suspension.
Just another comment from a alt Wilf account. Hit was not intentional, but was a hit that caused bodily harm, with or with out intent. The player must control himself and his instruments in a manor that should not probably cause bodily harm to another player. Gudas did not accomplish this on his attempted hit. He absolutely tried to prevent the play whether it injured another player or not. Deserved more than he got.
With all due respect, I don’t think this is a wilf burner – doesn’t have the hallmark punctuation, or the toe-in-reality that make the ravings so delightful.
Settle down, people like you whine way this hard have never played hockey. I don’t even like gudas but it wasn’t an intentional play. He was going for the puck and matthews moved to the right quickly. It sucks a star play like matthews got injured. They probably would feel the same considering they actually understand the game. Maybe you should go watch soccer instead.
Repeat offender is why he got the suspension in the first place, watch it again, it wasn’t intentional. Leafs fans need to get over themselves, also maybe try playing the game before making simple minded comments. and for the record I don’t like gudas, but just throwing bans out because a star player gets hurt will turn this game into a soft sport like soccer.
Matthews agent is right. I’d like to see the offending players salary reduced by its per game value for every game the injured player misses. Hit them where it hurts, right in the wallet.
Then we can put dresses on the players to, How about a no contact league.
Congrats on the dumbest comment of the day!
@smartin. Smartin up. A contact league is not an intent to injure league. Big difference. I’m all for hitting and fighting. Playoff hockey is great. Rivalries are great. But this isn’t a toughen up moment.
You read the post, right?
^^ This is the newest wilf burner. Not quite a full toe today, but amusing nonetheless, as im a fan of surreal humor
Gudas didn’t intend to injure, hockey is a fast paced game, he was going for the puck, auston moved, and knees collided. try playing the game before whining about it.
The player causing the injury should be suspended as long as the injured player is out this would reduce stupidity on the ice.
I like this idea as I’ve heard it many times from other people. The only reason why I may not like it is if the player who received the injury only missed 1 or 2 games. The severity of the infraction should not be diminished just because the affected player was able to avoid a major injury. I think suspensions should begin at a 10-game minimum and increase from there depending on if the player is a repeat offender. And a player should be deemed a repeat offender despite the fact that the last infraction was over a year ago or whatever stupid rule they have. If you really want to take out the stupidity in the league, be serious about your punishments.
I’ve heard this proposal before and I think it’s short sided.
sure people believe it when a star player is hurt. but what if say Cale Makar in the playoffs hits a 4th line winger who gets hurt. you can bet some teams will manipulate to keep a star for the other team out if this was the rule.
Try getting on the ice yourself first, then maybe you’d understand why you don’t know what you’re talking about.
That was the very first thought that popped in my head.
Alot of softies in the audience tonight.
A few advocates for cheap shots as well.
Stop drinking the kool aid, Think for yourself.
Why do people like you do nothing but project?
Smartin’Up telling someone to think is the height of irony.
I saw no cheap shot, hockey is fast paced, things happen sometimes. Seriously, try playing sometime.
Stop whining agent loser.
That agent loser is pretty much the Scott Boras of the NHL
It’s Gudas, he gets suspended all the time.
This is the 5th suspension of his career. Only 4 other NHL players have been suspended more than that: Chris Simon, Raffi Torres, Matt Cooke, Tie Domi.
Gudas is making a play on the puck; Auston is in a terrible place at exactly the wrong time, with his knee awkwardly exposed. It was an accident on a type of play that happens all the time.
A suspension is fair, given Gudas’ history I guess. But acting like this was some horrifying tragedy is a little much. Heck, this isn’t nearly as egregious as what we just saw Malkin do, and it’s being treated the same.
(And in case in matters, I’m a massive Auston fan. This sucks and I hate it. But it’s silly to treat this as something more than it was – a terrible accident on a regular hockey play that you can see in any NHL game on any given night.)
Well said!
@ash. You ever play hockey? When a player leads with his knee it’s almost always intentional. Yes it was a quick play but no reason Gudas should be going for a hit knee first.
Totally agree! Zero intent to injure.
“Knee awkwardly exposed”. IOW, Matthews was skating.
The length people will go to justify obvious reckless play is amazing.
