NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman upheld the suspension of Minnesota Wild forward Ryan Hartman for slamming an opponent‘s head to the ice, while making the unusual decision on Monday to reduce the penalty from 10 games to the union-recommended eight after hearing Hartman’s in-person appeal.

Hartman was punished for roughing Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stutzle on Feb. 1, after which Stutzle had two cuts and bruising above his left eye and needed five stitches. Bettman wrote that he believes the revised length of the ban would still serve as an “appropriate wake-up call” for the 30-year-old Hartman to “reevaluate his conduct on the ice and make positive changes to his game.” The commissioner agreed to the slight cut because he believed the increase was disproportional to Hartman’s previous suspension of three games.

This is Hartman’s fifth career suspension and fourth in the last 22 months. Hartman, who has seven goals and 10 assists in 48 games, will be eligible to return when the Wild play at Seattle on March 4.

Hartman’s case was the first time in more than three years that Bettman reduced a suspension on appeal. The last reduction was for Jason Spezza in Dec. 2021. That was the only other instance in the previous eight cases in which Bettman did not agree with the suspension length determined by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. But he was firm in his stance that Hartman's history, the vulnerability of Stutzle and the forceful and intentional nature of the contact warranted a long ban.

Stutzle was bent low to try to win the draw, a vulnerable position. Hartman was initially ejected with a match penalty after shoving Stutzle down with his right forearm during a faceoff.

Hartman’s contention that he was using his hand to regain his balance and brace himself from falling was rejected by Bettman in his assessment posted by the league on Monday. The NHL Players Association appealed the suspension on Feb. 5, and Hartman met with Bettman on Feb. 14.

“There are thousands of faceoffs every NHL 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 Mr. Hartman,” Bettman wrote.

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.