The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t believe the NHL went far enough in punishing Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas for a hit that ended star captain Auston Matthews’ season.
The NHL Department of Player Safety handed Gudas a five-game suspension on Friday for “a forceful, dangerous and direct knee-on-knee collision” with Matthews in the second period of Toronto’s win over the Ducks on Thursday night. Matthews had to be helped from the ice. The Leafs announced Friday that their 28-year-old captain will miss the rest of their season because of a Grade 3 MCL tear and quad contusion.
“I think the league could’ve done a little bit more, seeing as our best player [and] our captain [is] not going to be with us for the rest of the year. That’s a big loss,” said forward Matthew Knies, a linemate with Matthews this season.
Leafs players noted that Gudas had a previous suspension history with the NHL, having been banned four times for a total of 21 games during his 14-year NHL career. His last suspension came in 2019, when he received two games for a high stick on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.
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Veteran center John Tavares said the suspension “could have easily been longer” given that history and the extent of Matthews’ injury.
“I believe Auston’s been ruled out for quite a while, right? So it’s going to [miss] more than five games, so it easily could’ve been longer. Can’t say five games is nothing, but it could have been longer,” he said.
Coach Craig Berube agreed.
“Looking at it, we lose our guy, our captain for the year. It doesn’t seem like enough for me. You lose your star player for the year. The guy doing it is a repeat offender. It just doesn’t seem like enough,” he said.
Matthews had 27 goals and 26 assists in 60 games this season for Toronto, having also helped Team USA to men’s hockey gold in the Winter Olympics.
“We feel for Auston. I know how hard he’s been grinding away to play the game at a high level and help this team as best he can,” Tavares said.
The Matthews injury sparked a league-wide debate about whether the NHL Department of Player Safety goes far enough to protect its players — including the fact that Gudas was given a phone hearing rather than an in-person hearing, which capped the amount of games he could have been suspended at five.
That debate was fueled by an incendiary statement released to ESPN on Friday by Judd Moldaver, Matthews’ agent.
“While the hearing process is pre-fixed in our CBA, that there was no further discipline is a reckless and ridiculous position for Player Safety. 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,” he said.
Knies said the players hope the NHL is looking out for the safety of its stars.
“To see a player go down like that and be in as much pain as he was, and a guy like that who is a repeat offender, I don’t think it was enough. You just hope that you can trust them that they’re doing the right thing,” he said.
Said Berube: “They’ve got a job to do, and for the most part they do a real good job. We’re going to obviously be upset about the suspension because it happened to our player.”
Toronto visits Buffalo on Saturday night.