You’re aware that when people skate, there are times when it’s better to hit them than other times, right? You’re not always protected, because that’s how skating works. That’s all I was saying. It was a bad time to take a hit, which is why he got hurt, as opposed to the other knee to knee hits that happen literally every hockey game.
It WAS reckless behavior. That’s why Gudas got 5 games. The question we’re talking about here is whether he should also be drawn and quartered, and his lands sold at auction. Because the way folks are talking Gudas assassinated a head of state or something.
100% agree, I don’t like Gudas, but he was going after the puck and Matthews moved to the right, hockey is a fast paced game, most of these people just don’t get it.
If you’ve played hockey, you’d know how fast of a game it is. You need your eyes checked. watch the replay again.
Not justifying anything, just common sense for people who actually play the game, and watched the replay. Hockey is fast paced, you guys need to settle down with your gudas hate.
@puck. If it was a hockey play Gudas wouldn’t have been suspended, right?. And YOU should watch the replay again. Gudas led with his knee and yes AM moved to avoid him but Gudas hit him anyway with the knee. You think skating around hitting guys with your knee out is a normal okay? Go get your head checked.
Glad to see player agents being more outspoken on issues lately where the league is so obviously failing the players.
The league blew this call almost as bad as the MacKinnon call against Edmonton. The league has had a tough week.
@smartin. Let’s see if someone takes your knee out in your beer league. Let’s see if you feel the same way then. Or do you even play the game? Judging by your comments, highly unlikely.
blew a call on a clear sticking out your knee to make contact injury? man someone has no respect for others
Mtog the way you talk, its as if you play a slow paced peewee league. Hockey is fast, did you even watch the hit?
@puck. The only peewee is between your legs. So the league suspended him, and vast majority of people think it was a dirty hit, but YOU are the right one?! Your world view is the only one that matters. Sounds like a certain cult I know of….
Ok so I watched the video, honestly I am wondering because I am clearly in the minority here. But where do you guys see the issue? He leads with his knee yes, but he is looking down and reaching out with the stick. From that video it did not look at all like Gudas attempted to injure there. Looked to me like a desperate attempt to stop a scoring chance that went awry.
100%
the leading with the knee is the issue. we have seen time and time again players injure others with knee on knee hits where the player causing the injury leads with the knee.
head down or not, Gudas knew he was getting beat and stuck the knee out in a last ditch effort and it resulted in the injury.
now I’m guessing the league gave 5 because they will argue he likely didn’t have intent to injure and rather just made a dumb play that injured a player.
Gudas is responsible for putting himself in a position to not dangerously hit the opposing player. Whether or not he attempted to injure, Gudas led with his knee. He was in full control of himself.
Seems like part of the thinking is similar to high sticking: “gotta be in control of x at all times.” I think it’s the best way to do it as well. Knee-on-knee, even if unintentional is still an action a player is responsible for. Granted you don’t get suspended and fined for unintentional high sticks, but the degree of injury potential is far less. Gudas has a history with suspensions already so that was a factor. When they review it’s open to interpretation. Many feel they rarely get it right. I haven’t seen the play so I can’t say, but I have felt, in general, they’ve (dept of player safety aka DOPeS) gotten better this year. Not sure who all is on it but def has retired pros.. not sure how many, etc.. but the point is, it’s open to interpretation and one assumes they try not to play favorites though it certainly seems like they aren’t exactly staunchly objective, even if they’re trying to be. There’s always the little question of “product” on the ice – the “attractiveness” of the product of NHL hockey, etc.. and then there are the opinions of the fans and media (and agents and current players, coaches, etc lol) pushing on that.. dunno, but that’s basically the mechanism – the play is reviewed by a panel and they make a ruling.
what should he have done, not skate hard after the puck and just let matthews score? watch again, it was definitely not intentional, matthews made a play into it. its really not that hard to understand.
Those are some hideous unis Anaheim
Hits like this have the legitimate potential to end careers, and should be assessed accordingly. 5 games and $100k is laughable.
Thank you for reminding me that one of the keys to happiness is “never read the comments.”
Not a single Leafs player came to his aide. Softest team of all time. Hopefully he gets out of Toronto. We little lads that can’t win