Almost a month ago, in the Washington Capitals’ final preseason game, Tom Wilson delivered a crushing hit on St. Louis Blue forward Oskar Sundqvist, who was injured on the play. Wilson was ejected from the game by the referees, receiving a match penalty for an illegal check to the head. The NHL’s Department of Player Safety dropped the hammer on Wilson, who has a long history of run-ins with the DPS and is considered a “repeat offender.” The NHL Players Association appealed the suspension on Wilson’s behalf, arguing that he should only miss eight games. Now the wait is over. And it’s bad news for the Capitals’ 24-year-old part-time wrecking ball. Commissioner Gary Bettman upheld the full-length Wilson’s suspension in a 31-page ruling issued by the league Thursday afternoon. Wilson will forfeit $1,260,162.60 in salary. Bettman concluded that Wilson delivered an illegal check to the head, a violation of rule 48.1, finding that Sundqvist’s head was the “main point of contact” and “the head contact was avoidable.” Perhaps most importantly, the NHL noted that “this is Mr. Wilson’s fourth suspension in barely more than a year” [emphasis theirs]. Last season, Wilson was suspended for a late check during the preseason, then he was suspended again, this time for four games, just two games after returning from his first suspension. He was later suspended for three playoff games in May after a check to the head that left the Pittsburgh Penguins player Zach Aston-Reese with a broken jaw. That play caused DPS senior vice president George Parros, who doled out Wilson’s current suspension, to call Wilson during the Stanley Cup Final to discuss the Aston-Reese hit, and other questionable hits in playoffs. Earlier in the year, Parros met personally with Wilson on two separate occasions to discuss how to avoid more suspensions. Sundqvist has been on injured reserve since the hit. The 24-year-old will return to the Blues’ lineup Thursday night for the first time since suffering a myriad of injuries on the play. “I hope [Wilson] has learned his lesson,” Sundqvist said in an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch earlier in the week, before the league’s decision came down. “I mean, this is not the first time I think they want to show him that this isn’t okay anymore.” According to the NHL, Sundqvist suffered a concussion, facial lacerations and a right shoulder A/C sprain, which occurred when Sundqvist hit the ice after Wilson’s check. Replays show Wilson backchecking and then skating to the middle of the ice to line-up a hit on Sundqvist, who released a shot just before the contact with Wilson. “I have closely reviewed the video footage of the incident,” Bettman wrote. “Almost immediately upon Mr. Sundqvist releasing the puck, Mr. Wilson delivered a forceful check to Mr. Sundqvist that made significant contact with Mr. Sundqvist’s head.” Bettman argued that although Sundqvist moved to release his shot, there “was no meaningful movement of Mr. Sundqvist’s head” in the time between Wilson committing to the check and to the time he made contact with Sundqvist. Wilson had two in-person hearings about the hit with the league at their New York headquarters. The first was on October 3 with Parros. He gave Wilson the original 20 game suspension. The NHLPA appealed, which kicked the case up to Bettman, who brought the parties together for an October 18 hearing that lasted over seven hours. The NHLPA argued that Sundqvist’s head should not be considered “the main point of contact” because it did not snap independently of the rest of Sundqvist’s body. Instead, in the NHLPA’s view, Wilson simply delivered a legal body check. The Players Association put part of the blame on Sundqvist for putting “himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable.” The NHLPA made a secondary argument that even if Wilson delivered an illegal check to the head, the 20 game penalty doled out was “unprecedented.” Wilson’s representatives also offered a dubious argument that he should not be considered a three-time repeat offender because his last two suspensions, both of which came last season, the latter in the playoffs were “highly debated.” Furthermore, they said Wilson is generally regarded as a “clean player.” Regardless of what you think of this suspension, those arguments fly in the face of reality. “The supplementary discipline assessed to Mr. Wilson prior to this incident has clearly been ineffective in getting his dangerously reckless play,” Bettman concluded. “I hope that this decision will serve as an appropriate ‘wake-up call’ to Mr. Wilson, causing him to reevaluate and make positive changes to his game.”