New York Islanders forward Trevor Gillies has been suspended 10 games by the NHL for a hit to the head Tuesday night in the Islanders matchup against the Minnesota Wild. Gilles hit Cal Clutterbuck from behind.
From the NHL story:
Gillies will forfeit $60,975.60 in salary.
The incident occurred at 2:23 of the second period and Gillies was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for checking from behind.
"By targeting his opponent's head, three shifts into his first game back from a suspension for a very similar action, Mr. Gillies has forfeited his privilege of playing in the League for 10 games," said NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell. "While it is fortunate there was no injury on the play, there can be no justification for a player delivering a dangerous check to an opponent in this manner."
Gillies, who was suspended for 9 games on Feb. 11 for his actions in a game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, is considered a repeat offender under the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and forfeits his salary based on the number of games in the season (82), rather than the number of days (186).
Gillies, who is considered a repeat offender by the NHL, will lose a nice chunk of change for the hit. The suspension is the second in a span of less than a month for Gillies. The Islanders enforcer will now have missed 19 games this season.
This is Lighthouse Hockey's take on the incident:
The duration is not exactly surprising. In light of Gillies' widely publicized previous suspension, the NHL and Colin Campbell had to escalate the punishment to fit the perpetrator who in this case, was less than one game removed from his previous suspension. Many may argue that there was a "dirty hit" by Clutterbuck or that this infraction "wasn't that bad", or even that "Clutterbuck wasn't hurt" on the play in question. None of these things ultimately matter. It was another poor choice by Gillies who has to know that there is a target on his back and that he is being watched very carefully. You cannot hit people in the head.
At least the NHL did the right thing here. Gillies, who you think would have been more careful, was dealt with appropriately. Good work by the NHL.