The NHL's Department of Player Safety has been under fire in recent days. They issued a five-game suspension to Anaheim Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas for a knee-on-knee hit against Auston Matthews. That brought a lot of heat on George Parros, who runs the DoPS, and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman came to his defense.
“George always takes criticism. Most of it (is) unfair,” Bettman told The Athletic's Michael Russo and Pierre LeBrun. “He goes through a very detailed process of analyzing any situation that comes before him. He shared the process with the managers as a group, and I believe they were satisfied with how thorough and diligent he was. And briefly, if you look at the precedent, he was certainly within the range.
“If you look at prior conduct, Gudas hasn’t been suspended in seven years. And kneeing is not an epidemic; I think there have been 18 suspensions over the last 15 years. And so people are going to criticize one way or the other, whatever Player Safety does. That’s not something that’s new.”
Bettman continued: “Actually, the process that we use is something that’s been vetted and negotiated with the Players’ Association, and if they’re unhappy, they always have a right to appeal it to me, which is why I still have the additional decision-making because appeals of his decisions in first instances come to me anyway.”
Gudas is still sidelined and will not return until March 24, when the Ducks play the Vancouver Canucks. Matthews is out for the year with an MCL injury, even though the Maple Leafs' playoff hopes were over anyway. Fans were incensed that Gudas did not get more games, but Bettman was not willing to go that far.
Anything that changes with the Department of Player Safety will have to go through the NHLPA as well. Will things change?