<doc-sep>Nick Wass/Associated Press NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced Thursday he's upheld the 20-game suspension given to Washington Capitals winger Tom Wilson for an illegal hit to the head of St. Louis Blues center Oskar Sundqvist during a preseason game in September. The league confirmed Wilson would forfeit $1.26 million of his salary for the 2018-19 season as part of the punishment. The money goes into the Players' Emergency Assistance Fund. John Shannon of Sportsnet reported the 24-year-old forward has seven days to file a new appeal to a neutral discipline arbitrator or accept the remaining portion of the ban. Wilson, who was punished as a repeat offender, has already sat out the Caps' first eight games of their Stanley Cup defense. "It's terrible," Wilson told Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post about the situation. "The guys go on a one-day road trip, and it feels like you haven't seen them in a month." Meanwhile, the suspension decision was announced on the same day Sundqvist is expected to return from the injuries, including a concussion, suffered on the check, per Lou Korac of NHL.com. Video Play Button Videos you might like Sundqvist told Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Sunday it was a "pretty bad hit" and explained his mindset about the situation. "We'll see what happens then, but I hope (Wilson) has learned his lesson," Sundqvist said. "I mean, this is not the first time. I think they want to show him that this isn't OK anymore. But I don't know. I'm trying not to think about it too much. Just trying to recover and get healthy and get back on the ice." If Wilson opts to end the appeal process, he will be eligible to return on Nov. 21 against the Chicago Blackhawks.<doc-sep>Bettman wrote, “Even if I accept that Mr. Wilson did not intend to make head contact with Mr. Sundqvist or attempt to injure him, the fact of the matter was that the check was intentional — it was not accidental.” Bettman pointed out that in October 2017, Wilson met with George Parros, the head of the Department of Player Safety, and Parros traveled to Toronto this August “to meet one-on-one with Mr. Wilson again to provide him with feedback on his style of play, and to advise him on how to make necessary adjustments to his game that might help to avoid or minimize the likelihood of him executing illegal and dangerous checks.”<doc-sep>NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has upheld the 20-game suspension of Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist during a Sept. 30 pre-season game. The physical right-winger, who plays on Washington's top line with captain Alex Ovechkin, drew a 10-minute penalty for the hit before being handed the lengthy ban hours before the Capitals opened their Stanley Cup title defence on Oct. 3 against Boston. The NHL Players' Association launched an appeal two days later. Wilson will forfeit $1.26-million US in salary if the appeal is rejected. Bettman heard Wilson's appeal of the original decision at a hearing in New York on Oct. 18, and said in Thursday's decision that the evidence in the case supports a significant ban. "Mr. Wilson's recent play has threatened the safety and well-being of opposing players on too many occasions, despite prior discipline being assessed and despite the considerable efforts of the Department of Player Safety to counsel Mr. Wilson on how to play within the rules," Bettman concluded in his ruling. "I hope that this decision will serve as a 'wake-up call' to Mr. Wilson, causing him to re-evaluate and make positive changes to his game," Bettman added.<doc-sep>
One week after his appeal hearing, Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson‘s 20-game suspension has been upheld by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman. Wilson was issued the hefty suspension by the NHL’s department of player safety on Oct. 3, three days after he was ejected from a pre-season contest for an illegal check to the head against St. Louis Blues centre Oskar Sundqvist. Upon announcement of the suspension, the league also released a video explaining that Wilson delivered “a high, forceful hit, which makes Sundqvist’s head the main point of contact on a hit where such head contact was avoidable and causes an injury.” The NHLPA appealed the ruling on Wilson’s behalf within 48 hours, per league rules, and he had a hearing with Bettman on Oct. 18. Wilson can now appeal to a neutral arbitrator, if he so chooses. Wilson has so far missed eight contests and is eligible to make his season debut Nov. 21 against the Chicago Blackhawks. He was granted “non-roster player” status by the NHL, which allowed the Capitals to make roster moves without worrying about Wilson using up one of 23 roster spots during his suspension. In July, the 24-year-old inked a six-year, $31-million deal to stay in Washington, which means he forfeits approximately $1.26 million in salary for his infraction — money that will go towards the players’ emergency fund. Sundqvist has yet to suit up this season after being placed on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, but is set to skate in Thursday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. This isn’t the forward’s first time landing himself in hot water with the league, and in fact he’s been a frequent contact for the player safety department with three previous infractions occurring in the past 13 months — something the league called “an unprecedented frequency of suspensions in the history of the department of player safety.”