Opinion: NHL Should Have Minimum Suspensions For Headshots Like Leafs’ Reaves’ Hit On Oilers’ Nurse

Sunday afternoon, the news came from the NHL – the league was suspending Maple Leafs right winger Ryan Reaves for five games for his illegal check to the head of Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse Saturday night in Toronto.

Reaves will forfeit $35,156.25 of pay as a result of the suspension, with the NHL Department of Player Safety saying he mistimed his hit, cut across the front of Nurse and made his head the main point of contact. He received a match penalty for the hit Saturday night.

The 37-year-old Reaves is a repeat offender regarding NHL supplemental discipline. He has been judged guilty of an illegal head hit before, and yet he’s only been suspended a total of six games over three suspensions before Sunday’s announcement. Something just doesn’t feel right about that.

This latest suspension ought to be for more games. And this is why, if you really want a deterrent for head hits, you need a labor deal between owners and players that has much more teeth in it in terms of supplemental discipline in general and for types of hits like the one on Nurse in particular.

Of course, the only way to change the league’s ability to dissuade players from ever making another illegal head hit is to negotiate harsher punishments in the next collective bargaining agreement, specifically a minimum suspension. A new CBA is not due until 2026, so nobody should expect such a philosophical change in supplemental discipline anytime soon. However, NHL brass and NHL player association executives should be trying to convince everyone involved that more punitive suspensions would lead to a safer game overall. Because they will.

Related: Opinion: Sometimes, Ryan Reaves’ Purpose In The NHL Backfires

Just look at the NBA, which took a harder stance on repeated misconducts and unsportsmanlike acts by suspending Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green indefinitely, which led him to miss 16 games during the 2023-24 season. It came after he struck an opponent in the face, and he had to meet with counsellors and representatives from the league before he could be reinstated. The NHL should lower the hammer a little more like the NBA as well.

A minimum suspension of about six to eight games feels like the right number, we’d argue, for illegal checks to the head in the NHL. That’s about one-tenth of the regular season. And if there are numerous head hits by the same player, we should be talking about a bigger sliding scale on suspensions that significantly ratchets up penalties for each repeat offense.

Related: Oilers React To Ryan Reaves’ Vicious Hit On Darnell Nurse: ‘It’s A Dangerous Play. He’s Got To Know That Nurse Doesn’t See Him Coming And Choose The Right Path’

For many reasons, the league and the union need to find common ground in terms of head hits when it’s time to hash out a new labor deal. Money will be the primary concern in a new CBA, obviously, but increasing the minimum number (or an automatic number) of suspended games is the only way forward if we want to make players even more cautious about avoiding over-the-line head hits. A less forgiving approach toward offenders should lead to fewer head hits down the line, and that’s all that ought to count right now as the league and players chart a new road for the game.

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